Homework Goes With the Holiday

Minutes away from the school bell that would signal the start of Christmas vacation, 11-year-old Daniela Gonzalez got a gift guaranteed to keep on giving: homework. A whole week’s worth. In fact, she received a thick packet of assignments aimed at expanding her mind during a journey with her family deep into rural Mexico.

Mixed in among the spelling words and math problems, there was a journal assignment to chronicle highlights of her trip to the Mexican state of Zacatecas and a road map so she could record her route and mileage from town to town.

There was even a family tree so the Oxnard sixth-grader could inventory assorted family members left behind when her parents left their ancestral village long before she was born.

“I tried to do something that would be relevant to her trip, something to make it meaningful,” said Hathaway Elementary School teacher Linda Bell, who assembled similar packets for two other students also in Mexico for the holidays.

“This is such a cultural tradition for these families, we never tell them not to go,” Bell added. “But at the same time, we really make an effort to make sure these kids don’t fall behind when they’re gone.”

As hundreds of Ventura County schoolchildren join their families on a seasonal exodus south of the border, educators are trying harder than ever to ensure they keep pace with their peers while they are away.

Hundreds of youngsters, many of whom will be gone a month or more, have been funneled into short-term independent-study programs, a move that allows them to continue their course work under their parents’ supervision.

The arrangement saves slots for them in their neighborhood schools, especially important now that class-size reduction has put a premium on all available classroom space.

And, if the youngsters successfully complete their assignments, it allows school districts to continue to collect precious dollars doled out by the state for daily student attendance.

Other efforts include a program in which students enroll in Mexican schools while they are away, and another in which high school students earn credits and store them in a computer bank through what is essentially a nationwide correspondence course.

“I think teachers more and more are realizing the importance of providing some kind of schoolwork for these children,” said Joe Mendoza, director of migrant education for the county schools office.

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“You just can’t ignore the fact that these kids are coming back,” Mendoza said. “The bottom line is that it helps teachers, because their students aren’t so far behind when they return. And it helps students realize they need to study up and hone their skills so they will be able to keep up with their classmates.”

From Sonoma to San Diego, in school districts where there is a long tradition of such holiday pilgrimages, educators use a variety of measures to fill the gaps.

This is a time of great celebration in Mexico, a period marked by weddings and family reunions and religious festivals, including a nightly street procession, known as the posada, reenacting the birth of Christ.

It is a cultural obligation that coincides with a statewide slowdown in agriculture, a time when many laborers return south where the weather is warmer and crops grow year-round.

Mexican officials estimate a million immigrants and their families will head south for the holidays this year, breathing new life into towns drained most of the year by northern migration.

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“This is an important time for many of our families,” said Frances Contreras, director of educational projects in the Hueneme School District, where hundreds of youngsters leave each year around this time. “The reality is that these families are going to go. And if we don’t provide their children with this assistance, they will lose two to three weeks of instruction.”

At Hathaway Elementary School in south Oxnard, Daniela Gonzalez and her two sisters are among those who will be able to keep up with their studies during their extended Christmas vacation.

All three were put on independent study before leaving with their parents on a three-week trek to Zacatecas. So along with suitcases bulging with new clothing and Christmas presents for Mexican relatives, Ruben Gonzalez made sure to pack his children’s homework as he prepared for the 36-hour drive to his homeland.

“It’s important that they don’t fall behind the other students,” said the 35-year-old construction worker, who under the independent-study contract must commit to supervising his daughters’ lessons.

The schoolwork is checked by teachers when the youngsters return and must be kept on file in order for districts to receive state money.

“I’m glad they have work to keep them occupied while we are away,” Gonzalez said. “We try to give them all the help we can.”

Such programs, however, are not universally embraced.

Some districts, not wanting to encourage extended leaves of absence, have adopted aggressive policies to cut down on these seasonal sojourns, urging parents to delay out-of-country visits and keep their kids in school.

And there are larger concerns. Eileen McCarthy, an Oxnard-based legal aid attorney, said she wants school districts to use a range of methods for helping the children to keep up with their peers.

“It’s a good thing that school districts are doing more to acknowledge this reality,” said McCarthy, who belongs to the migrant farm worker project for California Rural Legal Assistance. “But we want to make sure that districts use a variety of strategies to deal with the fact that a significant number of students leave with their families around this time.”

In fact, school districts have developed a number of ways to deal with the holiday exodus.

In the Oxnard Elementary School District, for example, a year-round schedule allows parents to enroll their children in tracks in which they receive monthlong vacations this time of year.

Oxnard officials estimate that more than 100 students are in Mexico with their parents for Christmas. Independent study is offered to those students not enrolled in tracks currently on extended vacation.

In the Fillmore Unified School District, where the semester ends right before the Christmas break, educators discourage families from leaving early. They stand to lose more than just class time. In Fillmore, the week before winter break also brings final exams.

That was enough for Josie Alarcon to decide to delay her trip to her hometown, a tiny village in Jalisco where holiday festivities already are in full swing.

“I want to go very badly, but I decided I should wait,” said the mother of three, who had hoped to be gone the entire month of December. “They told me this was a bad time to go, that it would hurt my children’s education. I guess it will have to be a short trip for us this year.”

In the Ventura Unified School District, independent-study programs have not been established for youngsters who leave with their families for the holidays. The state education code does not require districts to create such programs.

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Still, at Ventura schools with large immigrant populations, teachers continue to put together homework packets for those students, even though they will be counted absent and the district won’t receive average daily attendance dollars.

At Sheridan Way Elementary School, Principal Trudy Tuttle Arriaga said she urges parents at the start of the year to keep their kids in school. And she tells them that because of Sheridan Way’s year-round schedule, students will have three weeks off for the Christmas break.

But for families that insist on leaving early, or arriving after vacation is over, Arriaga said teachers provide lessons so that youngsters don’t fall too far behind.

“Whether or not we get ADA is not at that point my objective,” Arriaga said. “My objective is to make sure these kids still do schoolwork, that they keep up, even while they are away.”

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Ultimately, school district officials across the county realize this seasonal exodus is about far more than families wanting an extended Christmas vacation. Some save money for years to travel south to their homeland. And most make arrangements beforehand to ensure that their children’s studies don’t suffer in the process.

“It’s a very important bonding time for these families, a time when parents can show children where they came from, where their roots are and who their family is,” said counselor Zeke Jaquez at Hueneme High School, where about 100 youngsters left to visit Mexico this year. “And for the most part, if they are taking the time to arrange this ahead of time, these parents make sure their kids do the work.”

Salud Juarez said there is no question about that. The Oxnard mother of four enrolled her school-age youngsters in independent study before heading on a monthlong trip to the Mexican state of Michoacan.

It has been three years since she and her husband, both farm workers, have seen their extended family. And after this year, she said she doesn’t know when they will be able to go back again.

“As the children grow older, it becomes harder to take them out of school,” Juarez said.

“I want them to see their family, to see where they come from. But at the same time I don’t want them falling behind in their schoolwork. To me, taking homework on the trip is a good solution.”