The Mackay School

During my first week of classes, I heard another student talking about an opportunity to work in a Chilean school teaching English as a second language. I figured I could earn some extra credits for my major, so I talked to the international student coordinator at PUCV and she set me up with a school in Reñaca, which is north of Viña and a 30 minute bus ride from the university. I went on Monday for the first time to The Mackay School, which is a British school that was founded 150 years ago and has 1,000 students from preschool to high school. It didn’t take me long to realize that it’s an all boys school. Angelica, one of the teachers I work with, instructed me to be “as ugly as possible” so as to not draw attention from the students.

The entire time I was at Mackay the first day, all I could think of was how similar Mackay is to, of all places, Hogwarts from Harry Potter. Today I was talking to Peter, one of the students in my program who also helps at the school, and he agreed. Here’s a few reasons we think so…

1. There’s not a principal, there’s a “headmaster.” I met Headmaster Ernesto OReilly on my first day. He’s like a Chilean Dumbledore. Kind of.

2. Preppy British-looking uniforms. Whether they’re practicing rugby or in the classroom, the students always have matching uniforms in the school color of navy blue: blazers, ties, sweaters, jackets, pants, bags, etc.

3. They have “prefects” that serve as mentors for the younger classes. These students have badges on their blazers that denote their position.

I’ll be helping at Mackay four days a week and each day I’ll work with a different grade: 9th, 10th, and 12th. At the end of the year, the students have to take a “test” in the form of an oral interview to earn a certificate in English. I have been helping them prepare for the interview by asking mock questions to individuals or pairs of students. I was really surprised with their fluency, but I guess most of them started in kindergarten so they have a lot of experience. I’ve learned a lot about Chile just from conversing with them and hearing their stories. They ask me a lot of questions about the U.S., too, mostly involving school and our grading scale, the presidential elections (Obama has a lot of supporters down here), how I like Chile, etc.

Today, one of the themes in the conversations I had with 12th graders was discrimination. One of the boys talked about gender equality and I couldn’t resist bringing up the fact that Mackay is an all boys school. I asked him if he considered that discrimination and he replied that it has less to do with discrimination than it does “tradition.” He also pointed out that there are all girl schools here. Another boy said he would prefer a mixed school since men and women won’t be separated in the real world. His parents, however, want him to attend Mackay, which I think is a common theme here.

I got an email today from the professor at UW-L that I needed to get approval from in order to receive credit. Apparently, due to the phrasing of the course description, I can’t get credit for teaching at the school, which means I have another Spanish class to squeeze in before I graduate in May. That’s okay, though – I’m still loving it!