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Replacing the Despair with the Demás in Democracy
Via Education's Aprender a Participar Participando Program
The trouble…is that we have taken our democracy for granted; we have thought and acted as if our forefathers had founded it once and for all. We have forgotten that it has to be enacted anew in every generation, in every year and day, in the living relations of person to person in all social forms and institutions.
John Dewey
June 25, 2010, 8:45 AM ET/7:45 AM CT—My husband awakens, brews some coffee, and turns on National Public Radio. Northern Mexico is in the news again. Narco-bloqueos have shut down the city of Monterrey at rush hour. Government officials have been killed. School children are being trained in how to respond if a gun battle erupts near their schools. Some analysts have classified Mexico as a failed state. He shoots off yet another nervous e-mail to his pregnant wife.
Two thousand miles away, in Monterrey, I’m too busy to respond with more than a cheerful “Everything’s great! Talk to you soon!” While media portrayals capture the chilling violence and often transmit the accompanying fatalism and despair that many of us feel when confronted with the brutality in Mexico, little news about what I’m seeing at this moment crosses the U.S. border. Teachers are beginning to stream in to the last of the monthly professional development classes for the Aprender a Participar, Participando (Learn to Participate, Participating) program, sharing hugs and food as well as stories and photos from their students’ work over the school year. Aprender a Participar, Participando engages teachers and students in identifying a community issue, learning strategies for making change, developing and implementing a plan for action, and evaluating and reflecting on their work. Projects in the approximately 500 classes that have participated so far have included securing a reliable supply of clean water in a rural community, creating a school computer lab, and refurbishing outdoor recreational spaces.
Both these perspectives, and many more, are needed to understand the fragile state of democracy in Mexico, as well as what might be done to improve it. As Mariali Cárdenas, one of the founders of Via Education, says,
When people are accustomed to living in a community where there are many injustices, many adverse situations, generally they lose confidence that they are capable of achieving change. Nevertheless, though the projects and the implementation of a participatory system, we have realized that people recover this confidence through achievements that they acquire with their communities. This helps them to trust in their capacities, to put their capacities in service of others, and to build a more democratic, just, and equitable society together.
As I worked as a volunteer research assistant for Via Education, I realized that it is easy to feel isolated and disempowered as one listens to the news from a kitchen in Massachusetts, hears possible gunshots on a neighboring hillside, or grows up as a child amidst poverty and violence. Yet, more importantly, my experiences in Monterrey reminded me in a visceral way that democracies are not created and sustained primarily in a voting booth or a state house, but through the development of empowering relationships with nearby people and institutions – through the collaborative creation of a soccer field, a nonprofit organization, or a new local policy. My interviews and informal conversations with participants showed that as students take part in Aprender a Participar, Participando, they gain confidence, learn to communicate and work in diverse teams, and organize a project to meet a goal. They also proved to me, as a developing researcher, that I have the capacity and responsibility to help form those empowering relationships in partnership with individuals, communities, and organizations. All of us, regardless of age, role, or citizenship status, have a role to play in constantly recreating the always-fragile societies of which we are a part. In the words of two Aprender a Participar, Participando teachers, “That is democracy, the capacity to decide, to transform our surroundings,” and “The important thing is that we get involved. We are here now. It’s for the future, but it’s also for the present…we are living it now.”
Laurel Stolte is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She can be reached at lcs677@mail.harvard.edu. For more information on Via Education and Aprender a Participar, Participando, see www.viaeducation.org.
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The story is really nice and heart touching. I liked reading it. Interesting part was your work. You have worked as research assistant its great chance to learn more.
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