The Culture of Peace, Educational Model


Education builds trust. Trust breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.

Confucius

In recent days, the government announced, in the voice of a minor official, what it intends to be the new educational curriculum framework based on an alleged diagnosis summarized only in adjectives to avoid arguments, in which it is stated that what exists is a perverse educational model .

The new curricular framework, according to its promoters, will be progressive, will rest on a teaching profession conceived as a group of social leaders and sets objectives that, if successful, will translate into a precarious educational model to the detriment of the training that children and young people need from the country. The cancellation of evaluations and the automatic pass as a formula for success are longed for and encouraged. Nothing more bogus!

The school has been taken as an arena of confrontation and is immersed in the environment of polarization and violence that affects the country, in such a way that now it is intended to take the students as hostages of the ruling party and the school, as a hotbed of militants without job or benefit, which -without a doubt- will affect learning and peace, perverting the objectives that education should pursue.

If the educational reform promoted by this government was a poor proposal, poorly written, poorly founded, with syntax errors and unforgivable flaws, now we are faced with the idea of ​​going back further.

It is absurd to propose a radical change to the educational model and its contents, when the competent authorities, due to Covid 19, proved not to be up to the challenges to serve students of all levels. A report by UNESCO and the World Bank reveals that Mexico is among the countries with the greatest decline in the world and that the delay in reading and mathematics is significant. This is without counting the physical, emotional, family or social problems that affect the students who returned to face-to-face classes, seasoned by the policy of not failing.

The four pillars that support education in the 21st century promoted by UNESCO should not be ignored, in which it is important to conceive education as a whole. Namely:

  • I.- Learn to know. It is about understanding the world that surrounds the student, at least enough to live with dignity, develop their professional skills and communicate with others, for which it is essential to learn how to learn, exercising attention, memory and thought. In such a way that you can take advantage of the possibilities offered by education throughout life.
  • II.- Learn to do. The student’s future will be closely linked to the acquisition of scientific culture that will allow them to access modern technology, without neglecting the specific capacities for innovation and creation. That is why you have to acquire a professional qualification or a competence that enables you to deal with the large number of situations, to work in a team and also to be prepared within the framework of the different social or work experiences that are offered.
  • III.- Learn to be. Education must contribute to the comprehensive development of each person in body and mind, intelligence, sensitivity, aesthetic sense, individual responsibility and spirituality. It must have as its object the complete unfolding of the person in all his richness and in the complexity of his expressions and commitments as an individual, member of a family and of his community, citizen and producer, inventor of techniques and creator of dreams, and
  • IV.- Learn to live together. There is a consensus that this task is a priority, for this the understanding of the other and the perception of the forms of interdependence must be developed. Carry out common projects and prepare to deal with conflicts, respecting the values ​​of pluralism, mutual understanding and peace. It should also be taught to eliminate the prejudices that lead to confrontation by relating students in a context of equality and formulating common objectives and projects, in such a way that prejudices and underlying hostility can give rise to a more serene and cooperative cooperation. even friendship.

To learn to live together, the practices of dialogue and mediation are necessary.

In October 2019, the General Education Law came into force derived from the educational reform of this government, which seemed like good news because, among other things, it gives support and a letter of naturalization to school mediation.

According to the provisions of article 15 of the aforementioned General Law, education pursues, mainly, training in the culture of peace, respect, tolerance, democratic values ​​that favor constructive dialogue, solidarity and the search for agreements that allow the non-violent solution of conflicts and coexistence in a framework of respect for differences. That is also what the peaceful dispute resolution mechanism that is mediation is about.

It also includes purposes, guidelines and actions aimed at the solidary growth of society; to welfare and social transformation; the strengthening of the social fabric, and the promotion of harmonious coexistence between people and communities, among others.

Sadly, nothing that is proposed in the four pillars that we have described or what is provided for in the aforementioned Law, is found in the new educational model.

As we have argued, the construction of a culture of peace and harmony is only possible if the practice of democratic dialogue is generalized in schools, since it is in this space that one learns to live in democracy as a way of life and they produce the conditions for access to the political conception of real democracies.

Let us not allow the purpose of education to be distorted or confused with the training of partisan cadres and the manipulation of children and young people.

*The author is a lawyer, negotiator and mediator.

[email protected]

Twitter: @phmergoldd

Pascual Hernandez Mergold

Lawyer and professional mediator

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