Miguel Hidalgo Rural Primary School (Mexico)

See Miguel Hidalgo Photo Gallery

Project Description

‘Miguel Hidalgo’ Rural Primary School is a second Mexican primary school (Grades 1-6), which is in the process of being adopted by Horace Mann Elementary School in Washington, DC to be its ‘Sister School’ in Mexico. The first photo with the school’s name in the background shows the school director; the second photo is of Betty Soláris of Biocenosis with four students. Like ‘Leona Vicario’ Rural Primary School, ‘Miguel Hidalgo’ is located in an indigenous community that collectively owns part of the forest that makes up the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve created by the Mexican Government in the year 2000. The area is also recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Besides periodic exchanges of letters with its American partners, the Director of the school has agreed to introduce lesson plans from the Spanish-language version of the “Monarchs and More” curriculum guide developed by Karen Oberhauser and her team at the University of Minnesota and to create a schoolyard tree nursery, which will provide students with hands-on experience in growing native tree saplings and subsequently to participate directly with their parents and other adults of the community in helping restore a part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

The Labyrinth is a path for focused walking meditation, with ancient roots. Walking labyrinths has been proven highly effective for reducing anxiety and eliciting the ‘relaxation response’. Supporting one of the simplest forms of walking meditation and related benefits have led hundreds of hospitals, spas, churches and schools to install labyrinths in recent years.Regular meditative practice can enhance concentration, a sense of personal control in one’s life, and contentment.