By Kateryna Stupnevich
Carlos Perez said that school was always his main priority, that is until adult life came knocking on the door.
“High school for a Mexican is different than for anyone else,” said Carlos, a 16-year-old dropout. “[We] have different responsibilities in life. It’s no wonder so many Mexican kids drop out.”
In 2001, at the age of 8, Carlos moved to a country that he now calls home, a country that he saw as “the land of opportunity.” Ironically, Carlos soon came to discover that any opportunity came with a price; he had to work for everything he wanted. Carlos’ parents, Jose and Maria Perez, settled the family in an undersized basement of a private house on Brighton Beach. The two-bedroom dwelling provided them and their three kids exactly what they needed – a roof over their heads.
But having a home would only get them so far. With three young, dependant children, Mr. and Mrs. Perez had to make a living, and they couldn’t do so without Carlos’ help.
“I started working on my third day in America,” said Mr. Perez. “There was no time to lose. I had no English but I had to provide a life for my family.” Standing at 5’6” and approximately 220 lbs., Mr. Perez took on physical labor. With little education and barely any English, Mr. Perez didn’t see himself excelling in any other field. While he was working at various construction sites, his wife, Maria, settled for any job she could find. She took on part-time positions as a waitress in a diner, a cashier in a grocery store, and a dishwasher in a small restaurant. Meanwhile, Carlos took on the responsibility of being the family caretaker. He didn’t understand then, the toll that it would take on his schoolwork, but he would soon find out.
By the time Carlos enrolled in middle school, I.S. 303, his grades slipped, his attendance worsened, and his homework was inconsistent.
“I was so concentrated on taking care of my little brother and sister, I had no time for anything else,” he explained. “I was cooking, cleaning, babysitting; doing everything I can to help out.”
But being a caretaker was not the life that Carlos’ parents planned for him. Once they learned about his educational struggles, they tried to help with the homework, encourage him to attend all of his classes, and even sought help from educators. But the language barrier and their unfamiliarity with the education system in the United States prevented them from providing the kind of support that they wanted to give Carlos.
“We wanted to help Carlos,” said Mrs. Perez. “We tried to help with reading and homework and tests, but we didn’t understand it. We didn’t know how to [be] involved.”
Despite his struggles, Carlos managed to graduate from middle school, but didn’t even bother giving high school a try.
“Ever since the first day I went to high school, I knew I wouldn’t succeed,” he recalled. “I also knew I would have to work twice as hard in other fields to make something out of myself.” As Carlos thought about his future, a nervous look surfaced his face; his deep brown eyes gave it away – he was worried.
Carlos attended Abraham Lincoln High School for exactly three days, before deciding to drop out entirely. He quickly replaced school with a job – working a few hours a day at a restaurant as a dishwasher and helping out in a hardware store.In addition, Carlos took care of his 11-year-old brother, Javier, and 9-year-old sister, Yolanda. At merely the age of 15, Carlos took on the responsibility of an adult – school was the furthest thing from his mind.
“I just didn’t have the time for it. Family comes first and my family needed help,” he said. “My parents tried their best to put all of us through school, but it just wasn’t possible for me.”
Carlos’ story is far from uncommon for Mexican-Americans. The current high school dropout rate for Mexican-Americans in New York City is at 47 percent, according to the Mexican Educational Foundation of New York. In contrast, the dropout rate for students of other ethnic backgrounds is significantly smaller. The rate among Puerto Ricans is 22 percent, African-Americans are at 18 percent, and Caucasians are at seven percent.
“Right now, we are in an educational crisis,” said Angelo Cabrera, the founder and president of Mexican American Student Alliance (MASA), an organization that provides support and mentoring to struggling students.
Cabrera, a Mexican-American himself, started the organization in 2001 and since then, he has worked with hundreds of students and collaborated with CUNY on many projects in efforts to improve the graduation rates among Mexican-American students.
According to Cabrera, there are many factors that contribute to the skyrocketing dropout rates among Mexican-American students, such as youth violence or teen pregnancy, but the major obstacle appears to be domestic issues. “Most of [the] Mexican-American community has trouble at home,” he said, pointing out that most students can’t get help from their parents with homework or issues that may arise in school. The language barrier is one of the key issues when it comes to education, since parents may not understand the difficulties their children face in the American school system, and even if they do, they don’t know how to help.
Karla Sevilla, a youth organizer at La Union, an organization that specializes in helping students who face educational barriers, said that miscommunication between the child, the parents, and the school is a common problem.
“Schools need to work with parents directly to ensure that there’s communication about the student’s education,” said Sevilla, “[Otherwise] parents feel like they’re out in the dark.”
But educators say that involving the families of Mexican-American students who don’t speak English is a challenge in itself.
Martin Fiasconaro, the principal of Brooklyn Studio High School, says that even if Mexican-American students were born in the United States, their parents are likely immigrants and chances are they may have never fully mastered the language. Even if students can understand the required coursework and material, the help that their parents can offer is usually limited.
