Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Global Social Justice Project, in summer 2013 undergraduate student Nick Dirago interviewed Sr. Patricia McLaughlin, SL, the head teacher at Fe y Alegría #58 in Jicamarca, Lima, Peru. In this interview McLaughlin discusses her role at the school, her six pillars for education, and the personal development of her students.

Tell me about your path to being headmistress at this school.

I started this school thirteen years ago with three classrooms, no windows, no doors. Bit by bit, we built up this school. Our school is doing very well now. And for me, I am absolutely convinced that God has no favorites. Whether children are in the Inmaculada [College of the Immaculate] or whether they’re here in Fe y Alegría, God has given every single one of them the same ability. The only difference is that they have more resources than these children have, and I feel my job is to give these children the same education that we would give any child around the world. To do the best we could with everything that we have. For me and for my teachers and for all of us who work here, it is not acceptable to say that we’re going to give a poor education to poor children.

What is your role day-to-day at the school?

I believe in six things. This for me is the basis of what we’re about and what we do at this school. The [first] thing is that we all believe in education. I believe in education. I believe that education is the key. The second thing is that I believe in the children themselves, that they can do this. We can do this. But we have to believe in it. We have to believe in these children. Because these children, although they’re poor—they have problems in malnutrition, they have lung problems, they have violence in their families—but these children can do it.

The third thing for me that is fundamental is to have a great team of teachers. I handpick my teachers. Fe y Alegría is lucky; we are allowed to choose our teachers. For me, that is a key. A teacher will come to visit me, come asking for a job. Now, she needs her qualifications; she needs to have a good curriculum, but for me that’s not the most important thing. I have to see her with the children. And I would always put her in with the children and then see how she reacts with the children and how the children react with her. And then when they’re finished, I would ask the children, "Did you like that teacher? How did that go for you?" And they tell me yes or no. And I depend on them as well.

Do you think it’s out of the ordinary that children have that much agency over their own education?

Yes. Here [in Peru], definitely. I believe that they have a say in this. Anyway I need to see how the teacher treats them. Does she get down to the nitty-gritty and talk about real things? Is she talking about a million apples, or is she talking about, “Your mommy is sending you down the street to buy a half-pound of apples.” [The latter] is what I want. [The students] are going to know if they enjoyed it, and that’s the only way they’re going to learn. They’re not in university yet, where you have to take what comes and if the lecture is boring, you know, you have to do it. I need them to enjoy it. I don’t mean to say that it’s all fun, but it has to always be interesting; it has to always be engaging. But why can’t it always be fun, in the good sense of the word? As well as have a teacher that treats them with respect. We’re a team together on this.

You were talking about your six pillars.

Next are the parents. Fundamental. Here they support you 100 percent—well, the majority; there are always one or two [that don’t]. But the parents support us 100 percent. Why? Because we work [as] a team. Everybody wants their child to have the best education that you can give. And [they] want them to be happy in school. I tell them, “I can’t do this on my own. And neither can you. Neither can the teacher.” We’re all in this together. The role of the parents would be to support their children in their learning, come to meetings, check their exercise books, make sure they come to school, keep in contact with the teacher, come in and talk to us.

They’ve got to see that all the resources are used well. They’ve got to see and feel that we’ve got their children’s best interests at heart. They’ve got to see the results of the school. They’ve got to see that their children are treated with 100 percent respect and that I will push [their children] and them too to their limits. And they know as well that I will say that these children can do it. These children are important. Al diablo con este word “poor.”[1] And we can do it. And your children are important.

We’ve had very good results here. On the national exam for seven-year-olds, we last year got first place in the whole of Lima. We got first place in math and third place for seven-year-olds. We do have good results. My first [graduating class], a lot of them are studying now. A lot of them got complete grants to study at the university.

The other thing is infrastructure—what you give to these children. Now, Nicholas, poor children should not be expected to sit on a dirty chair or to be in a dirty classroom. These children need the best; they need an education. I have a beautiful library. I gave them computers. They’re going up there to learn how to cook. They need music and dance. All the things that children have and need around an education. It’s not just mathematics and English and language. And the food. I try to give at least 500 children a good meal every day. I have about 1,000 children. I can’t afford to feed them all, but I give it to the children that need it.

And the other thing is that the director has to get off her bum and get out there. I’m not the boss; I should be the servant. And I should know every one of those youngsters out there. Every child is an individual, and I want to work with that. A lot of the time here in Peru, the director is sitting here at the desk. I have a girl who does the paperwork and I do the curriculum, and I do everything that a head teacher is: a social worker and a nurse and a mother and a policewoman and a plumber. Get out of the office, for God’s sake.

