The Other Oscars

Having been a high school English teacher in Zihuatanejo for 11 years, I often get asked about the state of education in what is, after all, a small resort town. I’m pleased to be able to say that, certainly in the school where I work, the education is good AND we have some extremely talented kids, most of whom go on to college and are interested and active in the community.

Do you find the heading above intriguing? Well, for 6 years now my classes have been having the least know Oscar ceremony in, possibly, the world! Our high school, Instituto Lizardo, is run under the direction of the University of Mexico The university requires that the kids do 4 projects a year. By 7 years ago I’d sensed the enthusiasm and talent of many of the students and I decided to ‘let them loose’! I basically told them - ‘Go make a movie! Get yourselves into teams! Write the scripts! Organize costumes, filming and editing - And let’s see the results!’ The only restrictions were to keep them suitable for a school project and the only help I gave (and give) was to quickly read the scripts for ‘flow’ The results that first year were FANTASTIC! I was so proud of them. And they enjoyed making the movies so very much that within a week of the next school year starting, I was being asked “Miss! When can we make the movies?”. What could I do? But in the second year, we decided to go one step further - ‘The Insituto Lizardi Academy Awards’. And these awards have been running ever since. How we do it is I give the movies to friends who don’t know the students. They decide on the nominations and who wins. It would be too subjective for me to do this—I give the grades.

Remember, this is an ENGLISH project! Of course, some of the movies are more ‘professional’ than others. Several have been extremely creative, both as to story and special effects. We’ve also had fascinating credits appear, animated and the like, so that now one of the nominations is for credits. It is a shame that they are only seen within the school and by the kids’ families. But my friends who have been ‘Academy Judges’ and I are extremely proud of the wonderful achievements, coming as they do year after year.

The movie project is not the only area at which these kids excel, time and again. They write ‘Big Books’ for little kids, do surveys on subjects ranging from tourism to concerns for teenagers which involve interviewing anyone from ‘the man in the street’ to hospital executives, write short plays - and the list goes on.

This year, for instance, the school is having a Science Fair, which normally wouldn’t involve the English Department, at high school level, anyway. But we decided to give it a go. In teams, the kids produced Big Books. These are about a metre by 3/4 metre in size. Each page has a large drawing and writing big enough to be seen from the back of a classroom. This year’s theme for each book was ‘Science for Little Kids’. The teams chose their own subject within this theme. The books produced were outstanding - one even had a narration CD! Yes, indeed, year after year - These Kids Are Talented!

But life isn’t all about creative projects! There are EXAMS to do! All over Mexico, students have to sit the USA TOEFL exam in English as part of the entrance test to their university of choice. Our students do very well. Also in the area of academic achievement, some of the students over the past few years have taken the Cambridge University First Certificate in English. This is possibly the most widely accepted certificate in English that exists at intermediate level. For this they have to study hard, pay a lot of money and go to Mexico City to take the 5 exams involved. A big commitment and a big challenge. To date, over 90% of those who’ve tried have passed the exam.

Of course, this is my experience in one school only, and in one subject at that. However, from how well the graduates are doing at university and also how well the few who’ve gone to the United States to continue their education have done, it is obvious that even here in our small resort town, quality Education is Alive and Well.

April 2003

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