“Most of the assessments that [students] have to pass in any school are in English,” said Fiasconaro, “When English is not your first language; the challenge becomes that much harder.”
Another major issue that educators noticed in dealing with Mexican-American students is that many of them face literacy issues even in their native language. Such students fall under the qualifications of Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) – an education term used to describe students who face literacy issues in their native languages.
Elvera Bader, a teaching assistant at New Utrecht High School, says that literacy is a significant factor of Mexican-American graduation rates. “Mexican-American students can speak Spanish, but many don’t know how to read or write,” she said. “This makes the work of the teachers that much harder.” According to Bader, educators are now faced with multiple concerns not only because of the language barrier between the student and the teacher, but also because they have to teach literacy basics to young adults, all in a limited amount of time. “[Many students] need to be taught the Spanish alphabet, before they can learn the English alphabet,” she said, “such significant pressure and lack of comprehension can make students frustrated and lead to dropouts.”
The principal of New Utrecht High School, Maureen Goldfarb, says that many Mexican-American educational issues go back to the root of language barriers. Even if the students were born in United States or have adapted to the language, chances are they speak a language other than English at home and that prevents them from improving their reading, writing, and conversational skills in the English language. Needless to say, such setbacks force students to fall behind and potentially, can discourage them from completing their education.
“Some students are over-aged but under-credited in school systems,” said Goldfarb, “This puts tremendous setbacks on the possibility of them ever graduating.”
But Goldfarb feels that it’s also the responsibility of the school system to provide as much support as possible through guidance intervention, even if parents can’t fully partake in the student’s education due to linguistic disabilities. “Guidance intervention is an important part of graduation rates and success of students,” said Goldfarb. “Students need encouragement and assistance.”
“Motivation, family support, family income, those are all factors that are necessary to succeed in education,” said Cariely Mercado. Mercado is a Mexican-American who graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 2007, but says that the process wasn’t easy.
“Although my parents forced me to concentrate on my studies, they were limited with the language and couldn’t assist me with schoolwork. I really had to work hard on my own to graduate,” she said. “The New York City school system should help the parents [of Mexican-American students] learn the language. If parents were fluent in the English language, they could provide more support to the students.”
“[Mexican] parents, they do value education and have high aspirations for their kids,” said Richard Fry, an education specialist of the Pew Hispanic Center. “One of the reasons they come [to America] is because they want their kids to get an education.” But Fry says that one of the main struggles that Mexican-American students go through is economic disadvantage, which obliges all members of the family to contribute to the family income, even teens. Fry says that this usually creates pressure on youths, but because of the poverty levels of Mexican-Americans, they don’t have many other options.
Furthermore, low incomes usually lead to living in deprived neighborhoods near poorly-funded zoned schools. Such schools lack resources to provide better textbooks, more efficient teachers, more class variety, and overall a well-rounded education. Oscar Meza, a Mexican-American student who graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School in 2007, says that such scenarios lead to Mexican-Americans being poorly educated in comparison to others. “From what I have seen, most Mexican-Americans are raised in poor neighborhoods. Their parents barely make sustainable income to support the family. Because of this, the schools surrounding these neighborhoods aren't properly funded,” explained Meza. “The high schools to which most Mexican-Americans go to happen to be ones that need improvement.”
As for improving the conditions of Mexican-American students and providing them an opportunity at a better education, many organizations like MASA and La Union are taking the first steps forward, but there’s only a limited amount of help that they can provide.
“The school system can help by funding schools more around poor neighborhoods. This is where most Mexican-American students are and they are in need of help,” said Meza. “Since the community cannot help fund the school, the city government should allocate more funding.”
While the solution may be appropriate for future students, former students feel that even if the school systems did provide more help, it would come just a few years too late. “The idea of school systems getting more involved with Mexican-American students by providing better school conditions and language assistance sounds like a great idea,” said Carlos. “But my life, my education, and my career chances have changed forever the day I decided to drop out. I can’t go back in time.”
Today, Carlos still struggles from job to job, while juggling his caretaking responsibilities and his desire to help his family financially, just like many other Mexican-American teens. He is well aware that his future is in jeopardy because of his decision to abandon school, but he doesn’t blame anyone except himself.
“My parents guided me as much as they could. My teachers tried to help too,” he said. “I can’t blame anyone in my own decisions.”
As for his aspirations, he hopes to find a fulltime construction job, one that will pay enough for him to help his family and eventually become financially independent. While he doesn’t entirely reject the idea of finishing school in the future, he says that Mexican-American teens have other priorities on their agenda, and he is no different.
“I want to help my parents. I want to give them a good life. They tried hard to provide for me and I failed them,” he said. “It’s time to make up for it.”
Although Carlos realizes that his career and life opportunities are heavily affected by his educational failure, he looks at it as just a hand he was dealt – school wasn’t one of his cards.
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Posted by: OnepKidaLiape | 07/03/2011 at 03:49 AM