Teachers in the U.S. school system have been struggling for years, and it’s beginning to raise questions about whether the tried-and-true ways of structuring education are applicable anymore. An American teacher named Rita, who now works in Spain, shared five things they do in schools in Spain that are pretty much unheard of in America.

Rita posted a TikTok video about the culture shock she’s experienced as she transitions from teaching in the United States to Spain. That culture shock has been eye-opening for her, and she hopes that by sharing how the Spanish culture influenced the school system, creating a safer and more “relaxed” environment, she might offer parents and educators in the U.S. a glimpse of how things could be better.

5 things they do in Spanish schools that would be unheard of in America:

1. There are no dress codes or rigid rules

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When compared to the rules and structure that dominate the public school system in the U.S., Spain takes a much more lax approach. That approach includes how teachers, administrators, and students dress and how the day is fundamentally structured.

There is no dress code for administration, teachers, and students. Rather, on her first day, Rita shared, “The principal and the director were wearing crop tops. So, I saw their bellybuttons.” The relaxed approach to dress really threw Rita for a loop initially, especially since American schools are so strict in many cases about what is and isn’t allowed.

But are strict dress codes really keeping kids in line? A federally funded study from 2022 found that strictly enforced dress codes in U.S. public schools seem to unfairly target minorities, taking them out of classes, punishing them with suspensions and expulsions, even for their hairstyles.

According to EdWeek, 93% of school districts in the U.S. have dress codes, and more than 90% of those policies are specifically associated with the clothing female students typically wear, including midriff-revealing shirts. But beyond the policies that seemingly affirm gender and race inequalities, strict dress code policies take away autonomy and trust, something that kids need in order to feel comfortable and happy in a place they spend most of their days.

Alyssa Pavlakis, a school administrator from Illinois who has studied school dress codes, told the outlet, “In order for students to get to the point where they can learn, they need to feel a sense of belonging. They need to feel cared for and loved.” Pavlakis continued, “If we spend part of our day telling students, ‘you don’t look the right way. You’re not dressed the right way, you could be unsafe because you have a hat or a hood on,’ kids aren’t going to feel loved, supported, a sense of belonging.”

In addition to giving everyone the freedom to dress as they see fit, Spanish schools don’t follow a traditional bell schedule. Rita explained, “Everything ends five minutes late, starts ten minutes late; you just kinda go with the flow. That’s the Spanish culture.” She accepted this as the norm. This change brought a more organic experience to teaching. Kids weren’t staring at the clock for the end of class, and teachers weren’t ending a lesson mid-sentence.

: High School Teacher Gets Rid Of Traditional Classroom Rules And Offers His Students Something Even Better

2. Students call teachers by their first names

Rita mimicked their pronunciation with an accent as she gave her name as the example: “Estephanie.” On a first-name basis, the kids, who she said don’t even know her last name, and their teachers are on equal footing. This is foreign to American kids and the common attitudes they learn in response to and defiance of authority figures.

When students and teachers are more familiar, the us-versus-them attitude against authority never really develops. Neal Brown, Head of School at Green Acres School in Rockville, Maryland, asserted that students and teachers addressing each other by their first names “fosters the feeling of being partners in learning.” 

“In many school settings, calling teachers by their first names is a deliberate and values-driven choice,” he explained. “A way to foster respect and inclusivity, a sense of belonging and community, it also helps our students see the adults who teach them as whole people with interests that transcend what they do in the classroom — just as all the research suggests that teachers, to be most effective, need to understand their students as ‘whole children.'”

Add to that the simple fact that physical contact between students and the teachers and admin is normal in Spain. Rita pointed out their relationships involve a lot of “Hugging, playing with hair…takes a lot of getting used to…they’re very touchy-feely.” It’s a cultural difference that absolutely wouldn’t fly here in the U.S., but it speaks to the fact that these kids view school as a safe place and the adults who run it as trusted caregivers.

3. Schools and classrooms are unlocked

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Campuses aren’t housed in one building; rather, there is open space and air in between classes. Classroom doors hang open. There’s no threat to safety or locked gates. While this sounds like a dream, the constant threat of gun violence in American schools doesn’t really allow for the same freedoms.

Rita said parents “have to scan in at the gate, but that’s about it. They can go anywhere in the building.” Because there is mutual trust among all parties involved in the school, there is no fear or questioning of adults having access to their children. In alignment with their parents, this is just a kid’s day job. You know where to find them, going from class to class.

Spanish schools allow students to figure themselves out. In an essay for Business Insider, Megan Thorson shared her personal account of transitioning to American schools after an adolescent education in Spain. From ages 6 to 14, school in Spain provided her with greater access to resources. She wrote, “In Spain, it felt like schools emphasized academics for the sake of making well-rounded humans, rather than getting the best test scores to get you into the best colleges.”

The freedom to be the kid being taught rather than preparing the kid to be the adult they are expected to be offers a new perspective on the purpose of education in Spanish and American cultures.

: Once-Passionate Teacher Now Hates Her Job Because The School System Leaves Students ‘Suffering’

4. Students are taught in three different languages

Spanish culture welcomes different languages to enrich the classroom. Even apart from the language classes, they are invited and self-propelled to use other languages in conversation. Rita said, “These kids speak multiple languages better than teachers do.” 

Spanish schools integrate this idea of “code mixing” into their classrooms. Researchers Krista Byers-Heinlein and Casey Lew-Williams published “Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says.” They found that children who mix languages in conversation do so because “just doing what they hear adults around them do,” but also because it is “a path of least resistance: a sign of bilingual children’s ingenuity.” Using a word they know in another language to drive home their point helps communication and brings cultural wealth through language.

A shock to Western culture, kids are capable of learning from the environments they are supported in. Spain supports their kids and their cultural longevity.

5. There are no phones

Rita’s eyes widened, sparkled, and gleamed as she proclaimed, “Haven’t seen a phone, not heard the word phone… It’s just bliss.” Imagine that, an attention span with an innate desire to learn!

As a sister to a middle-schooler, I see his phone in his right hand more than the palm it rests in. He shows me vlogs in the classroom with his friends. The sheet music for his next snare solo is his lock screen because he keeps losing the physical copy. Putting his phone down for an hour, he announces, “I have 96 messages from the group chat.” 

My mom advises him to keep his phone in his backpack because that’s what she’s supposed to say. My brother will ignore it, staying attached to the phone and in line with the rest of the kids his age. I’ll be suggesting a Spanish boarding school with my mom if his screen time increases by an hour.

Rita hoped her video offered a change of perspective.

The balance in her tone of voice and her experience of working and living in Spain showed that Rita’s thriving in her new social constraints (or maybe, lack thereof)! If it’s pleasing to your ear and if it’s enough for you and your wallet to muster up the courage to travel halfway across the world, Rita encouraged viewers to leave their comfort zones: “You should move to Spain.”

Obviously, that’s not going to happen for most people, but the point of the video was not to bash the American school system, only to educate those who don’t know that there are other options. Changes can be made to improve education in the U.S., but we have to learn about other options in order to make them a reality.

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Emi Magaña is a writer from Los Angeles with a bachelor’s in English. She covers entertainment, news, and the real human experience.