Today I'm going to talk about a site special. Allow me to exaggerate its negative aspects to encourage a critical reflection that allows to improve it, although, in doing so, I do not want to deny that there are great people who work to improve that place.
Is about a place that should change, which should become a space of freedom, knowledge, joy to learn and coexistence.
Not all places are the same, not all who run them are, but it is too frequent that all or some of these characteristics are presented in them and I sincerely believe that, so that they really functioned in democratic values and fulfilled their function of offering knowledge and not training, must change.
Mandatory
It is a place where many human beings are forced to go every day of their life for ten years, without anyone letting them decide if it is the best place for them. That is, in general, unquestionable.
It is a place where you always enter and leave at a mandatory time, with no more concessions than those required by a disease or a medical visit. It does not matter if you are sleepy, or that day you would need to disconnect, or if arriving or leaving at another time would be better for your family. The schedule is unquestionable.
It is a place where you are called to your obligations with a siren or a speaker, as in a factory or a prison.
It is a place where since you step on it for the first time you are forced to line up for everything, as if you were not able to organize access in a more flexible way. The line is unquestionable.
Silence if they don't give you permission to speak
It's a place where, most of the time, you can't speak without asking permission, you can only talk about the topic you are told and you cannot talk to the person next to you if you do not want to be punished. The silence is unquestionable and you can only speak freely in limited moments.
Rules and authority
In that place there are rules, rules that you have not decided and nobody has asked you if they are the ones you would choose. You don't decide them, but you are obliged to obey them. If you do not meet the rules, you are punished.
In that place there are some authorities and you must obey them. But you have not chosen those authorities nor has anyone asked you if they are the ones you would choose, or if you respect them, or if you feel respected by them. The first is obedience and then, if the authority is unfair, you can complain although you will rarely be taken into account on equal terms as the authority.
In that place You cannot eat, drink or do physiological needs when you have desire to do it. You can only do those things at the times marked by others and, if you have an emergency, you must ask permission to do so.
Business and sociability
In that place you have half an hour off when they send you, in a patio that is usually made of cement and where, if there are plants or grass, they cannot be stepped on. The patio is small and is used communally, saturated with people, and it is the strongest that have more space. The authority is usually not present and you can suffer physical or verbal aggressions that nobody detects at first sight.
In that place it is important the relationship with other people, especially since there are many in very small spaces. You relate to whom others decide you should do. You sit next to whom others decide you should do. You do not choose your partners, they are determined by your year of birth or your last name. Most of your relationships occur in limited moments and with issues determined by the authority, without, usually, except in the half hour of business, you can freely choose with whom you want to have more relationship.
In that place sometimes some are insulted, veiled, humiliated or hit, but if the thing is not very serious there is a code of silence that is expected to minimize it. Sometimes your only defense is to become an aggressor or respond violence with violence, and only, if it is very serious, will you be heard after many denials of what you are feeling. Maybe you assume that is normal.
Learning
In that place you learn things, things that others have decided are the ones you need to know. You must learn what they send you to learn, when they send you that it is necessary to learn them and in the way others decide that you should learn them. Although certain theoretical individuality is respected, the rules rule.
What you must learn is too fixed and you have to know that you will be qualified, labeled and evaluated based on your ability to learn what they send you. You must prove it, generally memoristically and in writing, if you do not succeed, you will be penalized.
In that place, even if you want to learn something else, you will not be able to, because first there is always the obligatory. They qualify you, label and distinguish you if you know what they send you to learn and when they send you that you must learn it and you must show it in the way others decide for you.
Actually, interested in things that you decide just matters to anyone and ends up not caring about you, because, in addition, you barely have time to investigate what fascinates you or will be valued academically. What you love to learn hardly counts at all, what counts most is what others decided you should learn.
Difference
In that place, if you are different you have a problem. Your classmates can reject you if you don't look like them. If you do not keep up, if you get bored, if you need to be moving, you have a problem and it may be indicated that it is determined that you need a medication or treatment so that you are calm and do not disturb those who follow the rules.
In that place they will value you as you obey the rules, do not replicate and repeat what others think you should know and think how you should think.
The education system is obsolete
That place is anachronistic, contents, organization and processes that were dated one hundred years ago are used, but it costs a lot to change and adapt to the true needs of those who come to it.
That place I'm talking about exists. Not all places are the same. But without a doubt, if only one of these characteristics is met, they are places that must change, for the sake of our children and society.
I admit that I have presented this panorama, consciously highlighting its most negative aspects, but I think that only by highlighting the negative aspects of the school can we force ourselves to change it among all. Surely there are many positive experiences and schools and teachers who strive in the right direction. The education system is obsolete and must change now. Do you dare to tell us how the ideal school would work?
