Equity & Diversity

Working 50 Hours a Week and Trying to Understand What’s Happening in School

By Kavitha Cardoza — April 09, 2019 2 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

“If I don’t understand something, it’s hard to ask questions. The teacher moves on. You take the test and fail.”

So, she mainly hangs out with her classmates who speak Spanish. She finds the academics at her high school difficult; it’s so different from her previous school. In El Salvador, the teacher would teach and if you were interested you could study, if not, students could do what they like. Here in the United States, the pace is faster. “If I don’t understand something, it’s hard to ask questions. The teacher moves on. You take the test and fail. Then you go on to the next step.”

Paty is 18 now and has lots of adult responsibilities. She races to finish homework during lunch and free periods because she works. She waits tables in a restaurant almost every evening. By the time she finishes a 12-hour shift every Saturday, she has racked up 50 hours of work each week. Paty needs the money to pay for rent, her lawyer, and food. And she sends $100 dollars home to her family every week.

She has a large family in El Salvador: her parents, an older brother and sister, and a younger brother. Her father is a farmer and they live in the countryside looking after cows and pigs. One day, her father told the family that a neighbor was going to the U.S. with a coyote. He asked Paty and her older brother if they wanted to go. Paty says her brother was fearful and said no. But she agreed to go; to be brave and find work to help her family. She says simply, “the United States has more opportunities to study, to work. In El Salvador, even if you are smart, there is no school and no jobs.” She gave her sister her clothes and said goodbye to her friends. “I miss my home, my mother, my father, my brothers, my niece, everything,” Paty said as she teared up.

Twenty-two days after Paty left home, she arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. It was December 2016. She had carried a backpack with some clothes and shoes, but when she had to cross the Rio Grande River, she had to leave everything behind. “I come with nothing,” she said, showing her open palms. “Nothing.”

She was placed in a shelter for migrant youth in San Antonio for a few days and then moved to one in New Mexico. She doesn’t know the names. Every weekday, she attended classes where she learned the English alphabet. But Paty wasn’t interested in school back in El Salvador, and is not very interested here either. She would wait for weekends when they could play outside and go to church, even though you couldn’t leave the compound. She was much happier when she moved to the facility in New Mexico because her minder wasn’t as strict or serious and the girls got to do crafts sometimes. She made good friends in the shelter because no one had any family around. “We don’t have anybody else to talk to.” They shared stories and said encouraging words to each other. When the time came for her to move to Virginia, all the girls in her unit started crying. She thinks of them often and wonders if they are still there, have moved somewhere else in the U.S., or are back at home in El Salvador.

Paty talks to her parents five times a week and dreams of building a house for them in El Salvador. “One day, I hope I will see them again,” she said softly. And what if that day comes sooner than she imagines?

Paty takes a second to translate the question in her mind and another to allow herself to imagine it. Then she smiles widely and lets out a burst of laughter. And as clearly as any American teenager, in perfect English, said: “That would be incredible.”

A version of this article appeared in the April 10, 2019 edition of Education Week as Teaching Migrant Children: Paty

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Equity & Diversity Opinion It’s Time for Courageous Education Leaders to Defend Equity. Here’s How
Here’s how K-12 education leaders can create enduring equitable school systems.
Dwight E. Rhodes
5 min read
A person leaves into the unknown as people watch from inside.
Nanzeeba Ibnat/iStock + Education Week
Equity & Diversity Trump Sues California Over Law Letting Trans Athletes Compete in K-12 Sports
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit after California on Wednesday refused to repeal its state law.
Lia Russell, The Sacramento Bee
5 min read
AB Hernandez, a transgender student at Jurupa Valley High School, competes in the high jump at the California high school track-and-field championships in Clovis, Calif., May 31, 2025.
AB Hernandez, a transgender student at Jurupa Valley High School, competes in the high jump at the California high school track-and-field championships in Clovis, Calif., May 31, 2025.
Jae C. Hong/AP
Equity & Diversity Opinion How to Keep Supporting Students in a Hostile Political Environment
Protecting kids outside of school may be beyond educators' means, but here are ways we can help them.
10 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Opinion It’s Been 5 Years Since the George Floyd Protests. Where Are We Now?
Promises of equality and justice languished and then under Trump, were declared void.
Tyrone C. Howard
5 min read
Demonstrators kneel in a moment of silence outside the Long Beach Police Department on May 31, 2020, in Long Beach, Cali., during a protest over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer earlier that month.
Demonstrators kneel in a moment of silence outside the Long Beach Police Department on May 31, 2020, in Long Beach, Cali., during a protest over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer earlier that month.
Ashley Landis/AP