The Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado State Migrant Education Program among others celebrated a Binational Teachers Forum on June 29th to conclude a month of intense work of its Binational Migrant Education Initiative. This initiative “was developed to enable migrant students from Mexico who arrived in the United States to have access to the same free, appropriate public school education that is provided to other children.”
This phase of the project involved a culminating activity of the Mexico-US teacher exchange program that brought 9 pre-K and K-12 teachers from Mexico to work with children in mostly rural areas of Colorado.
The technical and cultural project is led by Tomas Mejia, the Director of the Colorado State Migrant Education Program and is a task close to his heart. He has endeavored to navigate an international initiative that requires work and commitment above and beyond.
As a graduate student, I had the opportunity to visit Mexico City and was awed by it as a historical and cultural enclave that included places like Zocalo, Templo Mayor, Basilica to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Chapultepec Castle and Xochimilco. But even that did not compare to Teotihuacan, the most important pre-Columbian metropolis that change the trajectory of my personal and professional life.
I met Tomas Mejia when he was a young student at MSU Denver that was looking for cultural relevance to a future career. I recall our conversations that led to his study in Mexico and a profound change in his perspective about his place and future.
Life-changing type of experiences can create a permanent bond with a particular culturally-based way of looking at life. The Binational Migrant Education Initiative (BMEI) appears very much in line with a commitment to international educational partnerships that serve the needs of Latino farmworker families across the State.
“The BMEI program objectives are to ensure that all binational migrant students have continued access to Education in the U.S. and in Mexico, advocate for and ensure that all binational migrant students have equitable opportunities to learn and meet high educational standards expected of all students, provide educators with training, which will allow them to better serve the educational needs of binational migrant children and provide support to parents and families of binational migrant students.”
The 2024 Binational Teachers Forum involved reports and presentations on the activity of 9 Mexican public school teachers who were completing their work and getting ready to return to their home country. A selected number of teachers from Colorado will be heading for Mexico this fall to carry out the same kind of projects in Mexican classrooms that the teachers from Mexico have just finished.
Cross-border educational continuity is vital as many of the migrant families are also immigrants or recent immigrants with children that have attended schools in the two countries. The initiative allows for educators from both countries to better understand each other’s learning methods and systems that can simplify the transition for the kids.
The value of the international program goes beyond service to Mexican children and their families in the United States. Understanding the American educational system in addition to that of Mexico also provides a possible solution to the frustration of effectively serving the growing number of American children whose families have repatriated to Mexico and find themselves somewhat alone in an alien system and another language.
Tomas Mejia’s leadership and commitment to this important and difficult work is justly celebrated in the work of binational professionals that have found a way. The notion of “Si Se Puede” lives.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of laVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
