Teaching and Social Intervention of CNT Madrid ---- From CNT-EIS Madrid,
we seek to fight for the rights of all people who work in educational
centers, regardless of the tasks they perform. We clearly position
ourselves against the unionism that exclusively defends the teaching
staff, forgetting the administrative and labor staff of the same. With
our message, we wish to make known our main lines of action, which do
not seek to impose methods or rules, but to conceive, debate and agree
on new ways of coexistence and work, of course always open to
improvements and revisions.
At CNT-EIS Madrid, we start from the premise that the State does not
offer the education that the students require, but rather the one that
the State needs. Perhaps CNT cannot frontally attack the waterline of
the system, although that is our objective, but we can point out
defects, promote active alternative methodologies, fight for
improvements in work and employment, and imagine other forms of
relationships between the teaching staff and the students.
Our first proposals have been inspired by a long genealogy of anarchist,
libertarian or anti-systemic educational projects, where Ferrer i
Guardia, Teresa Mañé Miravet, Adolphe Ferrière, Emma Goldman, Célestin
Freinet, Flora Sanhueza, Paulo Freire or Ivan Illich stand out, among
many others. In our letter to educational centers and academies, we
explained that our union project aims to empower students, promote
individual freedom and social responsibility, as well as create a more
inclusive, participatory and meaningful learning environment for the
needs and desires of students today.
These authors believed that in order to guarantee alternative
teaching-learning processes, it was not enough to change the teaching
methods in the classroom, but also the structures of the educational center.
In some of their writings, they also raised the need to deschool society
and even to eliminate traditional physical classrooms, designed to
isolate, control and punish. Dialogue and interaction with students in
parks, squares, libraries, museums and other municipal places would help
promote the connection between learning and the daily problems of
citizens. They promoted an environmental education of an anti-capitalist
nature. They encouraged the new generations to take responsibility, and
to make those who did not feel called upon to take responsibility,
regarding the obligation to fight for sustainability and the
preservation of nature as a guarantor of life. They also advocated for
the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the intercultural understanding
of the curriculum, as well as the culture of peace and non-violence as
means to seek positive changes in communities. In short, their projects
and proposals had the objectives of democratising the participation
bodies of educational centres and the teaching-learning processes,
improving work and personal relationships between their members, forging
ties with the neighbourhood and the community that embraces them, and
reconnecting with (and in) the surrounding natural environments.
To guarantee alternative teaching and learning processes, it is not
enough to change the teaching methods in the classroom, but also the
educational structures
Therefore, in our message to the academies and educational centres of
the Community of Madrid, we propose raising awareness in the educational
and work community of the need to keep common spaces and the environment
clean. To do this, it is not enough to install waste bins in both the
corridors and classrooms, but workshops must be organised, practices
instilled, and activities promoted to reflect on the problems and
possible solutions. Regarding conciliation, we asked that meetings and
evaluation boards be held online or, at least, that teaching staff hired
on a part-time or third-time basis, as well as those who take on care
responsibilities at home, be allowed to attend in this way. We also
requested that control and punishment protocols be reviewed. Numerous
studies attest to racist and aporophobic biases and greater punitivism
in disciplinary sanctions towards minority groups, with Gypsy, Latin
American and Afro-descendant students being the most stigmatized.
Likewise, we think that school councils should be democratized and
empowered as spaces for dialogue and decision-making. Currently, they
constitute information spaces to endorse decisions taken by the teaching
staff, often at the initiative of the management team. Thus, the opinion
of families, staff or students is hardly relevant. We think that all
groups related to the centre should expand and intensify their
participation and cooperation in these bodies. In this way, it would
contribute to de-hierarchising the centres, but also to the students
normalising and internalising mechanisms of self-management and direct
democracy.
While we fight to achieve these structural changes, we could begin by
carrying out three initiatives proposed in our assemblies. First, to
propose that the delegation and sub-delegation of each classroom be
rotating positions so that all students take on tasks of responsibility
with respect to their classmates and representation in the delegate
meetings and the school council. Second, to carry out satisfaction
surveys, criticisms and proposals among the administrative and labour
staff of our affiliated centres and academies. And, third, to start what
Ivan Illich calls the "skills exchange". That is, spaces where the
educational and labour community can exchange knowledge and skills not
included in the curriculum. If a student is good at a skill, for example
drawing comics, and there is a group of people interested in them, we
should take the initiative to organize spaces during breaks or shifts so
that they can interact and exchange non-regulated knowledge. These
initiatives would be aimed at reinforcing direct action, active
participation, solidarity and the construction of more horizontal and
less finalistic links of mutual support and trust between the
subalternized groups in our work spaces.
