At the fifth webinar

On June 18, the Institute of Higher Pedagogical Education extended the invitation to Alfredo Mires Ortiz to talk, in a virtual meeting, about liberating reading and writing. The questions asked revolved around what the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed in educational processes; what should the school do to promote liberating reading and what are the balances in relation to the educational system and the lessons that a peasant institution like the Cajamarca Rural Libraries Network can offer. The responses were forceful:

"In this time of the pandemic, what is evident, what has been evidenced, is an almost global inability of the population to read reality (...) If we elevate that to the educational processes of the country, we can see that the only thing that has been done is to adapt the formal learning of the school (with the same contents) to the available technology. Virtual communication has become the method for learning. No one thought to reinvent themselves. The question is, are we willing to reinvent ourselves?

“We have to accept that the moral reserve of our countries is in those who never went to school. Those who do not have degrees, who were not in that unfair competition system, those who were not showing that they knew so much."

“Rural Libraries has evidenced the profound social, human, moral and historical baggage of the populations that did not have the trauma of competition at school because they have the ability to read reality. Those populations are genuine without being infatuated. Rural Libraries has proven and demonstrated that dignity and respect are not about money, power, or an academic degree; we must respect them”.

“If we do not admit that there is a problem (with today's education) it is almost impossible to remedy it. Are we able to admit it? Are we ready to change?”

“Education got it wrong or never took the path led by those who go through school to read texts and contexts; much less prepare to perceive the heartbeat of Nature, deepen the capacity to nourish; see and feel the regenerating magic of Nature”.