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REACHING OUT

Our company directors, George and Daisy, just returned from Mazatlan, Mexico where they met with Lynne and many volunteers of Friends of Mexico. This contact greatly enriched their one week stay. Friends of Mexico is an organization committed to improving the teaching of English in the elementary schools. Assisting those living in the poor communities of the world is an important part of Learning English with Laughter’s philosophy, so George and Daisy were delighted to meet Friends of Mexico’s enthusiastic members. The URL for this organization is: http://www.friendsofmexicoac.org

At this time Friends of Mexico has provided a covered play area in one school. This gives the children a place out of the sun and dust in the dry season and away from the mud during the wet season. They are also working to provide a choice of nutritious snacks, rather than junk food, in the small kiosk that seems to be made of Coke signs.

The organization is made up of retired Canadian and American volunteers. They are presently working in six schools to provide shirts, shoes and packsacks for the students. The children must carry everything home each day as there are no storage facilities. Each school building has classes from 8:00 to 12:30 for one group of administrators, teachers and students, and a second group from 1:00 to 5:30 each afternoon. The government provides the land and the building, but it is the responsibility of the parents to provide school supplies and furniture, plus do the painting and maintain and clean the building.

At this time Friends of Mexico has provided a covered play area in one school. This gives the children a place out of the sun and dust in the dry season and away from the mud during the wet season. They are also working to provide a choice of nutritious snacks, rather than junk food, in the small kiosk that seems to be made of Coke signs.

The volunteers are offering English language instruction for one hour a week to most grades. Lynne arranged for George and Daisy to demonstrate the contents of our Children’s Curriculum and Storybooks to about thirty-five of the organization’s members. It was an opportunity to learn about their problems. They are dealing with classes of up to forty children in small, rather dark classrooms. They have no modern equipment – not even an overhead projector and little space for the children to actively participate in role-plays or games that require movement. It seems that paper is also in short supply! All of the volunteers mentioned the children’s eagerness to learn. One man said he felt sure that the children would progress much faster if they had a book to take home. The members feel that if the children learn English they will have an opportunity to rise above their present poverty by getting work in the thriving tourist industry.

By providing Friends of Mexico with our Children’s Curriculum and Storybooks, George and Daisy were able to learn some new ways to cut costs. They encouraged the members to examine each book to be sure that every page was appropriate for their students. English language textbooks are written to meet the needs of many different cultures and situations. Some children start at the age of three while others begin at seven or eight. A school can save a great deal of money by printing only those pages that are relevant to their student’s needs while still maintaining the storyline and the essential phonics or grammar.

This experience has been beneficial to all of us at Learning English with Laughter. We hope that some of the ideas will be helpful to you. For more suggestions about how to cut costs go to

We wish you all the best with your teaching and will appreciate your sharing any ideas you may have had for reducing costs.