As a one gets older, indisputably, the mathematics level gets superior as well. Still, I find very interesting the fact that a person in TCS gets to high school and the last years gets to see mathematics in Spanish. We start SAT’s and ICFES process in 11th grade, and we get to see how important it is to have the concepts in both Spanish and English, but then why is the school trying to eliminate Spanish language in the high school math department?

It started to draw my attention when the precalc teacher started to hand out worksheets and write the lessons on the board in english even though he explained the material in spanish. After having math delivered in english for the bigger part of my life, I come to 11th grade to find out that even though mathematics is famously known for being a “universal language” it can alter in the translation. Starting with a triangle leg to “cateto” and right triangle to “triangulo rectangulo,” when you crash into the world where your class is no longer typed Mathematics in your schedule but now is called Algebra 2/ Precalculo you slowly come across the words and concepts that were, in the near future, going to kill your ICFES score.

One may try to be empathetic towards the school’s vision and mission, but as the education in Colombia improves, and more students that graduate want to stay, the more Spanish we will need to thrive. “The last two years in this school should be taught in Spanish. The majority of the students are graduating and staying in order to attend university here in Colombia,” shared Mauricio Sepulveda TCS’s high school calculus teacher, after being asked if the school should change the language of the class. It’s essential to have both languages interjected in us in order to be prepared for any scenario in which we either decide to stay or we decide to leave.

“The nature of the school is English, it has always been. English language is the choice TCS always take and I really do think it’s important to have math in english because we pay for the best education, an education that most of Colombia lacks,” Sofia Niño an 11th grade TCS student said. “But because I’m going to stay in Colombia to accomplish a medical career, I’m going to need the subject in Spanish as well; I would just leave the English for AP calculus, as usually those are the ones that take the SAT’s and leave,” Niño added after being asked about her opinion on the ongoing dispute, the thing in that the school follows its “nature” we will continue to have our famous low ICFES scores. Some say that it’s because we don’t have enough discipline enforced in the school but if you ask me, it’s all because the school is forgetting the essential Spanish while looking for a higher TOEFL score.

A bilingual school, needs to teach both languages in order to qualify as such, but TCS, intending to pushing us to leave and study abroad, is failing to dictate courses in spanish essential to rise in the Colombian University life.