Student Protests

To my students following my blog (and others, too): How would you feel if you saw this at Cosby? 

Students in Chile often go on strike. They hold manifestaciones (demonstrations, protests, rallies) in order to denounce current conditions and demand educational reform.

These kinds of protests happen in universities and colleges all over the world, and with certain regularity. 

What's interesting about Chile is that this is at a high school.

The sign with the tank says "When tyrany is law, revolution is order."

The students at this school are on strike. They are not attending classes, and, in fact, barricaded the gates of the school with chairs and desks so that entry and use of the school is impossible.

It's not the only school I've seen like this. I've passed several in the evening, but only had enough light for a good picture when I passed this school in the afternoon. These types of strikes are not uncommon. Matt said he remembered schools looking like this when he was here in 2011.

Students protest and go on strike with the hopes of gaining educational reform. "Educational reform" is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, and it can mean different things to different groups.

In many Latin-American countries (and countries all over the world, really), the distribution of wealth is very stratified. That means that the wealthy are very wealthy, and the poor are very poor. There's a bit of a middle class, but in general, there are haves and have-nots. In some areas, the have-nots only have access to very ineffective public schools, or sometimes they don't have access at all.

Most families who have money choose to send their children to private schools, as there is a lot of mistrust for public schools, and perhaps for good reasons. Unfortunately, the tuition for these private schools is extremely expensive. 

So, frequently the protests have something to do with lack of affordable access to a good education, and/or the growing debt that these students and their parents incur. 

Here a banner runs down the entire school building. It was folded over, especially near the top, so we couldn't make out what it said, but it sent a statement regardless.

Sometimes the manifestaciones result in change, but not all of it is lasting, as the protests continue from year to year. Many critics cite these protests as just plain ineffective, but the students hold fast to their convictions, and continue demanding reform.

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My immediate, personal reaction to this came from the teacher in me. Do the teachers still get paid? Do they try to come in and teach anyway? Are there any students who don't want to protest, and try to get in the school anyway? I don't know the answers to any of these questions. I hope to ask around and see what people have to say.

I'm sure many of you have questions about the students. Do they have to repeat a year? Do they have to go to school over their summers to recoup lost time? Are there SOL-type tests that they are missing? 

For us, it seems bizarre. School attendance is mandatory in the US. You can't just not go to school. That's not how it works. There are truancy officers who will penalize both you and your parents if you don't show up. 

Here, though, these kinds of manifestaciones happen.

One thing that a lot of Spanish-speaking countries have that we don't necessarily have in the US is the concept of the pueblo. Pueblo technically means "town," which doesn't seem to carry a whole lot of significance, but in this protest chant, it does:

El pueblo unido

jamás será vencido.

That roughly translates to: "The town - united - will never be defeated." (It rhymes in Spanish, and sounds a little better.) 

The township is a heavy force in Latin America. It's the people. It's mass that makes the city run. The idea is, if they stand together, no one can divide them. Together, their voices will be heard.

As someone who worked in education, who loves education, but who also sees a lot of flaws in the way it's put into practice, this phenomenon is very interesting to me. It's hard to teach in times of peace; I can't imagine holding class in such palpable discord.

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Cosby students (or other students, or anyone): What do you make of all this? Can you even imagine this happening? Does it make you grateful for your public schools? How does it make you feel overall?