We also raise demands on working and labor conditions that should be
undertaken by the territorial area management and the education
department. We demand, for example, a guarantee of a maximum of 23 and
18 hours of weekly classes, respectively, in primary and secondary
education; a reduction in the hours of permanence in the center in order
to be able to care for the dependent people in our family unit or
community; guarantee full payment for tutoring carried out by teaching
staff on a half-day or a third-day basis; reducing group ratios to
provide more personalized attention to students and to be able to carry
out less lecture-based and more interactive and group-based classes;
automating the execution of the distribution of fruit and milk as part
of the "healthy breakfast" program at the beginning of each course,
since last year it was delayed for up to six months in some centers;
including in the working hours the training required for the center's
staff; and requiring the provision of heating, ventilation or
refrigeration facilities or equipment to guarantee decent conditions,
not only for teaching staff, but also for administrative and labor staff
and students. Likewise, we point out some structural deficiencies that
must be addressed and corrected: ending educational models such as
bilingual sections or the international or excellence baccalaureate
that, instead of correcting the apartheid that exists outside the
classrooms, only manage to deepen segregation and social ghettoization;
eliminate the numerous compulsory ICT accreditations and qualifications
and training courses that bureaucratise and limit the time available for
teaching and attention to students and families; and eliminate
educational agreements and the teaching of the Catholic religion from
the classrooms.
Finally, we demand greater transparency in the selective processes of
replacement and stabilisation, especially in relation to the rubrics
used in the corrections of tests and oral defences, since, as they are
not recorded, the candidates have no way of demonstrating a potential
negligent action by the court in the qualification of their performance
before an appeal or a judicial process.
https://www.cnt.es/noticias/por-una-escuela-desde-abajo-y-a-la-izquierda/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
we seek to fight for the rights of all people who work in educational
centers, regardless of the tasks they perform. We clearly position
ourselves against the unionism that exclusively defends the teaching
staff, forgetting the administrative and labor staff of the same. With
our message, we wish to make known our main lines of action, which do
not seek to impose methods or rules, but to conceive, debate and agree
on new ways of coexistence and work, of course always open to
improvements and revisions.
At CNT-EIS Madrid, we start from the premise that the State does not
offer the education that the students require, but rather the one that
the State needs. Perhaps CNT cannot frontally attack the waterline of
the system, although that is our objective, but we can point out
defects, promote active alternative methodologies, fight for
improvements in work and employment, and imagine other forms of
relationships between the teaching staff and the students.
Our first proposals have been inspired by a long genealogy of anarchist,
libertarian or anti-systemic educational projects, where Ferrer i
Guardia, Teresa Mañé Miravet, Adolphe Ferrière, Emma Goldman, Célestin
Freinet, Flora Sanhueza, Paulo Freire or Ivan Illich stand out, among
many others. In our letter to educational centers and academies, we
explained that our union project aims to empower students, promote
individual freedom and social responsibility, as well as create a more
inclusive, participatory and meaningful learning environment for the
needs and desires of students today.
These authors believed that in order to guarantee alternative
teaching-learning processes, it was not enough to change the teaching
methods in the classroom, but also the structures of the educational center.
In some of their writings, they also raised the need to deschool society
and even to eliminate traditional physical classrooms, designed to
isolate, control and punish. Dialogue and interaction with students in
parks, squares, libraries, museums and other municipal places would help
promote the connection between learning and the daily problems of
citizens. They promoted an environmental education of an anti-capitalist
nature. They encouraged the new generations to take responsibility, and
to make those who did not feel called upon to take responsibility,
regarding the obligation to fight for sustainability and the
preservation of nature as a guarantor of life. They also advocated for
the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the intercultural understanding
of the curriculum, as well as the culture of peace and non-violence as
means to seek positive changes in communities. In short, their projects
and proposals had the objectives of democratising the participation
bodies of educational centres and the teaching-learning processes,
improving work and personal relationships between their members, forging
ties with the neighbourhood and the community that embraces them, and
reconnecting with (and in) the surrounding natural environments.
