Early childhood education is undervalued in rural Guatemala. Many children are sent directly to 1st grade, where they are unprepared and often fail. This is just the beginning of a long, difficult struggle through primary school.
Each morning from 8-11:30, we receive local, underprivileged children ages 3-4 for bilingual preschool. Many families here have the perception that preschool is a “waste of time ” and that “the kids are just playing and can do that at home,” but other families are willing to drop off their children and pick them up each morning (these families are farmers or weavers that could work straight through, but they are making their children’s education a priority!). Now that we have offered bilingual preschool for a few years, local families are seeing the benefits and we always have a waiting list for the next school year.
