Zapatistas Showcase Their Autonomous School System

January 8, 2007
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Dear Colleagues,

From December 30, 2006 through January 2, 2006 the indigenous
Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico, hosted more than 1,500 visitors from
other countries, to share their experiences organizing autonomous
governments.

Amber Howard, part of the Narco News team there, reports on "The
Other Education", one of the seven topics discussed in detail at the
gathering, where representatives from the five Zapatista municipal
seats showcased another way of educating their children.

Howard reports:

"The main idea behind the creation of the Other Education is to teach
the youth the history, language and culture of the people, and
educate them to provide for their community, something that the
government was never able to do. Representatives Lucio and Magdalena
spoke from Caracol II ('caracol' is the term used to describe five
governmental centers of the EZLN), with its seat in Oventic. They
explained: 'Because of the poor quality of government education, we
have begun to create our own. The model of education from the
government served only to destroy the mother earth and all of
humanity, to develop studies favoring the interests of those in power.'

"...While creating autonomous education has it's challenges, and the
Zapatista comandantes say that it is formed from below, by the people
of the communities, they have been learning as they go. 'We learn as
we walk, side by side with our education,' explains Concepciòn from
Caracol V, its seat in Roberto Barrios. 'We began to think, what
would our education look like?'

"...The students also learn about ways to provide for their
communities while in school, such as growing gardens, how to produce
crops, problems with the Earth and how to raise animals such as
chickens, sheep and pigs. In this way they are able to learn
practical knowledge and also gain income to support the 'promoters of
education,' (the Zapatista term for teacher), who are local, unpaid
and do the work out of their own desire to raise the consciousness in
their communities.

"...These promoters are trained by professionals, and then turn
around and train another generation of local promoters from their
communities. It's important to note that these promoters are learning
alongside their students. It's not the type of educati on where the
teacher knows everything, and the students know nothing. Rather, they
are promoters, people from within the community committed to
promoting different types of work and knowledge. As a representative
from Caracol I describes, 'We've created 72 new autonomous schools,
and trained 20 educational promoters. These 20 promoters then in turn
trained another 80 promoters, becoming the first generation of our
autonomous education. We are now in the 3rd generation of promoters
and have 147 promoters working with 1,726 students.'

"...This dialogue with representatives from the different caracoles
was one of the first public glimpses for many into the autonomous,
rebellion world of the Zapatista communities. With an audience so
full of people from around the world that it overflowed the school,
the meeting had to be moved outside for more space. It was an
opportunity to see the blending of locals with black masks and
intricate embroidery, with students, teachers and others from across
the world, all together to witness the presentation of an alternative
to the capitalistic, government system, what can be done when the
people from below unite to provide for their community."

Read the rest of this article on Narco News:

http://www.narconew s.com

Narco News will publish more reports covering the events of the
Gathering in the coming days. Meanwhile, don't miss our continuing
coverage from Oaxaca, as well as another story by Bill Conroy in our
special "House of Death" series.

From somewhere in a country called América,

David B. Briones
Webmaster
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconew s.com
webmaster@narconews .com

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