Students Pack Homework for Trips South

OXNARD — 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 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 sixth-grader could inventory the assorted family members who stayed 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 teacher Linda Bell, who assembled similar packets for two other students also spending the holidays in Mexico.

As legions of Southern California schoolchildren join their families on a seasonal exodus south of the border--sometimes staying a month or more--many educators are trying to ensure that they keep pace with their peers while they are away.

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

The result? Short-term independent-study programs, which allow students to continue their course work under parents’ supervision. The arrangement also saves slots for them in their neighborhood schools, something important now that class-size reduction has put a premium on 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.

Some school districts don’t like the seasonal sojourns, and have adopted aggressive policies urging parents to delay out-of-country visits. But from Sonoma to San Diego, in districts where there is a long tradition of such holiday pilgrimages, educators use a variety of measures to fill the gaps.

The 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 a nationwide correspondence course.

“You just can’t ignore the fact that these kids are coming back,” said Joe Mendoza, director of migrant education for the Ventura County schools office.

This is a time of celebration in Mexico, marked by weddings and family reunions and religious festivals, including a nightly street procession, 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 that a million immigrants and their families make the trip.

In the Oxnard Elementary School District, a year-round schedule gives parents the option of enrolling their children in tracks in which they receive monthlong vacations this time of year. But the independent study is offered to those not enrolled in tracks currently having their long break.

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.

All three were put on independent study before leaving with their parents on a three-week trek to Zacatecas.