On Friday, I wrote about how El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and his minister of education, Karla Trigueros, were cracking down on students in the country's public education system this school year. Going forward, students must wear uniforms; they must have haircuts that are clean and not gang-related; and school administrators must greet the children at the door, not just to make sure they're dressed appropriately, but to ensure they're using proper manners in social settings.
Their goals are to teach younger generations respect, ensure they get a quality education, and prevent them from growing up to be like the ones who came before them — the gang members who terrorized the entire nation, making El Salvador what many deemed one of the least safe countries in the world. Bukele is simply trying to give these kids a chance to do something with their lives. He wants a better future for the kids and the country as a whole.
Related: Bukele Does It, and He's a Dictator. Deion Sanders Does It, and He's a Role Model.
As I mentioned on Friday, as with everything Bukele does, these actions were met with criticism. But most of it wasn't coming from the Salvadoran people; it was coming from international sources — progressives who like to stick their noses in where they don't belong and people who think they know what's best for a country that is learning to thrive again after decades of violence. Most of these critics have never even set foot there.
Bukele has doubled down on his educational policies this week, and he's standing up to all of these international busybodies who seem determined to turn this democratically elected man with an extremely high organic approval rating among his constituents into some kind of Latin American dictator (while ignoring the actual Latin American dictators in power).
On Sunday, he posted the following mic-drop-esque statement on X (please keep in mind that much of this is translated from Spanish):
To those who don't like the measures being taken in El Salvador, don't worry, you can go back to the indifference of before, like when you didn't care about what was happening here when 30 Salvadorans were being killed daily.
A los que no les gustan las medidas que se están tomando en El Salvador, no se preocupen, pueden volver a la indiferencia de antes, como cuando no les importaba lo que pasaba acá cuando mataban 30 salvadoreños diarios.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 25, 2025
He has a point. Please name me 10 Democrats in our country who cared about what was going on in El Salvador 10 years ago when the country was overrun with gang violence. I'll wait.
Bukele also posted a video on X showing how "educational centers" used to be more like "places for recruiting gang members." Here's the English translation of his entire remarks, plus the video:
This is how educational centers used to be in our country: places for recruiting gang members.
And they weren’t just any gangs, but the most bloodthirsty in the world.
Today, many mothers mourn their children who are in prisons; others, those who are in the cemetery or remain missing.
Disciplinary measures in schools aim to prevent this tragedy from happening again.
They say that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.
El Salvador will not repeat it, no matter how much they criticize us.
Así eran antes los centros educativos en nuestro país: lugares de reclutamiento de pandilleros.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 25, 2025
Y no eran pandillas cualquiera, sino las más sanguinarias del mundo.
Hoy, muchas madres lloran a sus hijos que están en las cárceles; otras, a los que están en el cementerio o siguen… pic.twitter.com/soeTcJkf07
El presidente also took aim at his critics by implying that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and he didn't hold back. He posted the following on X, along with a video of a concerned mother in the United States who fears putting her child in public schools because the school board, despite parents' overwhelming disapproval, voted to implement gender studies in the district's elementary schools.
The same people who protest El Salvador’s public school policy of proper haircuts and basic manners are okay with this woke bulls**t.
If you also think like that, you’ve been brainwashed
I mean, he has a point. It's okay to teach kindergarteners and first graders about gender studies but not how to say "please" and "thank you" and dress in a respectable manner? Which one is actually going to help them get a job or build relationships in the future? Here's the video:
The same people who protest El Salvador’s public school policy of proper haircuts and basic manners are okay with this woke bullshit.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 24, 2025
⁰If you also think like that, you’ve been brainwashed. pic.twitter.com/mkHafLF42P
Writer and cartoonist Lina Seiche also made a great point, which Bukele re-posted on X:
Lowkey fascinated with how media frames El Salvador’s school rules as “authoritarian.”
— Lina Seiche (@LinaSeiche) August 22, 2025
Many countries do this. In many Japanese schools, students clean the classrooms, wear slippers, can’t dye their hair etc.
They really hate when the “Third World” does “First World” things 😅 pic.twitter.com/7Ms7k25Hjw
For what it's worth, Trigueros sent out documents on Sunday explaining exactly what was happening and why El Salvador is now enforcing these rules. I guess some in the mainstream media saw "authoritarianism," but most of us normal people simply saw common sense. Here are the documents — again, they're in Spanish, but I'll translate below:
Hoy envié el memorándum sobre el Reglamento para la Promoción de la Cortesía Escolar, que entrará en vigor el 1 de septiembre en todos los centros educativos públicos.
— Karla Trigueros (@KarlaETrigueros) August 24, 2025
Con este reglamento fomentaremos valores esenciales como el respeto y la cortesía entre nuestros estudiantes,… pic.twitter.com/MXQ50gZpvu
Essentially, the schools will have a new demerit system that "encourages the practice of basic expressions of courtesy." For example, they want kids to greet their teachers and principals with "good morning" and use words like "please" and "thank you." The objective is to promote "respect, coexistence, and civic culture." The new rules will also teach personal responsibility — if you don't follow the rules, there will be consequences — but the documents also state that the demerits aren't meant to be punishment; they're more a way to correct behavior and form values systems.
Students also get several chances. Once they reach three demerits, they'll receive a verbal warning and have to write a personal reflection on the importance of being polite. Six demerits equals a call to parents or family members and another corrective task, like making a poster on the importance of politeness. Students with 10 demerits may lose the privilege to participate in extracurricular activities, while 15 can prevent a student from promotion. Students also have the opportunity to have demerits removed through various actions, like a full week of offering "exemplary greetings and expressions of courtesy," volunteering to do things like help clean the schools, and participating in "values" campaigns led by the schools. Kids who have no demerits at the end of each month will receive a reward.
Related: A Simple Observation by Nayib Bukele Proves the U.S. Is the Exception, Not the Rule. For Now.
If that's authoritarianism, sign me up. It doesn't sound too far from what school was like when I was a kid, though I think mine was the last generation to experience actual discipline and consequences for our actions. If you read any of my Bukele or El Salvador articles, you know I always say that what works in the United States doesn't necessarily work in the rest of the world and vice versa, but I think the schools in our country could learn a thing or two from our Central American friends.