I think that education is fundamental so that these children have a chance. I say to them, “I cannot give you the money, but I can give you a good education.” I try to make it concrete to them. I don’t try to talk to them about “social justice.” This really appeals to them and reaches them. “Who wants to be able to build your own house? Who wants to go into a shop and buy your jeans? Who wants to be able to go to the doctor without worrying about money? Who wants to see Cusco? And this isn’t only for children with money in Miraflores.[2] This is for you. The only way I can give you this is to give you the key, to give you education.” And I feel that education is the great leveler. Education will give them the chance that they don’t have. They might go out of here without a penny in their pocket, but if they have a good education, they’re rich. They have self-esteem. Who am I, and what can I do? It’s believing in yourself; I can do this. That for me is social justice for them.

It has to be practical. Everything has to be practical. If I come in and say, “For social justice, I want you to get a good education” [they won’t respond]. I begin first and say, “I want you to have shoes. I want your mommy to have a bed. I want you to have a good job.”

I talk to them then about the need to change here, to be agents of change. They need to transform this place. Because if not these children, who? And education gives you such a different way of looking at things.

You know what’s very important? Somebody saying “You can do this.” I think that’s what Obama ran his campaign on. And that fires people up. If you don’t believe that these children can do this, if you don’t believe that in your classroom that your child has an intelligence far superior than yours, then you don’t belong on my team. And it’s okay believing, but you have to put all the instruments in their hands too.

What is a pueblo joven? Can you tell me a bit about this area?

This area would be what we would call a shantytown. All around Lima, people have come in and invaded the land. More and more people come in and come in. In this area here, we have no electricity, running water, or sewage. Tuberculosis is rife. Children have problems with malnutrition. A big problem we have is parasites because of the water. This is what a pueblo joven is. Their houses are made of basket-like material or they’re made of bricks, but in a very basic sort of way.

What is the consciousness that you try to create in students?

The children do realize that there are things that they don’t have. But how we approach it is that they need to use the gifts that God has given them to grow themselves, to get a good education, and then to go out and [make] change. The children themselves have to be agents of change in themselves and in their community. I don’t focus on, “Oh we’re poor and we can’t do it.” We might be poor, but we can do it, and we will do it.

I would say that they see themselves as having to make things better for themselves and for their families and for this community. But you can ask them that question, just to see what they say themselves. All of that there[3] was done by [the students] on their own initiative. They gave it to me to give to poor mothers. I want them to realize that we might be poor, but there are still people who need us. And they do know as well that things here can be violent at times. They realize the necessity to talk rather than fight.

What do you think about integrating students from poorer environments into wealthier schools?

I don’t particularly agree with taking children out of this environment and dumping them in Miraflores. We can’t do that to them. It has to be bit by bit. What our children need to do is build up their self-esteem and by the time they get to the university, yes, they will be beginning. But only some of them. Anyone who does that kind of thing has to have a very good image of themselves and who they are.

Why does self-esteem have to be actively developed in this community more than it does in other communities?

Well, personally, I think it has to be actively developed in every community. But here, where the children have more problems, where it might be a single or mother or a father who is a second father and he doesn’t have time for the first child, an awful lot of work has to be done on the children’s self-esteem—who they are, before God, before the world, before me, before themselves. And that is a huge, huge work. I still have a lot of work to do on that here because of a lack of teachers, lack of extra staff. For example, I have children that I would love to take out of the classroom—because they’re so angry about things at times—and to work all that out. If we can get their self-esteem really built up, then they can take on things like the fact that I will go to the house of Nicholas, Nicholas will have a swimming pool, and Nicholas will have his car, Nicholas will have his laptop, and I haven’t even got a bed. Now how do you deal with that? It has to be concrete. Am I embarrassed about the fact that my mother speaks Quechua, or can I assimilate that? And that takes time.

What do most students do after they leave the secondary school?

I am trying to inculcate in them that they have to do something worthwhile in their lives. They want more out of life than maybe their parents had. And I’ve noticed that they’ve achieved a work ethic; I want them to have this ethic of, “We need to work. We need to help ourselves. We need to do it.”

I don’t only want them to go to university. I want them to be happy in what they do. One of my dreams was that every child would find out what they’re good at, what their special gift is. It’s not important if you’re in a university or if you’re putting a shine on apples or if you’re cleaning somebody’s shoes or if you’re a fireman or a policeman or a nurse or a doctor. What’s really important is that you love what you’re doing. And that’s a big challenge for us: that every child should know what they’re good at and believe in themselves and know that they’ve had a gift. Because if from very young they’ve been told they’re stupid, it’s hard to get at. But I want to build up their self-esteem here.

[1] To hell with this word “poor.”
[2] Miraflores is one of the wealthiest, most globalized districts of Lima.
[3] Here, Sr. McLaughlin motioned to a pile of donations in the corner of her office.