Each year, fifth grade students at Plymouth Meeting Friends School participate in the annual Mexican Exchange Program, an international exchange which began at PMFS in 1970. This program is a cultural exchange of students from PMFS and our current partner school, Colegio Williams de Cuernavaca. The Williams School, which is bilingual, is located forty-five miles south of Mexico City in Cuernavaca, Morelos. In February, each PMFS fifth grader is hosted by a Williams’ fifth grade student and their family for fifteen days. Then, in May, the fifth grade students from Mexico spend two weeks with their PMFS “buddies” and their family.
Both parts of the Exchange Program are structured similarly. The daily activities of the students and their teachers are organized around field trips in and outside of the city. In Cuernavaca, as in Philadelphia, students meet daily at the school with their teachers for planning and orientation about their itinerary. After school and on weekends, students spend time with their exchange friend and family.
Preparations for the program begin early in September when parents view a slide presentation about earlier exchanges and discuss how the program is organized. Each family completes a questionnaire about family interests, hobbies, and activities. Both schools follow the same procedures. By November, each member of the class learns who their friend is and begins an on-going correspondence. Throughout this time PMFS fifth grade students study the Aztec civilization, the art and architecture of the pre-Columbian groups, Mexican customs and history, and continue their study of Spanish with an emphasis on learning useful words and phrases.
The goals of the program are to learn about another culture by direct experience, to develop an appreciation of similarities and differences between countries, and to understand the many ways that culture is shaped and influenced by geography, language, climate, religion, and history. Students also become aware of how cultures are similar, particularly in the ways families interact and care about one another.