The Christian Science Monitor

Mexico takes the battle for gender respect to the classroom

Carmen Guzmán, a second-year Teach for Mexico fellow in rural Guanajuato, teaches a course on gender violence, respect, and human rights. On Jan. 19, 2018, she shows her class of high school seniors a photo that leads to a discussion about cat-calling, why people do it, and how it makes the targets feel.

When Carmen Guzmán Orozco first arrived at the Telebachillerato Comunitario San Andrés de Baraña as a teaching fellow in 2016, she was taken aback.

It wasn’t the lack of water or internet connection that surprised her at this school of 140 high school students – it was the whistles.

“I’d walk by the classrooms and boys would openly whistle at me,” says Ms. Guzmán, a 20-something, second-year fellow with Enseña por Mexico (Teach for Mexico), a program modeled after Teach for America that places high-achieving college graduates in public schools here for two years.

Guzmán’s fellowship includes identifying a problem and coming up with a project to address it. The teachers are asked to watch for issues that take kids out of school, but aren't necessarily directly related to education –

Deep thinking in classCreating resourcesRecognizing violence

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor5 min read
College Class Of 2024: Shaped By Crisis, Seeking Community
The class of 2024 began its college years as virtual students, arriving on once-vibrant campuses muffled by COVID-19. Most had missed out on high school graduations and proms. Now they’re graduating from college during another season of turmoil, this
The Christian Science Monitor4 min readCrime & Violence
Sudan War’s Rape Survivors Flout Taboos To Help Each Other Recover
For more than a month after she was tortured and gang-raped by seven Sudanese paramilitary fighters last July, Rania said nothing to anyone. Whenever she even thought about the attack, her body flooded with guilt and shame. “[I] felt like I was a dis
The Christian Science Monitor3 min read
Audubon’s Exquisite Bird Paintings Owe A Debt To Classical European Art
When John James Audubon immigrated to the United States from France in 1803, his timing was fortuitous. That same year, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of U.S. territory, deepening national curiosity about what lay in the vastness. Audubon (1

Related Books & Audiobooks