Out with the old, in with the new?

Continuing with the subject of education, there is another thing that I don't understand about this country. Every time there is a change of government, the education system gets changed. How smart is that? Since I've been here, I think there have been 4 education policies: (LOE, LOCE, LOPEG, LOGSE) and there were a couple before that. The majority of parents don't have a clue what education system their child is studying under. And the teachers pretend they do, at least on paper, but then you go into their classrooms and the majority of them still teach like in the 1900s.

Do all these changes help improve students performance? Certainly not. Now that Rajoy's government is in power, the education system will once again be changed to a new one. Why? because that is Spain's philosophy: they don't like second-hand anything. (Remember that in one of my posts I said there were no second-hand shops, although now you can see that a few have sprung up due to the crisis.)

But is it so new? At the beginning of this month, future teachers complained that the topics for the test to get a position in the public education system had been changed last minute to topics from 1993. Why would the government change them at the last minute? It boils down to money. The less people know when they show up to the test, the few will pass the exams. Castilla la Mancha has already suspended their tests and next up in line will be Andalucia. Spain keeps thinking that cuts in education will make the system better and it's the opposite what needs to be done. They need to invest in the future generations. Is that too difficult to understand?

Carnaval, a bizarre Spanish festival

In all the years I've been living here, this is probably the festival I like the least. Carnaval is a difficult thing to describe. The best I can come up with is a mixture of a weird Halloween and a blah Mardi Gras. Why? because it usually takes place during the cold winter months. Watching people parade without the excitement of Brazilian Carnaval in the cold is not my idea of a good time.
To mark the end of Carnaval, on Ash Wednesday (today) there is a strange parade called Burial of the Sardine (Entierro de la Sardina). People dress in black as mourners and walk behind a huge paper mache fish wailing and crying. Then depending on the city, they throw it in the sea or burn it. There are several stories as to the origin of this parade, but in a nutshell it has to do with what goes on in Lent (fasting and abstinence) winning over the carnal desires.
What is hard to understand and Spaniards aren't able to justify is why schools are on vacation due to this festival, some up to a week. Things that make you go hmm...

Saint Valentine in Madrid?

St. Valentine’s is a very popular day for friends and lovers around the world. When I was a little girl, I remember writing Valentine cards for all my school mates, placing them in a brown bag and taking them to school to exchange on a day like today. However, this scenario doesn’t repeat itself here in Spain. St. Valentine's day is not a traditional Spanish celebration and most people don’t really celebrate it (there are no Hallmark card shops anywhere). It is noticed only by incurable romantics and superstores wanting to make a buck.

I’m sure you know the story of Saint Valentine (or should I say Valentines since there were several) and for those that don’t, a quick look on Internet will probably do the work. But what most people don’t know, including Spaniards and this is curious since Spain is a country that is renowned for its affection and devotion to saints, is that Saint Valentine’s last resting place is in Madrid. Of course there are other cities that claim St. Valentine's relics and it makes sense since there were so many of them. "The patron saint of lovers" is not found in any of the beautiful and romantic places around the city. On the contrary, his bones are on display in a small, hidden church in the Chueca neighborhood (Hortaleza Street 63) called "Royal Church and Pious School of San Anton" (Saint Anthony) in a small glass urn. Not very romantic, huh?