PART A: Introduction

Narrator:
Sometimes reality seems more like fiction. Sometimes, I listen to stories that I wish, with all of my heart, were fanciful. Sometimes, what some people experience on a daily basis doesn’t fit with other’s preconceptions of the possible:

“My life, as a child, was very, very hard… I remember that when I was a child I had to work tough… but that wasn’t the hardest for me… No. The hardest was that I never felt warmth from my mother… never, ever. I remember that she beat me for everything. Actually, I remember that one time, when I was 7 years old, she grabbed me, she tied me up with a noose, and hung me on a pole. She lifted me up and put a bonfire under me. She put a blaze under my feet and with a long leather whip she whipped me… So then, when I grew up, after 21 years as a soldier in the army, every time someone asked me why I was so strong, I could only think that nothing I could ever see or experience in the army was as painful as the pain of feeling my mother’s hatred in my childhood”.

Sometimes, because we haven’t experienced them, or because their reality is too harsh to comprehend, it is easier to consign the stories of others to the realm of the unreal and to judge the things we can’t understand. Sometimes, we arm ourselves with rationality in order to resist the path towards empathy. And sometimes that leads us to criticisms, to division… to war.

So, in order to take one small step towards empathy, I want to share a true story with you… or… wait!… is it a fictitious one? Anyways… we can better call it a compendium of real stories but personified by a single voice… the voice of Jose [you already listened to his voice: “my life, as a child was very, very hard”. But, he also speaks like this: “porque el día que se comió una gallina eso mi abuelita lo agarró como una semana y lo dejó a punta de agua”]. Jose’s voice will represent the multiple voices I have listened to over many years of field work. Voices that have told me the same stories over and over again. Just like that, these real stories, voiced by Jose, will be transformed using the magic of the imagination… after all, this story takes place in the Latin American heart of magical realism, in the setting that inspired Garcia Marquez to write so many of his books:

“The ground became soft and damp, like volcanic ash, and the vegetation was thicker and thicker, and the cries of the birds and the uproar of the monkeys became more and more remote, and the world became eternally sad”

In Colombia.

Jose:
Pero Colombia, no Columbia. Colombia con O.

Narrator:
There you are!… Yes, my dear Jose… this story takes place in our beautiful Colombia -and yes, Colombia with an O-. So, I don’t know how much you know about this fascinating country…. when you imagine it do you, for instance, resort to stereotypes like Shakira, coffee or cocaine? Maybe you think you know nothing or maybe you think you know everything about this place-… but whatever the case, to me, it is a land built on eternal contrasts: contrasts between the swell of uplifting music and the deep despair of war, between fabulous dancing and perilous hiding, between the effort to succeed and the precariousness of rural life, between unimaginable verdant beauty and an earthly bloodstained paradise.

Permeated with the same magical realism that cradles this land, I am unable to define the exact location where the story that I’m going to share with you took place. I really try to remember, I try to pinpoint it, but, honestly, I can’t. The only thing I can say for sure is that an important part of the story happened in my mind and my heart. Yes, in me. Or more specifically in a version of me that is known by my colleagues as Researcher. It means that it takes place in those long ethnographic processes: of listening, transcribing, interpreting, writing and concluding. In those moments when I was trying to find my academic voice -a voice that should be legitimate- but, also, at a time when I was trying to include the hundreds of voices that I had heard after years of fieldwork in rural schools in Colombia -in Colombia with an O-.

Jose:
[throat sounds]

Narrator:
Ok, Ok… it doesn’t just happen in me. To be honest, the most important part of this story occurred amidst an intense conversation, a powerful dialogue, a construction of meaning with…

Jose:
Conmigo.

Narrator:
Yes, with you my dear Jose. And you know what? actually I think I’d prefer that they got to know you directly. But wait!… the listeners should know that you don’t speak English. But fear not my dear English-speaking listeners… you will still be able to understand what our companion is saying throughout, as you listen to the thoughts that I had during our conversation [my thoughts will sound like this] … the only thing, of course, is that you will only know my perspective and my interpretation of what he says – well, not much different from what happens when you read an academic paper, though. Although here, the source of information also speaks, so it is completely up to you if you are willing to make the effort to enter his world, to learn about his culture and his language, and make your own conclusions instead of relying on mine. After all, sometimes the world doesn’t speak in English; sometimes your language isn’t the language that always comes firsts; sometimes you cannot understand everything and sometimes that doesn’t make you a fool; sometimes empathy could start with the feeling that comes from being the one with a silenced voice.  Sometimes, Sometimes, Sometimes.

