In my country K-12 teachers were trained in a very traditional way, professional development were based in academic disciplines and the role of the teacher has been for decades as the authority in the classroom as happened in centuries ago. Today, we know that the role of the teacher has to move, that they need to focus their efforts to understand and know the capabilities and habilities of each boy/girl in the classroom as an individual, instead of looking at that kid as a pupil, trying to standarize the knowledge upon programs designed by adults instead of worrying about what they know and what they are able to do. Today it is important to re educate teachers (also parents) so they understand that they are responsible for the hapiness or sadness (success or fail) of a human being, not only with the perspective of a student, not only for a school year but also for life; that each student will be influenced by their daily work, their lectures, their activities, but must important for their caring and for meeting their needs, that goes far beyond memorizing a lesson.
Teachers must reflect in their own develpment in order to be better persons and that will lead them to be better professionals. Are you enjoying this wonderful opportunity of enrich the life of a human being?

Jules Verne School was born in 1985, with the purpose of providing high academic quality, but more personal bilingual education (society lacked at that time cause there were very few bilingual schools in the country), caring about children’s feelings, and the need to be attended as individuals, as well provide high standards in academic curriculum, discipline and good habits and virtues, as well as a familiar and flexible environment so the school started and remains with small classes and only one class per grade.

We face a very difficult culture issue in our complex society that is that most parents think enrolling their children in a “big private school” (today most private schools are very expensive) children will have more opportunites to compete with others, as well as to find better positions and better educational opportunities, they look for the “status” big schools´names offer, (sometimes in spite of their children’s happiness) giving up some problems as the lack of “Good Work”, as young kids sometimes are forced to attend to very traditional and strict systems, scarifying their childhood doing lots of homework, learning boring lessons, and memorizing in order to get the best grade in very large classes (up to 40 kids per class). Owners took advantage of this, worrying more about profits than education, (competing for increase their classes more than concern about children’s needs, and in most of the cases they built their prestige on the individual capacities of children (admission is only possible if children meet high academic and social standards, even in pre school). While, on the other hand, small schools maintain their goals but have to struggle to operate despite financial problems because private schools operate by their own.

Today our school maintains its original goals but changed its methods moving to a more constructive way of teaching, and a different point of view about our practices as educators, looking for updating the curriculum and professionalizing our doing (as educators) directing our efforts to do a GoodWork as persons, citizens but with a great deal of responsibility as educators, being aware of those children we have in our classes will change the course of their lives with our doing.

My concern is about what can we do as private schools to change the course of this, and how we can contribute to our loved Mexico, educating happy and good and ethical young persons who will become those who will actually change the society. With this in mind I search and research the way to make it possible and I found it was not an easy task, but I am convinced that ethics and responsibility as well as the feeling of doing things well and doing the “good” to others in our daily activities, (professions or position in life) is the source of everything but that very few people think about this fact and they act for some other reasons, then I found the GoodWork Project and engaged me with its philosophy. I started working with my staff with the GoodWorkToolkit and it provided us practical and easy tasks to recognize the importance of our daily work and the responsibility we have in our profession, not only because we represent the model for our students but also make reflections about our own practices and our responsibility as educators, and how our work is a way to spread this “way of living” throughout the hole community and why not make a great change in our society. We know moving, and changing is not that easy, and that needs practice, and good will and I think that we little by little are acomplishing our goal.

Hello Yael,
It is very nice to read your comments, as a matter of fact, we as mexicans face a very big problem towards education, because as you said, it is a very small percent of our people who has the opportunity to study and be prepared for our global society. Government has been doing some efforts to change this, but I think it is very difficult because our culture and way of living. People are very used to do things only for what they would get, and those few people who do "Good Work" are seen as "fools". I think this can change only from the beginning, starting with our teachers and schools, so small kids will learn the real value of being loyal, ethical and that the meaning of a profession is to serve others.
Where are you working at? I would like to hear from you!