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Americas | Santa Cruz IndymediaLa Otra Educacion: Zapatista Schools
Day two of the Encuentro between the EZLN and International Civil Society began with a workshop on the Other Education, the schools that educate children in the Autonomous zones where the Zapatista Juntas de Buen Gobierno (Councils of Good Government) provide social services. The last cold morning (of 2006) saw a crowd of observers and participants packed into Oventic's classroom to hear representatives of the five caracoles (+/- districts) discuss their reasons for autonomous schools, their process, and the 'modest achievements' of the *other* education. For one of the first times, if not the very first, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) spoke publicly about its clandestine schools this morning, bringing together representatives from all five caracoles (also a first) to talk about the reasons, the development, and the implementation of a completely distinct and autonomous system of schools. Education is an important issue in Mexico--a constitutional right--and Chiapas is no exception. Like in neighboring Oaxaca, where teachers have played a leading role in social movements, resources for education are slim and do not reach communities isolated by geography, culture, and poverty. Zapatistas mentioned the government schools, built and operated by the army, as places of abuse, enforced assimilation, and reinforcement of gender and cultural inequality.
Listen to the MP3 files below, in Spanish, to hear more about EZLN schools, 'autonomous schools in revolt.'
mesa 1
mesa 2
intro foto
intro audio
The speaker above inaugurated the workshop by welcoming the assembled crowd and by explaining that in creating Zapatista schools, the community had reclaimed its own education, had taken schools out of the hands of the government and put them in the hands of the people.
cifras fotos
cifras audio
This representative from Caracol 1 (La Realidad), gave statistics from the area demonstrating the greater retention of female students in EZLN schools, and spoke of the expansion of the Zapatista education system.
jesus foto
jesus audio
La Otra Educacion, Jesus explains, is bilingual, supporting the mother tongue and preserving indigenous culture. In (mal) government schools, children learn and speak only Spanish, but by teaching both Zapatista schools better prepare their students.
cap foto
cap audio
Ideology is a part of education, explicitly or not, and This representative of Caracol 2 (Oventic) explains that 'we will not permit them to teach capitalism' and the doctrine of neoliberalism to Chiapaneco children.
miedo
This file contains perhaps my favorite quote of the day, in which the other representative from Caracol 2 explains that 'miedo es la negacion de democracia' (Fear is contrary to democracy). He went on to give a webpage address for more information about Zapatista schools http://www.serazln-altos.org/celm.html and explain three important aspects of La Otra Educacion: first, that the teachers are volunteers; second, that their schools teach about the environment so that children learn to defend the land and its natural resources; and third, that the schools in revolt support the idea that the genders are equal in intelligence.
esuelas del mal gob
The workshop briefly paused while we moved outside to accomodate the large crowd (where the audio quality dropped significantly). The one file I'll post is a representative of Caracol 4, who spoke about the (mal) government's schools ('No nos ensenaban!' / They didn't even teach us!) and the process for setting up an alternative, one which even some non-Zapatista aligned parents now send their children to. Elisa explains that parents pulled their children out of the government schools and supported the development of la otra educacion instead for many reasons, one of them being that government schools taught girls that they didn't have the same rights to learn or to speak as the boys.
For gender equality, for the survival and propagation of native languages, for the right to tell their own stories, for the preservation and safeguarding of indigenous culture, for freedom from military control,... For autonomy. Desde Oventic... |