 

PART B: Conversation

Researcher:
How to start?

Ok… Colombia is a predominantly rural country. By 2015, more than 80% was rural but it was inhabited by only 24% of the population. The concentration of people in the big cities is due to a vast migration of the rural population to urban areas: 54% of rural migrants tend to migrate to Bogotá -the capital- or to other metropolitan areas. The Department of National Planning estimates that about 37% of those who migrate are young people under 15 years old.

Such migration is a product of several circumstances: 1) Unbearable life conditions. By 2014, 60% of the rural areas didn’t have access to drinking water, 85% didn’t have sewage systems, and only 6% of rural roads were paved; 2) The armed conflict. The armed conflict has taken place in the rural areas since the 70’s, where the national army [El Ejército], far-left guerilla groups [Las FARC], far-right paramilitary groups, and drug traffickers [Los Narcos] coexist in the countryside, and have appropriated and used rural lands as conflict scenarios in an endless war, leaving thousands of civilians homeless, injured and dead; and 3) the Free Trade Agreement [FTA]. Imposed by the US, it has reduced the incomes of about 71% of agricultural households by 16%. This situation has diminished approximately 22% of the national production of subsistence crops, and there is a high risk of food insecurity in the near future.

Thus, to address this worrying exodus of young rural people and to reduce the high illiteracy rates, the Colombian government established the Escuela Nueva model of rural education as the national state program for rural schooling. Since the late 1970s, Escuela Nueva has established a multigrade system of elementary education, it ideally consists of a single shared classroom among all the students, and with one single teacher that simultaneously conducts all the classes.

The program was also thought to be the first educative step of a transitional process: once students finish elementary school they are reallocated to state-secondary-traditional schools that are usually located in the municipal-capital which is approximately 20 minutes walking distance…

Jose:
20 minutos? Pues no a todos [it doesn’t take 20 minutes for him], o bueno, de pronto yo soy muy de malas [he thinks it’s his fault]. Pero aquí, ya llevo casi una hora caminando [1 hour walking] y todavía no llego a la escuelita.

Researcher:
But… 1-hour walking? It must just be the case for you. I read that those schools were supposed to support students from the most remote rural areas, so that you would have easier access to the school facilities in sparsely populated areas.

Jose:
Pues, si lo leyó, pues si [he doesn’t want to contradict me]. Pero cuénteme qué es de… ¿cómo fue que dijo? ¿eso de áreas escazamente pobladas? [he doesn’t know all the terms I use].

Researcher:
Well, sparsely populated areas are those places with lower population density. Like the places where fewer people live.

Jose:
Uy, ¿como así? ¿Y mi vereda es uno de esos lugares?. Porque yo vivo con 7 [he didn’t understand me], y eso sin contar a los animales. Mejor dicho, yo vivo con mi abuelita [he lives with his grandma], mi mamá cuando viene de visita [his mom just vistis], con mis hermanos [his siblings]. Y de animales está Manchas, que es mi perro y Canela, que es la perrita de la casa [his two dogs]. Aunque el otro día Manchas se salió de la casa y como que mordió a alguien por allá en la carretera. Pero bueno, desde que no se coma las gallinas [some chickens], todo bien con mi abuelita. Porque cuando mi abuelita se pone brava, eso si.. mejor dicho, para salir corriendo [his granma is his authority figure]. y bueno… nosotros somos artos en la casa . Y ni hablar de mis vecinos, ellos son como 6 hijos [many people living in the same house is common for him] Pero yo pensé que en la ciudad se vivía con menos personas [he thinks that families are smaller in the cities], porque ¿cómo así? ¿Con cuántos vive usted? Porque me imagino que tu vives en Bogotá.

Researcher:
Yes, well, I used to live in Bogotá. And …Wow, I cannot imagine living with 7 people, plus animals. So, please tell me, how do you manage to live all together without fighting?

