English for Fun for President

YOUR VOTE HAS BEEN CAST

No FEAR…English for Fun for President

Spain is the elections capital of the world. In fact, we are so good at ELECTIONING, that we have been in permanent elections for the last 3 years. If anyone wants to learn about an electoral process, you can just ask us! Even those guiris (foreigners-ahem ME), who are not allowed to vote in national elections, have been forced to learn about the system.

So here is a review of the candidates who are running for President of Spain in Sunday’s elections:

Spanish Presidential Candidate Recap - Again

In all of the drama and the distractions, at least we know that all of the presidential candidates have one thing that gives me HOPE...All 5 candidates believe that 0-3 education should be a priority and that it should receive ample funding in the budgets to make it possible for people to afford proper care for their children!

And hopefully Spanish people will actually have children since the political unrest,  the unstable economy and the underpaid labor market has resulted Spain's Birth Rate is the Second Lowest in the EU.

All candidates have committed to investing 3% GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the Early Learning and parental support. That is exactly when the developing brain needs as much support as possible for humans to maintain their genius status  The Baby Brain is Brilliant

In reality, we educate as a form of FEAR shield, which starts at birth.

The most important things for a 0-3 year old are forming healthy attachments and receiving proper stimulation. This makes sense because they have no choice. Babies need others to survive!

Alison Gopnik Explains the Complex Baby Mind

Attachment is important as a foundation for life. Trust, safety, love, care and comfort are all things that are necessary in order to take on FEARs in a healthy way. It takes a village to raise a happy and healthy society. Parents cannot do it alone and grandparents are fundamental, but the world changes so often that we have to count on experts to help us meet the needs of children in the 21st century.

Children need respectful spaces where they can learn in a group and grow. Families need the support of trained and qualified educators in classrooms that have a low student to teacher ratios. For example, our schools, are accredited in the U.S and our accreditation organization NECPA gives us the guidelines to follow in order to meet the needs of children and learning. These standards, called Best Practices, are research-based and we are required to strictly follow them. The standards cover all necessary policies in order to operate a school that is safe and stimulating for children. Best Practices cover health and hygiene, safety and instillations, curriculum and planning, educator qualifications and overall operations. Most importantly, they give us guidelines on how many children can fit in our space SAFELY and how many students should be in the care of each teacher in order to successfully meet each child's needs and they depend on the child’s months of birth. Here is a comparison of what is happening in American Classrooms and what is happening in Spain:

This is one of the MANY reasons why I choose American education for my own children, even though we live in Spain. And it is why I choose to educate in the American way at English for Fun, a U.S.A. accredited school.

Rafi inspires resilience that politicians could learn from!

It is harder to comply with American standards?

• YES (than British for sure, and Spanish absolutely)

Is it is MUCH HARDER to find a legal staff that understands how to educate in an American way and meets the proper degree requirements?

•  YES (much harder than the certificate requirements necessary in the Spanish and the British systems)

But if the demands of the United States and the attention to details give an example for others to follow, SIGN ME UP!

As Americans, we have a lot of pressure to lead. It goes with being a superpower. But how do you think that superpower status was built? You guessed it…it was built by an educational system that has driven us to work efficiently and succeed under pressure! I work to represent my country values daily. The US ONLY brings this confidence and innovation and a competitive drive because of the foundation of our education system! Thanks to my roots, I model these values everyday for children and parents in Spain. And our families have the advantage of getting the best curriculum for their children, taught in the most important language for business (English).

Giving a child the gift of a second language immersion program it is even better for the developing brain and it is the TRUE way to carry on your legacy to the world (YOUR CHILD)!

If you are unsure of the importance of Early Childhood Stimulation, please watch the documentary, Brain Matters, which is designed for parents to understand the most important things needed in order to help your child grow and that foundation is laid out in high-quality preschools:

Why Bilingualism for President?

I am convinced that Bilingual Brains make awesome presidents! Generation Z will have an advantage because they are demanding changes to prepare them for the 21st century, Gretta Thunberg.

• They need education built for fixing the mistakes made in the previous generations.

