So back to the school subject.

Why do I only want my kids to go to an American school?  It’s because it is the only thing they have to hold on to as we move from country to country. It brings them a connection with home. It’s a place where they celebrate all the American traditions.

4^Th of July? Check. Halloween? Check. Thanksgiving? Check. And on the other hand the schools also celebrate the local traditions. In Brazil the kids would celebrate Festa Junina and they loved it!

But why an accredited school? Because this way I’ll know that it is not just a bilingual school pretending to be American. For the schools it is important to be recognized as an American school for the prestige or to fulfill their missions. And for us parents it is important to know that the school is accredited so we know that they will follow the American curriculum and calendar.

Yes, the curriculum may vary as the methods of teaching also vary, but the general ideas are there.

The Graded School in Sao Paulo is a fully accredited school. There are other fully accredited schools in Brazil. But the 2 schools I looked at in Mexico City are NOT fully accredited now. They are both (ASF and Westhill) accredited under Advisement.

If a school is fully accredited you know that they are meeting all the requirements of the Accreditation Board. It includes, but is not limited to, having a certain number of native teachers (Americans and Canadians), meeting curriculum requirements and scoring enough points on the SAT’s.

Well, the Graded is not the best school in the world. I had plenty of problems there, including a teacher hurting my daughter on the first year we were there. But they’ve changed the superintendent and added a co-principal to the lower school who is very committed to doing what’s best for the children - and by that I mean changing the curriculum and focusing on protecting the wellbeing of the children and not the job stability of teachers who have been hurting (emotionally and physically) kids there for over 15 years. But my kids also had great teachers over there. Teachers who are young, knowledgeable, motivated and who want to make a difference in their student’s lives.

So if all this happened at a fully accredited school can you imagine what could happen at a school that is Accredited under Advisement? Being Accredited  Advisement means that there is a problem with those schools. They won’t tell us what it is. What they say is that they have one or more areas in need of some attention. This was enough to raise my eyebrows.

Oh, I am looking at schools accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools only.  That’s the association that accredits most of the American schools overseas.

But I'm still not done talking about schools yet.