Jose:
Pues mi abuelita, eso pelea sola todos los días [good relationship with Granma]. Y pues mis hermanos ya saben, que desde que no se metan en mis cosas, pues todo bien [distant relationship with siblings]. Pero con el que nunca pude fue con mi papá [He could never live with his dad], porque cuando llegaba tarde sólo se escuchaban gritos y después uno veía a mi mamá llorando [his dad was violent] y…aj… pues cuando yo era chiquito, pues no entendía bien, pero pues ya un día no aguanté y lo enfrenté [he confronted his dad]… y nunca volvió [his dad never came back].. y pues yo creo que por eso mi mamá no me quiere [he feels rejected by his mom].

Researcher:
I don’t think so. But I don’t understand… does your mom live with you or not?

Jose:
Pues desde que mi papá se fue a ella le tocó irse a trabajar a Bogotá [she migrated to Bogota] y por allá consiguió un trabajo en las flores [to work]. Entonces nos visita cuando puede [she comes to visits], pero […..]

Researcher:
But… what?

[..]

Anyways… where was I? Well, this model of rural education has been recognized internationally as one of the 100 most innovative projects in the world by the NGO HundrED. This recognition has been given, in part, because these kinds of schools have managed to increase the coverage rates of rural schools, to almost 60% while maintaining low investment costs.

Low investment costs have been attained as the teaching staff in these schools consist of only one person. This would not be possible without transforming the role of teachers through the implementation of well-designed booklets. In other words, instead of giving lessons, the main role of teachers here is to be facilitators that guide students to follow the primers.

Jose:
Uy si, yo me acuerdo que mi parte favorita era escribir en esos cuadernillos [he liked to write in the booklets], porque eso era apenas copiar de un lado al otro lo que decía el libro [he only had to copy what the book said] y me rendía muchísimo [he was fast copying].. bueno, eso cuando podía concentrarme [it was difficult to concéntrate], ¡¡porque en ese salón se escuchaba todo!! [the classroom was too noisy]… Y así y todo una vez terminé la cartilla de un año, en un mes.

Researcher:
Did you finish one year of the booklet in one month? Wow, so you were really into studying! And what did your teacher do? I guess she put you up a grade!

Jose:
¡Ojalá!. No, más bien me regañó [the teacher was upset], porque me hizo un par de preguntas, pero como yo apenas copiaba lo que decía la explicación [because he just copied], pues yo no me acordaba de nada de lo que había escrito [he didn’t remember the content] y no pude responderle a nada [he couldn’t answer]. Entonces dijo que así no era [the booklets weren’t working well]… y un tiempo después vi que ya no nos volvió a pasar las cartillas [she stopped using the booklets… it seems the booklets are overrated] .

Researcher:
Really? Wow, and she did it just like that? I mean, she didn’t have to show that you filled out the primers at the end of each cycle or something like that?

Jose:
Uy, hasta allá no le sé decir. Pero, pues no creo, [he didn’t think so]- porque por ejemplo me gradué al mismo tiempo que el Brayan -he has a friend called Brayan], el Brayan nunca hacía nada [Brayan never studied] y pues igual en diciembre siempre pasaba el año [Brayan was always put up a grade]. Y yo digo que si siguiera yendo a la escuela sería muy complicado ahorita [things have changed].

Researcher:
Complicated? Why?

Jose:
Es que no sé si contarle. Mejor dicho, es que el Brayan se ha estado juntando con una gente [there are some friends of Brayan] que no está muy contenta desde que se abrió la escuela aquí [they are not happy with the school… I guess the school is an obstacle for recruiting youth]-. Y pues quieren que la profe se vaya [they want the teacher to leave… they must be from the guerillas… or drug traffickers? I dare not ask, I don’t want him to feel exposed or judged].

Researcher:
Get it… but, why do you speak in terms of “we”. Brayan’s friends also told you something about this? Or…?

Jose:
Pues ya el Brayan me dijo el otro día que ellos querían que yo también me les uniera [they want him to join them]. […] Pero shhh!.. que si mi abuela se entera de esto, me mata! [he’s afraid of his granma, he’s not realizing the magnitude of this].

Researcher:
But you’re not considering joining them, are you?

