As everyone is well aware, Spain is currently in an economic crisis, as is the majority of the rest of the world. What did surprise me was the extent to which the students were aware of the crisis. On my first day, when students were asking me about the US, they asked me about unemployment in the US and then informed me Spain is currently in a crisis. It is frequently a comment that is thrown about in the classroom, even in the first few grades of the secondary school. I guess I haven’t been in a middle school in the US lately, but I would be surprised to hear that “we’re in a recession” is thrown around as much as they use “estamos en crisis” here.
When I made my presentation on Connecticut for the students in their fourth year of the secondary school, I had some pictures of the capitol and one of the capitol building. I decided to try to impress my students with a fun fact about the capitol building. When I was in fifth grade my girl scout troop toured the state capitol building and for some reason, I remembered that all of the gold leaf that is on the capitol dome could fit in the palm of your hand. I whipped out my fun fact, hoping they would enjoy it, but apparently their take away was not that it’s a surprisingly small amount of gold, but that Spain is in crisis and our buildings are covered in real gold. One of them even said “We’re in crisis, and your buildings are made of gold.” I reminded them that this building was hundreds of year old and reinforced that it is a surprisingly small amount of gold, but I thought it was funny. Especially when you consider how much gold is in the decoration of old cathedrals in Spain.
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