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Spanish Flag

Adopted in 1981.

Features Spain’s national colors of yellow and red.

Spanish coat of arms includes a shield with symbols for the four historic Spanish regions:   Castille, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre.  The shield is in between the Pillars of Hercules, representing the Strait of Gibraltar.

Includes the motto, “Plus Ultra”

(Government of Spain)

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Madrid

Capital city of Spain

home to famous European football team

features popular tourist sites like the Valley of the Fallen, the Escorial (Royal) Palace, Puerta del Sol, and Plaza Mayor.

Madrid is known for its sizzling nightlife, diverse ethnic groups, and colorful cosmopolitan atmosphere.

Valencia

one of the most important and largest cities in Spain.

located in the eastern part of the country.

features popular tourist sites like the City of Arts and Science, an entertainment complex rested on the Turia River.

Valencia hosts the Fallas Festival--where each neighborhood displays paper-mache figures and later burns them at the end of the week.

Barcelona

located in northeastern Spain.

boasts historic architecture, busy nightlife, busy nightlife, and lively shopping.

features popular tourist sites like Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia Church.

Popular activities include a trip to Barceloneta beach or walking along La  Rambla.

Granada

located at the base of Sierra Nevada mountains of southern Spain.

capital of Granada province.

home to world famous Alhmabra-the last Moorish stronghold in Europe that features lush gardens, water features, amazing architecture, and incredible views.

Spanish Islands

consist of Balearic Islands and Canary Islands

Balearic Islands

include Ibiza, Formentera, Mallorca, and Menora

Mallorca is the best known Balearic Island

Ibiza is known as the party island and often features musical performances.

Canary Islands (Canaries)

located off southern coast of Morocco

known for beautiful beaches and attractions like Maspalomas Dunes in Gran Canaria and Teide Volcano in Tenerife.

Seville

capital city of Andalusia

features historic landmarks like grand Cathedral of Seville (where Christopher Columbus is buried) and Real Alcazar, a Moorish palace with extravagant gardens.

San Sebastian

capital of Gipuzko province, located in the Basque Country off the coast of the Bay of Biscay.

known for incredible beaches (like Playa de la Concha) and its culinary tradition.

features many historic buildings in Old Town that were reconstructed after the Napoleonic Wars.

Other popular cities include Cordoba, Toledo, and Santiago.

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Healthcare

Spaniards are covered by a national healthcare system that virtually serves the entire Spanish population.

Much of the responsibility for healthcare is delegated to the regional governments.

The healthcare system provides full range services in clinics and hospitals.

Many doctors have their own offices and clinics outside the government system.

Many private insurance plans exist.

The government provides unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, maternity and sickness benefits, and disability payments.

Marriage

There is equality, however more men tend to work as farmers and herders. Women has tend to the household more, but men do cook often.

Both husband and wife run their marriage and raise their family like a partnership.

Spouses are seen as absolute equals under Spanish law.

Household

most Spaniards live in a nuclear-family households of parents and unmarried children.

Childcare

Birthing children is as the main purpose or most important aspect of marriage.

Children are raised by multiple family members, such as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings.

Children as expected to be raised in a very social environment.

Schooling is very crucial to the development of the child-instilled at a very young age.

There is a certain expectation that children should/will attend vocational and academic secondary school.

Holidays

The most important holidays celebrated are:

Holy (Maundy) Thursday

Good Friday

Corpus Christi

Easter Monday

All Saints' Day (Nov. 1)

Feast of Saint James (July 25)

The Day of the Three Kings or Epiphany (Jan. 6)

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Religion has played a crucial role in developing what Spain is today.

Roman Catholicism has been the official religion since 589 and makes up 67.8% of the total religion found in Spain.

There have been differences between church and state, specifically regarding land ownership and education.

The legalization of divorce and abortion in the 1980s brought forth conflict from both state and church.

Non-believers make up 27.5% of the total religion found in Spain.

Other religions make up 2.2% of the total religion found in Spain.

Unspecified makes up 2.5% of the total religion found in Spain.

Denominations such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventist, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) have also been active religions.

The Roman Catholic Church does receive monetary support from the state.

Many shrines are built all over Spain to honor a variety of well-known Saints.

To many, the idea of being Roman Catholic has little meaning or importance beyond baptism, marriage, and being buried with the church.

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Cooking styles vary from region to region. For instance:

Galicia is known for seafood, including baby eels and Vizcayan-style codfish.

Catalonia is known for meat and vegetable casseroles.

Valencia is known for paella, a rice dish made with seafood, meats, and vegetables.

Andalusia is known for gazpacho, a cold soup made of tomatoes, garlic, and cucumber.

Castile is known for succulent roasts and air-dried hams.

Spanish dishes often include spices like chili pepper, paprika, tarragon, and saffron.

Most meals include pork, chicken, beef, fish, shellfish, or (on special occasions) lamb.