Jose:
[…] Aj, pues la verdad yo ya ni sé [he doesn’t know].Yo ya no sé ni en qué pensar. El Brayan dice que pagan un salario y eso [they promise to pay]. Me dijo que algunos de sus amigos de allá tienen celular y todo [they have cellphones], y mientras tanto uno aquí perdiendo el tiempo [he feels that school is a waste of time].

Researcher:
But why do you feel you are wasting your time?… I mean, you are in high school, right?

Jose:
Pues si y no. Mejor dicho si [he is]… cuando yo me gradué de la escuelita, de primaria, pues mi abuelita se puso muy feliz [his grandma was proud when he finished elementary], me motivó a seguir al bachillerato [that encouraged him to pursue secondary]. Y pues empecé con toda [he aimed to give his best], pero entonces ahora me toca ir es al Colegio del pueblo [now he had to go to high-school in downtown] y ese queda incluso más lejos que la escuela [too far from home]. Y para llegar a tiempo tengo que salir de la casa a las 5 de la mañana [he leaves home at 5 am], y a veces ni puedo desayunar [without breakfast], y llega uno con hambre y son muchas clases [too many clases]… ahora tengo muchos profesores [too many teachers], y la verdad no entiendo nada [he  doesn’t understand the clases]. Además califican muy duro [the grading system is more strict], y pues dejan muchas tareas [homework] y yo no tengo tiempo de hacerlas [he doesn’t have time], porque en las tardes yo llego mamado y a recoger el café o ir a la tienda de mi abuelita, y no me da [he works]. A veces incluso ni puedo ir al Colegio y me atraso en todo. Mejor dicho, terminé perdiendo el año pasado y lo estoy intentando otra vez [he lost the year, he’s trying again], pero de verdad ha sido muy dificil [too hard], o de pronto para mi [he thinks it’s his fault]… o de pronto mi mamá tenía razón [he thinks his mom was right] y yo no sirvo para nada [he feels useless].

Researcher:
I’m sorry to hear that… but, to be honest, I really don’t think it is your fault, I feel like you have been brave by trying again. But… there should be a way… have you talked to your teachers about this?

Jose:
Pues es que ellos andan muy ocupados [they are too busy]. Yo le dije una vez a la directora del curso el año pasado [he talked to them], y ella me dijo que me entendía pero que no podía exigirle a los otros y a mi no [the teacher couldn’t make an exception with him].

Researcher:
And, what if you try something different… you could maybe… I don’t know, why if you ask someone in your family to explain the subjects to you?

Jose:
A mi familia? Pero a quién, si mi abuelita apenas terminó la primaria [his granma didn’t finish school]. Mejor dicho, eso de estudiar no es para mi [he’s giving up studying]…. Más bien que iluso haber pensado que podía llegar a ser doctor [he dreamed of becoming a doctor], si ni siquiera me da la cabeza para terminar sexto [he’s sure now he won’t make it].

Researcher:
I’m sorry… I didn’t know you wanted to become a doctor. But maybe if you are more persistent? [“Terminé perdiendo el año pasado y lo estoy intentando otra vez”: he lost the year, he’s trying again]… or disciplined? [“tengo que salir de la casa a las 5 de la mañana”: he leaves home at 5 am]… mmm.. maybe more tough? [“porque en las tardes yo llego mamado y a recoger el café o ir a la tienda de mi abuelita, y no me da”: he doesn’t have time, he works]……. Forget it… I’m sorry for just implying that you haven’t done enough… you have certainly tried harder than I ever have. Trust me. But, what can we do? … I mean, there must be another way out than just quitting school!

Jose:
Pues qué más quisiera [he really doesn’t want to quit school]… daría lo que fuera por volver a verle esa sonrisa a mi abuelita [he wants to do it for his granma]. Pero yo veo muy dificil que pueda graduarme [he feels he won’t make it], y estoy es perdiendo el tiempo ahí [he thinks he is wasting his time]. Y salirme y ser un vago como mi papá, tampoco es lo que quiero [he’s afraid of becoming his dad]. Por lo menos los amigos del Brayan me pagan algo [he thinks he will have a different future with Brayan’s Friends] y estando allá no sigo siendo una decepción para nadie [he wants to succeed].

Researcher:
And so?…

[……]

Jose, what did you decide?

PART C: Conclusion

Researcher:
José??… Are you still there?