• There are long-term gifts that bilingualism gives to early learners (brain flexibility, empathy and complex problem solving skills to name a few)

• The skills learned with a strong language immersion program, adding the social-emotional beginning of life piece, are priceless…

Now...Here is why English for Fun students will be gifted politicians, business owners, lawyers, actors or whatever they damn well please:

• They are socially and emotionally happy and that will last a lifetime no matter what society or their parents do to them
• They are independent thinkers so they will not be influenced by special interests
• They are confident and they can do public speaking in English and Spanish (and French, German, Arabic, Chinese and whatever other language they decide to take on) so they can negotiate and feel comfortable having a conversation in a second language with international people
• They are global because they have been going to school since birth, with diversity in their safe space so they have all types of friends, from all types of families and from all over the world (16 countries at each center)
• They are empowered so they feel secure in their decision making
• They are collaborative so teamwork is not scary for them and sharing ideas is how they all work together to improve the lives of themselves and others
• They are curious and have a Growth Mindset so they will never want to stop learning and that leads to a happy brain

Click here to download a few T.I.P.S. to help you in the quest for presidential worthy bilinguals T.I.P.S. for Raising Bilingual Kids!

President NOW…NOT A PUPPET!

I am here to fight for Spain, the country that gave me a devoted family and the opportunity to educate in the American way and remove FEAR from the lives of English speakers who come to our community to learn and have FUN…

Ooh and fabulous people and wine and tapas which are honestly the reason I stayed here in the first place!

Democracy or Not Democracy...That is the Question?!?

Spanish democracy needs inspiration in order to evolve from the hierarchical and patriarchal models of last century. It is time for our grandparents to retire and let this next, highly-trained and highly-educated generation take over.

FYI...We will make mistakes and we will fail (just like you did grandpa) but we will pick ourselves up faster because we are in better physical and mental shape and we know how to work together much better than you guys did!

This is why I VOTE for American Education for President

We need to evolve education into a system of equality, one that can only happen by educating in the American way (not Trump America but the good old fundamentals of what America represents):

• Empowering others to feel competent and understand that competition is a good thing when it helps us challenge ourselves and grow
• Building communities who take care of each other and have empathy and feel truly compassionate about causes
• Learning to be a competitive and adaptable workforce 
• Practical systems that are organized and predictable and encourage risk-taking behavior
• Creativity sparks curiosity and that is a fundamental part of the learning process and it means that learning will be something you love and you will want to do continuously
• Confidence, especially public speaking, makes it that much easier to convince the rest that we know it all…even when we don’t

Why so Indecisive?

What you may not know is why we are so indecisive in the land of tapas y vino y FUN! I mean…we have all of the tools to do great work with this sunshine and with people who truly love life. For us Guiris, Spain is a NO BRAINER. But like every HUMAN…we do not realize how lucky we are when we have everything that we want. A place that is safe, cheap and beautiful is taken for granted by those who have grown up with everything handed to them on a platter (think about how the world complains about the Millennials and see what similarities you might).

WAKE UP CALL

FYI..we know how to work together and right now your are trying to avoid real leadership (which means decision-making and risk-taking and inspiring hope for something better around the corner). Politics of the past allowed for this when there was limited television, no internet and controlled media. One strong leader to follow out of a Civil War was necessary in the 1940s but society has evolved and in 2019 we should demand that our politicians do too!

Now for OUR FUN as VOTERS

Prepare yourselves politicians because your plan has backfired! We have learned something over the last 3 years While You Were Sleeping (and making a mockery out of yourselves and your “profession” instead of improving the quality of education, for example:

PISA Exam - The World Standard for Education and Country Productivity 

Teaching to the Test is NOT Working, Spain is Still Behind in English

I would like to end this post in a special way. I have written a love letter to our dear politicians to wish them a FEARful election this Sunday…

Please be patient while I learn tot blog and know that this is the perfect example of what I represent for your families: GRIT, perseverance, problem solver, constantly evolving, falling down and getting back up time and time again (even when it feels as if everything is broken), doing whatever it takes and playing whatever role it takes to bring quality education and HOPE to your families. Jill's FEAR Reflection 11/2018

Dear Politicians,

While you were playing politics and generating FEAR (your voters/tax payers), we were distracted and we started to act JUST like you. We got worried that we could’t manage ourselves without your help so we “Doped” in different ways (SEE BRENE BROWN). We became social media junkies and‘midorexics to avoid thinking about how to raise children during times of transition. And uncertain about our financial stability and the economy, we started to treat each other badly and act unethically and rip each other off or scam each other. All because we were worried that we couldn’t do it without your leadership!

