SchoolsEstela RomeroNovember 26, 2021

Middle school students welcome your Ambassadors!

SchoolsEstela RomeroNovember 26, 2021

THE VISIT

“Jaime Torres Bodet” Middle School

“El Rosario” Village, (“San Luis” neighborhood)

“El Rosario” Sanctuary

Coordinates: 19.5619574 -100.2759665

Although most of the Symbolic Migration participants in Canada and the United States are kindergarten to elementary school students, it is of high importance to also deliver your beautiful Ambassadors and our message of environmental conservation to students attending middle and high schools at each of the three Sanctuaries. Many of these young boys and girls may be, in only a few years, the representatives to their Ejidatario parents or grandparents at their own communities, making critical decisions about the environment.

It is vital that these youngsters are aware of the invaluable natural treasure that has been guarded for generations and will need to be conserved for generations to come.

The Symbolic Migration has been very warmly greeted by the principal and teachers at these schools. At these higher academical levels (middle and high school), teachers come from as far away as our state capital city, Morelia, or from other important cities in the state. These teachers are required to have a university degree in whatever field, besides Education and Pedagogy, in order to apply for a teaching position. This is not the case for kindergarten or elementary school teacher positions which do not require a degree.

Traveling such distances to reach the school at which they are employed, teachers routinely stay in these villages from Monday through Friday and return to their city of origin every weekend. Being highly respected and esteemed in our villages, a career as a teacher is considered highly worthwhile and well recognized by our local society.

Students then reflected on only a few of the different benefits of trees:

“Our oldest Oyamel trees, which is the favorite of monarchs, are considered to be of high bio-genetic value. It is ideal that reforestation be done with these seeds.”

…some students said they often heard their grandpa’s often talking of this.

“Our planet is said to be suffering an inevitable desertification process. Forests contribute to considerably slow down or even avoid such processes.”

“Trees nourish soil.”

“Trees benefit the optimal filtration of water through soil.”

“Forests make our surroundings beautiful!”

Since our middle schools in these small villages do not have a computer room and school libraries, if any, are really incipient, the gift of the extraordinary books on conservation that the Monarch Butterfly Fund and Monarchs Across Georgia make is of high value to teachers and students. Books are the main teaching and reference tool in traditional education.