I think he is gone…

So, how can we end this story… I mean… what should we tell our listeners now? It would have been so nice to share a story with them that shows that scholastic perseverance saved him from participating in illegal activities… from being a child soldier in the war. [“when I grew up, after 20 years as a soldier in the army”]. But the truth is that Jose does not represent the tiny 0.1% of youth living in remote rural areas who manage to enroll in a quality university. No. His voice is the voice of the other 99.9%… the voice of about 1 million young people from remote rural areas who do not defy the odds of what their context offers… And, unfortunately, the structural conditions of his context do not always lead to a happy ending. Jose was born into a world with certain constraints far beyond his choosing:

Jose:
-“aquí no hay muchas opciones de qué hacer, y yo no quiero trabajar la tierra toda la vida” [there are not many working options there and he doesn’t want to work the land forever]

-“aquí el Estado de ha concentrado en la guerra y ha descuidado la economía del campesino” [the State has concentrated on the war and has neglected the economy of  rural people]

-“Nosotros estamos olvidados por el Estado” [they feel forgotten by the State]

Researcher:
Although the conversation with Jose has followed the magical space between the theory and the experiences, between the possible and the impossible … Jose’s real life is not necessarily a magical space, is not a fairy tale. For Jose, life is hard, [“I had to work tough”]. What he has to say is rarely heard and his voice is often silenced. By turning the volume up on Jose’s voice, you’ve listened a little more closely to a story whose end is difficult to predict… because sometimes you can work hard and still fail; sometimes going to school is not the solution to all of your problems; sometimes, stories, just, don’t have a happy ending… but also, sometimes by giving the voiceless the space to speak you can begin, step by step, to change the narrative … Sometimes, Sometimes, Sometimes”.

Want to help translate this show? Please contact info@freshedpodcast.com

Related Guest Publications/Projects:

• Photo essay by Daniela as she put together her Flux episode
• Education for the rural development. A critical analysis of the implementation process of the Escuela Nueva program in Colombia
• Educación para el desarrollo rural. Análisis crítico del proceso de implementación del programa Escuela Nueva en Colombia
• Some, Times, a poem by Amanda Ainengonzi, Gerald Tagoe & Laura Krehbiel inspired by Dani’s Flux Epsiode.

Related Resources: Spanish

• ¿Qué es el modelo Escuela Nueva Activa?- Fundación Escuela Nueva
• Evaluación de resultados en la Escuela Nueva de Colombia ¿es el multigrado la respuesta?- George Psacharopoulos
• Manual de Implementación Escuela Nueva. Subdirección de Referentes y Evaluación de la Calidad Educativa Ministerio de Educación Nacional
• La enseñanza primaria en las escuelas de maestro único. De la sección de estudios y documentación de SGT y MEN- Concepción Borreguero
• La educación rural en Colombia: experiencias y perspectivas- Martha Carrero & María González
• Escuela nueva: una estrategia pedagógica en la institución educativa agropecuaria santa Bárbara- Jaime Cuadros
• Una mirada a la escuela nueva- Eleazar Narváez
• Historia y evolución de la Escuela Nueva como modelo educativo en Colombia- Alexis Pedrozo & Nora Gutiérrez
• La efectividad de la Escuela Nueva en Colombia- Patrick J. McEwan
• En busca de la escuela del siglo XXI. ¿Puede darnos la pista la Escuela Nueva de Colombia?- Ernesto Schiefelbein

Related Resources: English

• INTED2017- Interview with Vicky Colbert
• 2013 WISE Prize Vicky Colbert
• The Colombian Escuela Nueva School Model: Linking program implementation and learning outcomes- Katharina Hammier
• Education in rural Colombia: an investment in human resources- Eugene Havens
• The politics of rural school reform: Escuela Nueva in Colombia- Patrick J. McEwan
• Achievement Evaluation of Colombia’s Escuela Nueva: Is Multigrade the Answer?- George Psacharopoulos
• Assessing gang risks in postwar environments: The case of Colombia
• From rural Colombia to urban alienation

Multimedia

• Colombia: How the youngest suffer from ‘those people’
• Most dangerous way to school
• Women built this city: Colombia’s city of women: a safe haven from civil war and sexual violence

Have any useful resources related to this show? Please send them to info@freshedpodcast.com