Education

 Our Mission: Our mission and goal as the education group is to formulate a curriculum that can be used in the summer school and can hopefully sustain itself beyond to integrate into Guatemala’s current curriculum. The important thing, as always, is to know what they would like and to do our best to accommodate San Pablo. We are not trying to impose anything on San Pablo, but here are a few of the ideas that we have come up with for possible classes and curriculum.

About us: Team member Profiles Our Class Expectations: As a group, we expect to be fully informed of the progress other groups are making so that we can build a curriculum that Tacana schools can best use. Our hope is to incorporate our ideas for higher education into the cultural education system that Tacana already has. We are all highly aware that education will mean nothing to students if it isn't something meaningful and tangible. We hope that by building our curriculum off the other projects we can accomplish these goals.

We also expect that our partners in Tacana will prompty respond to emails and questions so as to make the most out of both our time.

We expect Luzmi and Pete to hold our group accountable for our work and to inform us if we overstep or overlook the needs of the Tacana people.

Our Partnership: Our partnership may help strengthen their accomplishments through empowerment and resources. These people have made a world of difference in their community and if they don't yet realize how great a thing they've done, we have the opportunity to bring that to light with encouragement and genuine interest in their culture and advancements. We also have access to resources that they do not. These people have already told us what they need, what they want, and what is keeping them from attaining it. We are simply the liaison between them and their wants. In these two ways, empowerment and resources, we have the power to maintain their power over themselves and their community.

What Tacana Wants: The following are edited emails from Tacana locals:

“The education curriculum established by the Ministry of Education of Guatemala is not responding to the needs of the country. We need to improve the implementation of technical and scientific forms of education in San Pablo, Tacaná. Guateca, from my point of view, is a future school of practical learning, especially for the following technical problems concerning locals: global warming, low levels of education, weak economic growth, impoverished communities, etc. But we are looking for solutions. San Pablo has a unique school, which combines theoretical and practical processes of teaching and learning to help further develop the community. Each student is required to apply their learning to the needs of the process of sustainable development. Our school is currently under the cooperative system.”

“Our education system in San Pablo is very similar to schools in France. These schools were born before the middle of last century, just before World War II. Our parents implemented this method in San Pablo in 1996. For this reason San Pablo was born in the system of education with the pedagogy of Alternanciaand cooperative systems. Like I said earlier in another post, the process is to complement academic and technical training with the experience of families, knowledge of businesses, and community developments.

The courses in the curriculum, usually handled by the Ministry of Education are: visual arts, music, mathematics, physics, natural sciences, psychobiology, statistics, language, literature, arithmetic, science, biology, and physical education or sports. With this method we also add: Organic Agriculture, Horticulture, Computers, art, and general culture. We also teach workshops in: Bakery, Shoes, Wooden Furniture, clothing, handicrafts, etc. My expectations are to strengthen the current courses we have implemented due to community need as well as to incorporate new ideas, techniques, methods, systems and / or the programs of the Ministry of Education.”

Goals: a) Finding a way for Guateca Intensive Summer Program to be recognized as credit earning course for Cal Poly students (if we find doors open with the university programs San Pablo are attending, there could be ways for them to also receive credit) b) Having our program appeal for Senior Projects for a variety of Colleges and Divisions: Business, Engineering, International Studies, Ethnic Studies, and others and offered as Upper Level Division GE credits c) Having a business plan for our program to make it a self-sustaining program, thus more marketable and appealing for College Deans d) Describing its contents and its learning outcomes e) Working with the Open University Program to create two opportunities each year to invite a San Pablo student to come to Cal Poly, take some courses and mentor the class. This would support Cal Poly with ground truths about San Pablo and their sustainable development lessons and practices. See our indicators we are using to assess progress

More information: See our progress and updates High School Curriculum Embellishments Cooperative Classes (Both San Pablo and Cal Poly students) Winter Research To Do list See the Abstract that we wrote for the NCIIA proposal, additions to come and a whole proposal to be submitted soon

Please if you have any comments, suggestions or criticisms contact: Robert Campbell RFCampbe@calpoly.edu (805)268-7622 Thank you!