A Discussion with Patricia Giménez, Alumna, Obra Social y Educativa Don Bosco, Montevideo, Uruguay
With: Patricia Gimenez Berkley Center Profile
May 24, 2012
Can you tell me about yourself?
I was born here in Montevideo in one of the outlying neighborhoods and am the youngest of three children. I started being interested in education when I was a teenager, seeing how my teachers were able to help me and work with me. So, since I was 13 or 14 years old I have known that I want to work in education, but I kept changing my focus within education.
After high school I started studying to become a secondary school teacher for history. I went to the institute of secondary education and after one year switched to literature. I love language and studied this until the end of the third year. However, there were many things that bothered me about this course of study. In Uruguay, secondary school teachers, especially in their first couple of years working, move around a lot. They go from one school to the next and see classes only twice a week. So it is very hard to establish yourself in an institution, in a classroom, and with the individual students. I finished my year of practical teaching, and I couldn’t remember a single name of the children I had taught, because I had only seen them twice a week. This bothered me, and in addition I decided I wanted to teach more than just one subject.
My siblings are both primary school teachers so I knew a lot about this career. I had visited both of them in their workplaces and realized I liked the idea of being a primary school teacher myself. So I left the institute for secondary education and entered into the primary school institute. I enrolled in 2008 and here I am, still studying. I now know that I want to be a primary school teacher—I love education with all my heart, and this is the place I want to be.
What are the biggest challenges and successes of education in Uruguay?
I think right now is a very interesting time for education because I am experiencing it as a time of conflict, ruptures, and change. Ten years ago there were different values—a different social support structure. This has changed, and the educational institutions are not prepared and are not responding to this.
Nowadays children come to school that are very involved in technology. Ten years ago children had neither a cell phone nor a laptop in their home. In addition, we are facing a social reality with extreme poverty that has become more accentuated over the years.
I am a teacher, not a social worker or psychologist, and I am now dealing with children who have been abandoned, who live on the street, etc. We are not given the tools we need from our educational institutes in order to work with these realities because they are new realities.
In addition, public education is struggling in a crisis of both building and financial resources. In the end, however, I think rupture is a positive thing, because it causes reflection and questioning. We are questioning ourselves a lot in education, concerning the curriculum, whether the institutions are well prepared, whether we need to adapt every school to its environment, or whether all the institutions need to be more homogeneous.
In the end it depends on what is done with all these reflections, but that is another matter. As someone studying primary education, I am learning a lot. Since 2008 there has been a new study plan, which still might lead to some conflict because it is rather new. I like the plan a lot, although it is in some ways a bit too ambitious and a little complicated to apply. The study structure for primary education has changed a lot, too. All of this makes me believe we are experiencing a time of change.
Do you see that education can achieve things within your classroom?
I am a strong believer in education and am convinced that there are always achievements. I have seen them in details such as habits, children’s increased trust, and changes in attitude and behavior. These changes are in part caused by education.
I work in after-school support, so I do not have the disciplinary authority of a teacher, but I also am not responsible for teaching new materials. I work more on the behavioral development of the children. But here I definitely see progress every day in small details, like children’s maturity.
What is the first thing you think about when you hear “Fe y Alegría”?
When I think of Fe y Alegría, I think of education. I think of research on the achievements and needs of education, and I think of action in the sense of people who work in education interacting, not only on a theoretical but also on a concrete level.
How do you see the relationship between public and private education?
When you asked me questions about education, I always answered as it relates to public education. In Uruguay if I think of education, that is what comes to mind.
I work in private education but am a firm believer in public education, and it is hard to only take one side. I believe in public education because education is supposed to reach everyone. We were raised thinking of public education. I attended this school, a private school, and nonetheless when thinking of education I think of public education.
I think nowadays private education is growing, in part due to the institutional crisis in public schools. But 40 years ago everyone attended public school, even the children of politicians. It was not a question of economic status. Those who attended private school were families that wanted to maintain certain traditions, such as families that sent their children to school where they were instructed in a certain language, which was common up until the 1960s.
During the military dictatorship, militaristic elements entered into public education and, so, people started seeking out private education. After the return of democracy, public education came back, but nowadays the number of private schools and the amount of people who attend them are growing.