Introduction to My View of Education in Puerto Rico

I have been a teacher of English in Puerto Rico for the past 17 years.  I was educated in Massachusetts, and then graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey.  I have only studied at the graduate level in Puerto Rico, so I really only personally know about the system from the perspective of an educator at the university level.  However, I have had the opportunity to work with English teachers in the classroom in different cities of the island. IN addition my children have been students in both public and private schools. I also like to talk to my university students about their experiences in high school and elementary school.  From this I have learned that their is a lot of diversity in Puerto Rico in terms of what happens in classrooms - in both private and public schools.  However, there does seem to be common experiences in public schools which private schools don't have.  And vice versa.  SO for me it is also critical to be clear about which system you are talking about when we talk about education in Puerto Rico.  I think in many ways this can also be siad of the higher education system: students in the UPR system have common experiences which those in private universities don't.  And vice versa.  So when I hear people talk about "improving education" in Puerto Rico - I always wonder which system they are talking about: because the problems and the needs of each of these populations seems very different.  Usually the discussion is about public education - and the problems are much discussed and lamented in the press.  But yet the needs of students are rarely addressed or even acknowledged.  On the other hand when discussing private education -- it is all about needs or desires and very little in terms of problems.  But: there are problems in the private schools and the public students also have needs.  So I think this would be a good place to start for everyone:  what do public school students need? What are the problems or barriers which prevent these needs from being met?  And: What are the needs of private school students, and what are the problems or barriers to prevent these from being met?      


In the introductory Blog post: describe your ideas or beliefs about education. What is the purpose of school? Is it working? For whom does it work? For whom does it not work? What aspects or issues of education or schooling in Puerto Rico would you like to explore through your research and writing in this class?