Learning from alternative schools

During this long weekend, I've been thinking about education as a result of the research I did for Task 1 about the Escuela Libre Paideia. It lead me to take a long conversation with some friends about the methodology we had when we were in school and the one that is taught in Paideia. For this reason, I've decided to dedicate one blog entry to Escuela Libre Paideia and its founder, Josefa Martín Luengo, and the different thoughts I had about this alternative school.

Escuela Libre Paideia and Josefa Martín Luengo

Last week, I had to do a research about Escuela Libre Paideia, a school in Mérida (Badajoz, Spain) that does not follow the traditional methods of teaching.

Escuela Libre Paideia was founded in 1978 by Josefa Martín Luengo as an attempt to create a Escuela en Libertad in which no political nor social values were imposed to the students. This was very innovative at the beginning of its trajectory as it was created in a period of political transition in Spain.

Josefa Martín Luengo and the school she founded. Source: CNT-AIT Madrid

The basic values of Escuela Libre Paideia were freedom, happiness, mental maturing, creativity, no discrimination, no violence, using dialogue as a problem solving method, adaptability to new situations, personal responsibility, tolerance, no competitiveness, defense of the anarchist values and so on. Indeed, all the different values are always related to freedom. This is because the school is considered an anarchist-school as it does not follow the common values or methods we all know here in Spain.

Furthermore, Escuela Libre Paideia is recognized by a methodology that I found really interesting: libertarian pedagogy. Teachers in Paideia look forward to educate students to think about what they want to be in society and as individuals as long as it does not hurt other's freedom, the basic value of the school.

Moreover, this school is self-managed, that is, parents who choose this school for their children can pay the expenses of breakfast, transport, materials, teacher's salary, etc. Nonetheless, as it is not mandatory, the school have some funds to cover the fees of those who are not able to pay for themselves.

Josefa Martín Luengo was an educator who fought for her school until the last days of her life as she not only was one of the teachers there but also she attended the different camps the school scheduled. She even wrote a lot of books about the school and its anarchist methods like, La Escuela de la Anarquía or Desde nuestra escuela: Paideia in which she defended her beliefs in education.

All in all, Escuela Libre Paideia is a very innovative school as they don't follow the standard rules that we all had when we were in school. Even nowadays the schools is still active and trying to train more teachers and students in libertarian pedagogy.

Are we ready to introduce alternative methodologies in traditional schools?

After the research, this question appeared in my mind and talking with some friends we tried to daydream about some values that are introduced in Paideia that should be taught in all schools. It is true that nowadays schools are trying to be more inclusive by introducing different activities that are diversity outreach, but, then, competitiveness came to our minds.

Competitiveness is, in my view, very present in the Spanish educative system as we always try to be the best of our class or the best of the school or high-school but do we really think if it is worth? I don't think so. I truly believe that competitiveness shouldn't be so deeply interiorized in our minds as we always try to be the best even if that entail damaging our mental and physical health. And not to mention the EBAU where competitiveness reaches its maximum splendor. Students are more than their grades and everyone has bad days that cannot condition your life.

Nonetheless, I think that some values implemented in Paideia should not be anarchism-related, I mean, creativity, freedom or even adaptability to new situations can be implemented in traditional schools. It is true that maybe creativity is introduced in visual arts' subjects but is it really creative if everyone is doing the same? I don't think so.

However, I'm aware that having Paideia's values introduced in the educative system of any country may be very utopian but I would give it a try because it is clear that the system works as the school has new students each year. What will lead parents to take their children to a libertarian school if they think that it wouldn't be good for their kids? I don't think that this question can be answered by only saying "because they are anarchists too" because I think it goes beyond it.

I can't finish this entry without expressing how inspiring I've found Josefa Martín Luengo. I think that she really fought for her beliefs during all her life. This subject is really increasing my reading list because now I want to learn more about her reading some of her books related to education and libertarian pedagogy.

To sum up, in my opinion, traditional schools should learn a lot from alternative schools, not only from Paideia but from all of them. If not, maybe teachers can introduce little by little some values that we think are important by doing creativity-based tasks or exercises.