Classes teach parents about U.S. schools

By MERCEDES OLIVERA   
Published December 14, 2002

Whether it's grades, classes or college prep courses, the differences between public education in the United States and Mexico can confound many immigrant parents.

Fernando Javier Berrones had learned multiplication and division by the time he was a third-grader in Mexico. So he was confused to learn that his son, a second-grader at Bowie Elementary in Dallas, had not even started on the math tables.

Belén Olivas was unfamiliar with the grading system and did not realize that an "A" in this country was the equivalent of a grade of "10" in Mexico.

They were among the 124 parents who graduated Thursday from the Parent Institute for Quality Education program at Bowie.

Parents attended nine weekly sessions this semester to learn how U.S. public schools function, in addition to how to create a learning environment at home and promote a child's self-esteem.

More importantly, the program promotes the idea that all children can attend college if they take the right courses in high school to ensure they are prepared.

"This has motivated us and helped us make the decision and commitment to help our children go to college," Mr. Berrones said. "We realize now that college preparation really begins in pre-kindergarten."

Mrs. Olivas said the program changed her attitude toward her children's school.

"I never used to participate much," she said. "Now I go regularly to the PTA and other activities. I try to get more involved in the lives of my children."

Parents received diplomas in a ceremony that their children attended. The intent, officials said, is to have parents set the example for success in school.

Dallas Concilio, which sponsored the workshops, plans to implement the program in six more Dallas schools next year and "double it the following year," executive director Cecilia McKay said.

* Porfirio "Tres" Lopez III is a typical 10-year-old who loves to play video games. He's also on the honor roll at Phillips Elementary School in Kaufman, but these days, he has to miss his favorite class - art.

That's because it's held on Wednesdays, when he has to go to Children's Medical Center in Dallas for blood work and treatment for his aplastic anemia, a disorder in which the bone marrow stops making blood.

The disease is life-threatening but curable with bone marrow and blood stem-cell transplants. But Tres has not been able to find a family match needed for a transplant, so he is undergoing a drug treatment that should help his body make his own blood.

In the meantime, family and friends are helping to organize a drive Saturday with Carter BloodCare.

The effort will help Tres and other Latinos in need of blood stem-cell donors.

The blood drive will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Eckerd's Drug Store at Greenville and Ross avenues in East Dallas. Two drives for Tres have been held in Kaufman.

For those afraid of needles, a pin prick is all it will take Saturday, said Vanessa Gallegos from Carter BloodCare.

"All we do is a finger stick," she said. "Then they'll be tissue-typed and will be in the national registry until the age of 61."

Nationally, Hispanics traditionally have low rates of donating blood.

The National Marrow Donor Program had 4.8 million donors as of September, the latest figures available. Of those, about 411,000 were Hispanics. Of the 15,027 transplants done since 1987, fewer than 900 recipients were Hispanic.

For more information or to help any of the five other children with the same disorder at Children's Medical Center, call 1-800-DONATE-4.

Mercedes Olivera can be reached at P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265.