But then something interesting happened…

We started to bond as a society over our DISGUST with ALL OF YOU and your tantrums and your racist rants and your blame throwing and you criticism instead of self-reflection! And we started to study all of you at a deeper level and we realized that you are behaving that way because you are trying to hide the fact that you are less than AVERAGE.

We realized that many of you have poor working habits and you did whatever it took to “sacar un titulo” without even bothering to find pride in accomplishing a set goal and that you are not even curious enough to find joy in real learning!

It became obvious that we cannot trust your word at all and that you have no empathy or compassion for those suffering through your inability to work together for the good of your country (try owning a business sometime in your life and see how you will react if politicians do this while you are trying to expand your growing business and find new customers and pay your employees with all of the uncertainty lying around). We realized that the reality is that you are selfish and spoiled and you do not care about us AT ALL…

And then…we moved on without ALL OF YOU! And look what happened:

• Crime did not increase so that means we are civilized enough to govern ourselves and we actually do it better without you meddling in our affairs Except in Cataluña where you politicians have been manipulating the system to increase your power and spending, and then cover up your corruption and your bruised egos. You stacked the voting system with less people having more voting power to make decisions. You hoped that the more rural the area became, the less education they had. Spain's Small Towns Have NO Residents but their VOTES are More Powerful

• But your corruption lead to empty pueblos and people who have turned themselves into societal outcasts and they cannot even speak Spanish fluently, let alone English, so you are all now earning less tax dollars than ever because the businesses and tourists have no desire to be there anymore. Newsflash…hungry people with no hope burn trash cans and riot because they see how unfair the system is. When there is no hope, humans act out in rage!

• Over the last 3 years we have cut major spending because you cannot give favors when everyone is closely watching how you spend our money. And the last recession’s looming return will time perfectly with another EU intervention since, even with budget cuts and more careful spending, the system is unmanageable in its current state, especially with unemployment this high. No government means no stealing and no over spending. WIN WIN! Spain unfortunately will have to rely on other countries to teach them fiscal responsibility since the economics courses have not lead you politicians to understanding how the basics of operating a system and budgeting and supporting an ageing population with the 2nd longest life expectancy in the world will be possible. Especially if young people don’t learn proper working habits during their formative working years (16-26 years old). With an increased life expectancy, no politician wants to be the one to say that you cannot be retired longer than you worked so we have to work more years and more efficiently (less hours per day at the office to improve quality). Thanks to your indecision and prolonged elections and drama, you will now have to face the changes without anyone else to blame! And hopefully it will not be necessary for the EU to highlight your ability to make careless people rich and show your lack of respect for your people by stepping in to control your black cards and “enchufismo” (connections) style contracts once again!

• Tourism is at an all-time high because the entire world is in transition (FEARS) and many places became unsafe to travel. Spain is an awesome and SAFE place to visit and that continued to evolve during the last 3 years because we are civilized people who know not to “bite the hand that feeds us”. The people in this great country have enough common sense and manners to not let the government messes in Cataluña spread to other areas of Spain. You thought you wanted those tour boats to leave the TOURIST ATTRACTING port and now you are all well-aware that those people helped feed you. Tourism and food and FUN is thriving and historically Spain is rich in all of the above so your silly politics is only deterring people from certain regions, and there are plenty of receptive people in other parts of Spain waiting to have us visit with our money (Hello Americans to Tenerife)

Best of LUCK to you all on Sunday. I think it is pretty obvious that you will have to find a way to cross party lines at some point in order to form a government. Hopefully you can get that done soon because many businesses are on the verge of closing and leaving you with more debt due to higher unemployment and less tax paying companies!

Best,

Your WANNABE Voter and Constructively Critical Guiri

Jill Stribling

Owner & Founder

English for Fun

Now a few words for parents…

2019 snuck up on us, we were not aware that we are now finally smarter than our politicians so the rules of the game need to change.

A Ham and Cheese Sandwich is a Meal for the Mediocre, Just Like Our Politicians (English)

Remember VOTERS…you’ve got this one so don’t let these politicians continue to distract you from the real issue (they have not been working for 3 whole years so they are FRESH and READY TO PROBLEM SOLVE). Demand something from them all by VOTING! Then ignore their fighting and their smokescreens and:

• Make them set goal and meet them
• Make them start and finish tasks
• Make them get back to work and protect us all so we can raise Generation Z and prepare them to fix this mess we have ALL created. I don’t want to live on MARS, do you???