The Path To Learning, Paved With Politics

The Path To Learning, Paved With Politics / 14ymedio, Lilianne Ruiz
Posted on December 16, 2015

14ymedio, Lilianne Ruiz, Havana, 15 December 2015 — "On the path of
Martí, with the guidance of Fidel, for the homeland and socialism:
Moncadistas* always ready." With that motto the school day begins every
morning for Claudia Martinez, a fifth grader in Havana's Plaza district
whose parents try to soften at home the ideological excesses of Cuban
public education.

The girl learned to read with stories of combat, biographies Sierra
Maestra fighters and anti-imperialist slogans. Of the 222 pages in the
current edition of the first grade reading book, 21 pages are dedicated
to teaching the official version of the Cuban Revolution and its
political figures. Guns and olive green uniforms abound in its
illustration, although few would expect such a profusion of military
themes in a children's reader.

When she reached the fourth grade, Claudia was already skilled in
repeating slogans and phrases taken from Fidel Castro's speeches. The
book that perfected her reading in this grade started with some words
spoken by the former Cuban president and another similar fragment was
waiting on page 215 of the same volume. Overall, 10% of the reading book
is dedicated to recounting the exploits of the figures in power or
praising the system. Here, "The path to learning is paved with
politics," said Claudia's mother, wryly.

Education in Cuba is "a function of the state and is free," according to
the Constitution, which also, in Article 39, calls for "promoting the
patriotic and communist education of the new generations and preparing
children, youth and adults for social life."

"Why does education promote values associated with communism?" whispers
Claudia's father, who dreams of being able to choose the education his
daughter receives, but sees this as "impossible for now."

Now 34, and also schooled under the same education system, this Little
Pioneer's mother recognizes that "it's true that the teachers have a
program they must follow." However, the parents have never been able to
meet with the methodologists "to influence these programs," she
complains. She is aware that in the current circumstances, the parents
"have no involvement in the design of the curriculum."

Daniela, a young schoolteacher who prefers not to give her last name,
says that using the schools to promote an ideology "is normal" and adds
that the teachers are trained to "include elements in every class that
develop the students politically." In her classroom she talks to them
"about socialism, the Revolution, and all the past history that none of
them have experienced."

By hiring private teachers and tutors, many families not only try to
improve the academic performance of their children, but also to reduce
the level of ideology in the teaching. "I've spoken with the math
teacher who comes here to the house," says Claudia's grandmother, "so
that the math problems don't keep putting political examples in front of
the child."

In one of last year's schoolbooks, the student solved an arithmetic word
problem that said, "If Rene Gonzales, one of the Five Heroes, was
sentenced to prison in 2001 and released in 2011, how many years did he
spend in jail?"

"We give her a lot of fantasies, fairy tales, and craft books to read,
to offset what she receives in school," says her grandmother.

Claudia dreams of becoming a lawyer someday, but her parents are more
concerned with the present. "We fear she will become someone who shouts
slogans and lose this desire to debate and search for the truth that we
teach at home," explains her mother. "I have a dilemma," she confesses,
"I know that we are raising her to cause trouble for herself."

As the children advance to the higher grades, ideology becomes even more
present. Leo studies technology in Pinar del Rio where, a few weeks ago,
the teacher lashed out against a dissident. He called him a
"millionaire, traitor and enemy of the country," although he didn't know
that Leo knew the man through his family. The young man stood up in the
middle of the classroom and shouted that it was all lies. When he told
his parents, they supported him, but this is an isolated case.

As a general rule, teenagers listen passively to the political harangues
delivered in the classroom and their families call on them not to
contradict the official discourse. "I warn him to say yes to everything
they tell him, because why set himself apart?" says Layren Lopez, the
mother of seven-year-old Harold who already knows how to read and write.
"This is nearing its end," says the woman.

Recently, Harold's parents obtained Spanish nationality, through the
so-called Spanish Law of Grandchildren. "I have a contact who will help
me to enroll the boy in the school for children of diplomats," says the
mother. The school, in an exclusive area of Havana's ​​Playa district,
has its own curriculum, which in no way resembles the education system
on the island.

"We will have to pay tuition in convertible pesos and his grandmother
will take him there in the car, because it's a long way from us. But
there he will not have to say Viva Fidel!" says the relieved Lopez, who
receives financial support from her father, who lives in Barcelona, ​​to
avoid what he calls "the brainwashing of the child."

Ideology reaches its highest levels in the teaching of history. At the
Tenth Congress of the Young Communists Union (UJC), several delegates
called for teaching the subject "creatively, in order to make the class
ideal place to promote patriotic and revolutionary sentiments," and, in
particular, to develop youth leaders for the organization who are well
trained "politically and ideologically."

Classes on national history do not support nuances. The Cuban Republic
was not sovereign and was "corrupt"; José Marti is the "intellectual
author" of the assault on the Moncada barracks; the armed struggle in
the Sierra Maestra is "a continuation of the wars of independence" and,
"before 1959, children in Cuba had no schools or shoes." Deviating from
the script could result in a note of disapproval.

*Translator's note: Moncadistas refers to those who launched a failed
assault on Santiago de Cuba's Moncada Army Barracks on 26 June 1953,
generally considered the start of the Revolution.

Source: The Path To Learning, Paved With Politics / 14ymedio, Lilianne
Ruiz | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-path-to-learning-paved-with-politics-14ymedio-lilianne-ruiz/