National Values

National Values / Fernando Damaso
Posted on June 13, 2013

When the state-run media writes or talks about education in Cuba, they
always start with the obligatory preamble, discussing how bad things are
in the rest of the world, including in so-called first-world countries.
They then go on to discuss the encouraging situation in Cuba, where
students are guaranteed free education as well as health care, nutrition
and other basic services. Those of us who suffer under Cuban socialism,
however, know that things are not quite so simple.

If, in the early days — and I'm referring only to education — taking
advantage of the facilities, the physical foundations and the existing
licensed teachers, it was of high quality, the fact is that very soon,
with the advent of failed educational experiments and other changes, the
quality began to decline. Schools for teachers were closed, replaced by
training in inhospitable environments in an effort to strengthen
revolutionary commitment. Quick courses were taught in short time spans.
Poorly trained personnel were allowed into the system. Televised courses
replaced teachers in classrooms. The schools in the countryside program
was introduced. As a result of these and other changes, a large
percentage of good teachers are now at retirement age. Competent
newcomers do not exist and replacements are not foreseen given the lack
of interest among young people, who are attracted by the greater
incentives and better working conditions offered by other professions.

In addition to its well-known and difficult material and pedagogical
problems, the Cuban educational system has not been able to train the
citizens the country needs and will need over the short and medium term.
An attempt to emphasize politics and ideology at the expense of
education has distorted Cuban teaching, which had always enjoyed respect
since the era of Félix Varela, José de la Luz y Caballero, Martí, Varona
and many others. This has led to a critical loss of values, which is
palpable on a daily basis in the streets of our cities and towns, and
which is shared equally by different generations. The
teacher-student-parent relationship has been broken for many years,
abrogated by the state monopoly on education. Trying to restore it now
is no easy task, especially when, instead of emphasizing the formation
of citizens, there is an ongoing emphasis on the formation of
"patriots," which is understood to mean those who are loyal to "the
model." They are trying to rescue the "system of revolutionary values"
when in reality what they should be trying to rescue is the system of
national values, which are much more important and significant than the
former.

In a social scenario of absurd and archaic constraints imposed by those
in power, there is little that teachers can do (if they act as such and
not as mere transmitters of a failed ideology in which even they
themselves do not believe). The same is true for parents and the rest of
the family, who are also obligated to engage in a double standard, known
as the "dual morality," which is really a lack thereof. Faced with this
reality and trapped in the middle of a tense situation, the only path
left for a student is escape, either through alcohol, drugs, exodus, or
through individual or group rebellion as part of one of the many current
urban tribes (such as emos, rockers, rappers, reparteros* or skaters).

I feel that, rather than organizing and staging large events to show the
world the "achievements of Cuban education," efforts and resources
should be spent on addressing the real situation, which endangers the
national identity and directly threatens the country and its very existence.

*Translator's note: Followers and fans of reggaeton music.

11 June 2013

http://translatingcuba.com/national-values-fernando-damaso/