To guarantee alternative teaching and learning processes, it is not
enough to change the teaching methods in the classroom, but also the
educational structures
Therefore, in our message to the academies and educational centres of
the Community of Madrid, we propose raising awareness in the educational
and work community of the need to keep common spaces and the environment
clean. To do this, it is not enough to install waste bins in both the
corridors and classrooms, but workshops must be organised, practices
instilled, and activities promoted to reflect on the problems and
possible solutions. Regarding conciliation, we asked that meetings and
evaluation boards be held online or, at least, that teaching staff hired
on a part-time or third-time basis, as well as those who take on care
responsibilities at home, be allowed to attend in this way. We also
requested that control and punishment protocols be reviewed. Numerous
studies attest to racist and aporophobic biases and greater punitivism
in disciplinary sanctions towards minority groups, with Gypsy, Latin
American and Afro-descendant students being the most stigmatized.
Likewise, we think that school councils should be democratized and
empowered as spaces for dialogue and decision-making. Currently, they
constitute information spaces to endorse decisions taken by the teaching
staff, often at the initiative of the management team. Thus, the opinion
of families, staff or students is hardly relevant. We think that all
groups related to the centre should expand and intensify their
participation and cooperation in these bodies. In this way, it would
contribute to de-hierarchising the centres, but also to the students
normalising and internalising mechanisms of self-management and direct
democracy.
While we fight to achieve these structural changes, we could begin by
carrying out three initiatives proposed in our assemblies. First, to
propose that the delegation and sub-delegation of each classroom be
rotating positions so that all students take on tasks of responsibility
with respect to their classmates and representation in the delegate
meetings and the school council. Second, to carry out satisfaction
surveys, criticisms and proposals among the administrative and labour
staff of our affiliated centres and academies. And, third, to start what
Ivan Illich calls the "skills exchange". That is, spaces where the
educational and labour community can exchange knowledge and skills not
included in the curriculum. If a student is good at a skill, for example
drawing comics, and there is a group of people interested in them, we
should take the initiative to organize spaces during breaks or shifts so
that they can interact and exchange non-regulated knowledge. These
initiatives would be aimed at reinforcing direct action, active
participation, solidarity and the construction of more horizontal and
less finalistic links of mutual support and trust between the
subalternized groups in our work spaces.
We also raise demands on working and labor conditions that should be
undertaken by the territorial area management and the education
department. We demand, for example, a guarantee of a maximum of 23 and
18 hours of weekly classes, respectively, in primary and secondary
education; a reduction in the hours of permanence in the center in order
to be able to care for the dependent people in our family unit or
community; guarantee full payment for tutoring carried out by teaching
staff on a half-day or a third-day basis; reducing group ratios to
provide more personalized attention to students and to be able to carry
out less lecture-based and more interactive and group-based classes;
automating the execution of the distribution of fruit and milk as part
of the "healthy breakfast" program at the beginning of each course,
since last year it was delayed for up to six months in some centers;
including in the working hours the training required for the center's
staff; and requiring the provision of heating, ventilation or
refrigeration facilities or equipment to guarantee decent conditions,
not only for teaching staff, but also for administrative and labor staff
and students. Likewise, we point out some structural deficiencies that
must be addressed and corrected: ending educational models such as
bilingual sections or the international or excellence baccalaureate
that, instead of correcting the apartheid that exists outside the
classrooms, only manage to deepen segregation and social ghettoization;
eliminate the numerous compulsory ICT accreditations and qualifications
and training courses that bureaucratise and limit the time available for
teaching and attention to students and families; and eliminate
educational agreements and the teaching of the Catholic religion from
the classrooms.
Finally, we demand greater transparency in the selective processes of
replacement and stabilisation, especially in relation to the rubrics
used in the corrections of tests and oral defences, since, as they are
not recorded, the candidates have no way of demonstrating a potential
negligent action by the court in the qualification of their performance
before an appeal or a judicial process.
https://www.cnt.es/noticias/por-una-escuela-desde-abajo-y-a-la-izquierda/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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