www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Whosear, "Declining" My friend. In my opinion if it declines anymore it will be non existant! The Costa Rica politians do a fantastic job of promoting their 'great' educational system!! Yes a very high percentage of the people are 'literate' if you call reading on a second grade (USA) level 'literate'. And, yes, compared to their neighbors to the north, they are better educated, BUT!!!! Spend a day in a public school here--I have several times! The schools are extremely over crowded, they go to school for, at most, a half a day; the noise level both in the classroom and outside is almost always unbearably loud; K*ds come and go from the classroom as they wish; the teachers would, for the most part, not even be qualifyed to be a teaching assistant in the USA; they are extremely underpaid and over worked; and teaching aids (projectors, computers, books, maps, etc) found in every classroom in the USA are essentially non existant. And most of the school buildings are in very poor condition. Yes they say they have 'free' school for ALL, but for the poor that is a joke. No uniform-no school; no money for supplies(most of which are supplied by the schools in the USA)- no school; And if the family does not have the money for the things needed, WHO CARES? NO ONE!!! The Ch*ld just does not go to school; and I am talking about Ch*ldren even in kinder.

The only Ch*ldren getting a decent education in Costa Rica are the lucky ones whose families can afford to send them to priviate schools--and that is a very very small percentage of the students!! Thus with every generation the number of very poor goes up and the number of middle class and above goes down. One of the things I have found really strange: they say they teach English in the public schools here!! Out side of some "working chicas' who are self taught, how many people who went to public schools in CR have you seen who can speak English?? How can a teacher who speaks no English teach students English

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

BangBang, you are right on the money. Well said.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

To me, the informal national motto – pura vida – sums it up. While most people believe pura vida means pure life, in fact it means: I don’t give a shit, let’s watch futbol.

I think you are on to something Jsmythe23, life is comfortable for most C-Ricans, if it wasn’t they would change it.

Right on amigo!! It is common knowledge that a Tico will do just about anything to avoid conflict, and that they will seldom get upset about anything. Just go with the flow no matter where the 'flow' might take them!!!!!! No stress, no problems, no concerns, no ambitions, no goals equal a very tranqual and relaxing life even if you do not have all the material things we North Americans think we have to have!!!! They do not know anything different, so why would they want to change their lives????? Just think how many fewer "Rolaids" and tranqualizers would be sold if the only thing we North Americans were concerned with was whether our football team wins or not!!!

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

BB57 said
"Just think how many fewer "Rolaids" and tranquilizers would be sold if the only thing we North Americans were concerned with was whether our football team wins or not!!!

If that is all they had to think about in Green Bay, we need a lot more Rolaids" and tranquilizers WE USE Politics and Religion to forget the real and only issue of life the "Packers Greatest over all other teams" ( and why did they punt on 3rd and 5, first possession in the 1st QT on there own 35 ? - strange, but true)

Excellent writing BB, thank you for your post here.

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My best friend was the clock on the wall, and he turned out not to be much of a friend in the end