Legumes, lentils and chickpeas are also an important part of Spanish meals.

Tapas, a local bar food, are smaller versions of main course dishes and can feature mushrooms in garlic sauce or marinated seafood.

Wine, beer, coffee, and mineral water are popular beverages.

Family meals are so important that local businesses accommodate their hours around mid-day (comics) and dinner (cena) meals.

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Spain has made huge contributions to the music industry, specifically music performed on stringed instruments.

Some popular instrumentalists include Pablo Casals, Alicia de Larrocha, and Narciso Yepes.

Famous composers include Fernando For, Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, and Joaquin Rodrigo.

The flamenco, both song and dance, is genuinely regarded as Spanish and closely associated with Andalucia.

The flamenco tradition is derived from a marriage of Arabic and Spanish folk songs.

Spain has also been widely successful in representing classical opera.

Some of the most renowned singers include Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Alfredo Kraus, and Montserrat Caballe.

The light opera, the zarzuela, has been recognized around the world, despite the Spanish language.

Recently, Ibiza has become a place for electronic artists and disc jockeys to converge on the island to perform at night clubs and private parties.

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High dropout rate – 34% - is combined with a high tertiary degree attainment – projected 58% (OECD).

Historically education has been based on memorization but that is changing, according to Spanish immersion teacher Deborah Garcia.

Lots of homework!

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On a typical weekday evening, 14-year-old Clara Jené spreads out her homework across the dining table in her family's apartment in a leafy northern suburb of Madrid. She gets about three hours of homework a night - and more than twice that on weekends.

"Often we're sitting down to dinner, and I have to tell her to put away the books," says Clara's father, Camilo Jené, a 51-year-old architect. "It's cutting into our family time."

Keep in mind that Spaniards sit down to dinner around 10 p.m. Clara often resumes her homework after that, staying up as late as 1 a.m.

A recent World Health Organization study found 64 percent of 15-year-old girls and 59 percent of boys the same age in Spain said they feel "pressured by schoolwork." Twenty-seven percent of Spanish 11-year-old girls and 38 percent of boys said the same.

In comparison, 54 percent of 15-year-old American girls and 42 percent of 15-year-old boys said the same.

So last month, Spanish students went on strike. Clara is among millions of kids in primary and secondary schools across the country who've been refusing to do any assignments on Saturdays or Sundays.

"Last weekend, I spent time with my family. One day we went to visit my grandparents at our relatives' house in the mountains," Clara says. "I learned how to build a campfire outdoors."

Normally, she would have spend that time studying.

Lots of children around the world want to do less homework. But in Spain, parents and even some teachers are backing the kids up. Clara's father - a member of a national parents' association - is the one who suggested that she participate in the strike.

"It's complicated," Jené says, "because we all want our children to succeed."

He acknowledges that Clara's grades may not be as good as those of classmates who completed all their assignments. But the Jené family wants Spain's education system to change. They say it relies too much on busywork and rote memorization.

Spanish teenagers get more homework than the average for about three dozen developed countries surveyed annually by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD found that the average homework load for Spanish students of all ages is 18.5 hours a week.

But that doesn't translate into higher scores on standardized tests. Spain consistently ranks below average in the OECD's rankings for student performance in reading, math and science.

"We think the reason is that our educational system is ancient. It dedicates a lot of time to memorization rather than participatory learning," says Marius Fullana, an astrophysicist, father of two and spokesman for the parents' association in 12,000 Spanish school systems, which called the homework strike.

Finland, in contrast, boasts some of the highest student performances in Europe - and some of the highest teacher salaries - but teachers there assign less homework than almost anywhere else in the world.

Fullana estimates that about half of public school students across Spain took part in the strike in November. It was supposed to finish at the end of that month. But it received so much attention - and in some cases, resulted in less assigned homework - that many students plan to continue the strike through the end of 2016, he says.

While many were docked points on their grades for failing to do November weekend assignments, they're demanding not to be penalized in December. That will be up to individual teachers and school principals.

Some teachers have complained about the strike, saying it unfairly targets their profession and puts them in an adversarial relationship with their students, the parents' association says. But many other teachers have been sympathetic. Some stopped assigning weekend homework altogether.

Fullana says he hopes that becomes the norm.

In Spain, education policy is made by local governments in 17 autonomous regions across the country. A spokesman for the Department of Education in the Madrid region told reporters that there is no government mandate for homework on weekends. It's up to the discretion of individual teachers and school principals, he said.

Some experts say this homework strike has exposed a larger problem in Spanish society.

"It's much broader than just homework. Why? Because of working schedules. They're really not family-friendly," says Catherine L'Ecuyer, author of a bestselling book in Spain called The Wonder Approach to Learning.

L'Ecuyer, a French-Canadian education researcher and consultant who has lived in Spain for several years, says to change Spanish children's homework load, you first have to change their parents' workload.

