Value Mothers

Mothers are valued in every culture, but they are especially valued in the Hispanic culture.  We need to find ways at Esperanza to capitalize on this.  One way to do that is throught the Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program. 

The Importance of Mothers and Education

The fact that today is Mothers' Day seems to be an appropriate time to discuss the importance of mothers in a child's education. Mothers in any culture are important to the education of their children but they have special significance in the Hispanic culture.

In the Hispanic culture, mothers exert a powerful influence on their children. Yet, many are not modeling education and career aspirations. It is the expectations, involvement, and role-modeling of the mothers that will have the lasting impact on their daughters’ educational development.

For these reasons we will start a Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program for 6th grade girls at Esperanza patterned after the very successful program Dr. Josie Tinajero started in El Paso, Texas many years ago.

Why 6th grade girls? We need to start as young as possible as pattern of school failure starts early. Decisions young girls make will affect their options in middle school which will then affect their high school options. The program is a deliberate effort to intervene at a time when girls are still open to academic and career options, and they aren’t yet in the greater social and academic pressures of middle school.

It is less expensive to invest in programs that work for our Hispanic young women such as the Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program than it will be to pay later in welfare checks and treatments centers and/or prisons.

Goals and Objectives

Build the self-esteem of both mothers and girls.
Encourage both mothers and girls to complete high school and college.
Acquaint the girls and mothers to higher education and professional careers.
Raise the girls’ and mothers’ aspirations for educational and career opportunities.
Improve the quality of academic preparation for higher education.
Increase Hispanic parental commitment to higher education and help mothers to become more effective role models.
Introduce community role models.

Hispanic mothers need to be taught the gift it is to be their daughter's primary educational advocate... and the Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program is one of the best ways to do that.

Navigating Two Worlds

Research studies indicate that Hispanic learners who are most successful have learned to navigate well in the dominant culture without sacrificing their heritage culture. This can be especially significant for our lower income Hispanic learners.
There are some things we plan to do at Esperanza Elementary to specifically address this:

• Teach all students to be literate in English and Spanish so they write and speak in both languages at a high level.


• Expose all students to what well educated people in the dominant culture know as well as acknowledging the contributions of their heritage culture. The intention is to widen their horizons.


• Expose students to the lifestyle of higher income people. For instance, taking them to cultural events (plays, operas, ballets, symphonies, etc.) and to nice restaurants. This is something Salome El-Thomas did with his chess winning students.


• Expose students--and their families-- to higher education institutions. Dr. Josie Tinajero developed an excellent Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program for 6th grade girls with this being the goal. We plan to implement this program at Esperanza as well as the Hispanic Father/Son Program Dr. Tinajero later developed. There is also a program called Adelante developed by some University of Utah professors we might want to emulate.


• Find mentors for students.


• Involve students in tutoring and mentoring younger students.


• Teach them financial skills. Many of them(and/or their parents) already have an entrepreneurial mindset that can be tapped into.

Students who can navigate two worlds will be richer--personally as well as probably financially. Thus, students such as these will also enrich our community and nation.