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11.08.05   Tuesdays Reflection

When I viewed the film Granito de Arena - Grain of Sand - on Saturday, I was

reminded of some of the demonstrations in which I participated in Central

America. We would answer to the call "A Right not defended" with "is a Right

that is lost."

When "Free Trade" (NAFTA) arrived in Mexico on January 1 1994, it was

greeted by the Zapatista resistance. Grain of Sand in 2005 focusses on one

of the effects of "free trade", the privatization of education. While the

Mexican Constitution garantees free public education, for over 20 years,

global economic forces have been dismantling public education in Mexico.

Hundreds of thousands of public school teachers have defended the right to

public education and have endured brutal repression.

One of the school programs to go are the Escuelas Normales Rurales, schools

very much like Faustino Villanueva in Chahal where Dawn, Cody, Patricia and

I taught. The high school program brings in young men and women to train as

primary school teachers for rural, bilingual (Indigenous language and

Spanish) one-room schools. The majority of these students could not pay fees

or the costs of boarding school. Their program of studies is designed for

the job they will do in communities. There is a focus on their culture and

history, on community development since often they will be the only literate

adults in the community and dedication (certainly they are not in it for the

pay or an easy cushioned job! The privatization of the Escuelas Normales,

means downsizing the schools,  national standardized exams - the same for

everyone! I doubt that even one of my students would have passed! Education

is a commodity and students are human capital. While Ford and Coca Cola

"sponsor" schools of quality, the majority of the "human capital" is

destined to provide a steady supply of uneducated workers for Wal-Mart (now

the country's largest retailer) and foreign-owned maquiladoras (sweatshops).

Sometimes, like the Mexican teachers, we get so involved with the "lucha"

that we forget the goal of our struggle. Teachers became aware that they

themselves must be the change they wish to see. What if we more involved now

with the students, their parents, the community? Education is grassroots

struggle. The school is our school, it's our community, our home, our

children. It's not just someone else's struggle. We need a new kind of

globalization - the globalization of solidarity!

Keep in mind this week, the Board meeting next weekend, the election of

board and committee members, our volunteers in Central America who have

actively shown their solidarity as natural disasters hit El Salvador and

Guatemala.

Cecily