At both high schools, the students learned basics that we also cover here in the United States, like math classes. In my high school career, I did not, however, have as much hands-on experience that these two Belizean schools do. At Mopan Technical- the students learned different skills through choosing their path of interest. There were different class paths that students could choose from instead of having set classes with a few elective classes like I did. The students in the agriculture program would take care of their livestock as part of their agriculture class as well as classroom work. The students in some other technical classes went through different stages in their four-year high school programs that allowed different things every year, such as mechanical drawing on paper and then computer work as part of their program. At Tumul K'in Center of Learning- the students had practicals in the morning where they would wake up early and learn different hands-on skills before becoming engaged in classroom work. These practicals include every student and have them physically participate in the traditions and methods of their Maya people. The Center of Learning showed the Penn State group a traditional dance and then taught us the dance through participation, something that some other schools in Belize do not teach to their students.
Another mode of education was how several of the farmers taught their children about their farms. One of the farmers named Manuel said that he planted mahogany trees, especially for his children to come back later and harvest, like the mahogany trees in his fields. This type of hands-on education from one generation to the next about farming also applied to the cooking that was being done in the Mayan community that we stayed in for a couple of days. At one of the houses, the smaller group that I was with met a family with a young child who was already learning to make tortilla by watching her mother and playing with some of the dough. By the time that little girl is starting school, she will also be learning a lot from the people that her community welcomes in, just like our Penn State group. Her older sister Stacey talked to our group and seemed very interested to learn about our culture as well as share her own with our group.
When speaking about inclusion, both schools, Mopan Technical High School and Tumul K'in Center of Learning, included both their male and female students in many, if not all, aspects of their classes. At Mopan Technical High School, the day that our Penn State group took the tour, it was the girls turn to clean out the chicken pens; the boys had cleaned out the pens the time before. The girls did not hesitate to get to work and participate in this part of their class. One of the girls that lead our tour around the school said that some of the girls do not always enjoy doing the hands-on part of the class, but the tasks were still done. At Tumul K'in Center of Learning, all students did the morning practicals that entailed many tasks that may have been seen as a male-specific or female-specific roles in the past such as machete field clearing or cooking. The day that our Penn State group went to the Center of Learning we asked what they did for their morning practicals and were told that they had been doing machete work. Then after all of their students took part in their practicals, one of the boys went to help the cook make breakfast.
Sarah Miller is senior majoring in Agricultural Science at Penn State, with minors in International Agriculture and Sustainability Leadership