"The basic work schedule in Spain, for instance, is not 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as it is in other countries. It's 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. - and for professionals, it's 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.!" she says. "So what do you do with your child when he comes home at 4 p.m., after school?"

The child does homework - for hours and hours. It fills a gap for Spanish families. But experts like L'Ecuyer say data show those hours of homework never actually benefit the kids themselves.

"Some educators, they tend to consider education as 'more is better' - more activities, more homework, more hours of school - more everything. And it's not true," L'Ecuyer says. "What we have to look at is quality."

So for now, parents and caregivers arrive at schoolyards across Spain on Fridays to pick up their children - many of whom will spend the weekend playing, rather battling their way through hours of homework.

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Kids In Spain Rebel Against Homework, And Parents Are Their Biggest Boosters

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On a typical weekday evening, 14-year-old Clara Jené spreads out her homework across the dining table in her family's apartment in a leafy northern suburb of Madrid. She gets about three hours of homework a night - and more than twice that on weekends.

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Age 3-5:  Kindergarten – Not compulsory but 98% of children attend

Age 6-11:  1st – 6th grade – Primary school is compulsory

Age 12-15:  7th – 10th grade – Secondary school is compulsory through 10th grade

Age 16-17:  11th – 12th grade – Not compulsory but required to attend university

Schools fall into 3 categories:

Colegios públicos:  fully funded by government

Colegios concertados: funded by sponsoring religious or private group, tuition, and government

Colegios privados:  private schools

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There are several languages spoken in Spain, depending on regional location. It is important to note that the specific regions, like Catalonia, Galicia, Valencia, Basque and Euskera, Argon, and Asturias, have distinct communities, and many schools are bilingual for that reason.

Castilian

Castilian is the official language of Spain.

Castilian is most widely spoken and accounts for 74% of the language spoken.

Outside of Spain, the Castilian language is known as Spanish.

Catalan

Catalan is spoken in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

It is spoken by 17% of the population.

It is a neo-Latin tongue.

Galician

Galician is spoken in Galicia.

It accounts for 7% of the total spoken languages.

Valencian

Valencia in spoken in Valencia.

Euskera (Basque)

Euskera, also known as Basque, is spoken in Basque country and in some Euskera-speaking territories of Navarra.

It accounts for 2% of the total spoken languages.

Euskera is a pre-Roman language that is unrelated to any other known tongue.

It is often used in ancient script.

Bable (Asturian)

Bable is not an official co-language of Spain, but is protected under the community's statutes.

It is a form of Old Castilian and a dialect of Catalan.

Bable is used by inhabitants of the eastern province of Valencia.

Aranese

It is spoken in the Aran Valley.

Aranese is safeguarded in a provision by the region’s government, the autonomy of Catalonia.

It is not an official co-langage of Spain.

Aragonese

It is spoken in Aragon.

It in not an official co-language of Spain but is protected under the community's statutes.

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Deborah Garcia Pereda has spent 12 years teaching English in Madrid public primary schools, and is currently teaching 2nd grade Spanish immersion in Delaware.

Her thoughts on classroom management:

“Here (in Delaware) I ask Mary to tell Bobby how she felt when he pushed her.  In Spain, I yell, ‘Bobby, stop pushing Mary!’ and that is that.”

“Teachers have more autonomy in Spain to address classroom management.”

“Some newer teachers use PBS and rewards but many older teachers just rely on their authority to manage a class.”

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Teachers hug and kiss students regularly.

There is a closer personal space expectation between students and teachers.

Students call teachers by their first name.

Cartoon by Scott Adams

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10 Best Places to Visit in Spain. (2013, June 16). Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://www.touropia.com/best-places-to-visit-in-spain/

Carr, R., Shubert, A., Ginés, J. V., Koenigsberger, H. G., Viguera, M. J., & Harrison, R. J. (2019, April 21). Spain. Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain

Spain. (2019). Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/spain-portugal-italy-greece-and-balkans/spanish-and-portuguese-political-geography/spain

Spain. (2017, April 07). Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/es.htm

Spain. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Spain.html

Education GPS, OECD. Diagram of the education system, Spain.  Retrieved online April 27, 2019 from http://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=ESP

Education GPS, OECD.  Overview of the education system, Spain.  Retrieved online April 27, 2019 from http://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=ESP&treshold=10&topic=EO

Frayer, L. (2016, Dec. 11).  Kids in Spain Rebel Against Homework, and Parents Are Their Biggest Boosters.  Weekend Edition Sunday. NPR.  Retrieved online April 29, 2019 from https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/12/11/504673506/kids-in-spain-rebel-against-homework-and-parents-are-their-biggest-boosters

Government of Spain (2019).  Símbolos del Estado.  Retrieved online April 27, 2019 from http://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/espana/simbolosdelestado/Paginas/index.aspx