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So i chose freedom

"So I chose freedom
Running around, trying everything new
But nothing impressed me at all
I never expected it to....
Don't cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance" Evita

$3000 per person

10
days

As a student at Teachers College (TC), Columbia University, I had an opportunity to visit schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina as part of a Study Tour. Being in my second semester, it was a superb way to observe and deconstruct how the theoretical aspect integrates with practical implementation. This experience provided insight on how each country has its own challenges with respect to its historical, social and political context that in turn, impacts how education systems are shaped and disseminated. It was also a great way to connect with students from my cohort at TC and create a community of practice, going forward.

 

During the ten-day tour, we visited myriad schools and universities and got a chance to interact with teachers and students at these institutions. Education in public schools and universities is free of cost in Argentina and all students have access to education. However, the quality of education in public schools is an ongoing challenge. Due to dearth of teachers, there is a concept of Taxi Teachers that exists in Argentina. Thus, in one day a teacher can travel far distances to visit multiple schools and teach different classes. The class strength varies across schools. Public schools may have up to 30-35 students in a class, where as private schools aim at having 13-22 students per class. Even though there are copious facilities and infrastructure offered by private schools, the salary that teachers receive is nominal. The teaching profession is not considered a lucrative career option for young people. Moreover, the status of teachers in society, similar to India and America is not highly valued and respected.

 

Nonetheless, extremely noteworthy was a spirit of compassion and benevolence that was displayed by every teacher we met. A quality that was stark across schools was the genuine love and respect that teachers had for their students. I never heard a single teacher raising her voice or yelling at the students to get their attention. There was an understanding that existed between teachers and students, and one gesticulated action would get all the students together. The students seemed confident and comfortable to ask the teacher countless questions, and spoke up with ease in the classrooms. Rather than being an intimidating, fearful and a threatening space, which many schools can be for students, the environment across all three schools that we visited was warm and welcoming.

 

On visiting a Partner Elementary School, which was a part of the Schools of the Future program (a program where universities extend support to schools), I observed a Grade 5 Arts class. The school was located in a rural community and students from the neighborhood primarily attended the school. An interesting conversation emerged, when the teacher introduced us, sharing that we were visiting from New York. A student asked, whether the US was at war? On probing to know why he asked that, he explained that in his videogames, America was always at war. Furthermore, the girl who was with me was Korean, and the student wanted to know whether she was from North Korea or South Korea, because according to his video games, North Korea was always portrayed as America’s enemy. It’s important to note, how forms of widespread media infiltrate, influence and shape young people’s opinions internationally. As educators, it is imperative to encourage students to critically engage with such representations. If not challenged and critically questioned, these depictions can lead to the formulation of stereotypes, biases and prejudices about different communities.

 

The next school we visited was St. Andrews School, a private bilingual school, which was very much for the elite population of students. It had extensive infrastructural facilities that included a huge field, a swimming pool, a massive auditorium for plays and performances. The walls of the schools displayed beautiful murals of students’ work. I wonder though, whether it displayed the works of all students, or merely the ones that were excellent. From a social justice perspective, it’s vital that all students feel valued and cherished. While observing a library class, I noticed that students had the freedom to sit or lie down while listening to the story. The teacher was flexible enough to ensure that the students were engaged and comfortable at the same time. However, the teacher was sitting on an elevated level, that is, on a chair, where as the students were on the floor. Rather than everyone being on the same level, which could signify an equal relationship, according to me, a hierarchy was created establishing who was in-charge.

 

Something that caught my attention, were the numerous learning studios at the school, which encouraged small group work. Students had the opportunity to work with their peers and their teacher to explore the themes and issues at depth. Teachers had also started experimenting with differentiation. In one class, the teacher had set up five different stations, where the content had been differentiated for the chapter on rainforests. Each station varied with respect to the learning level of the children, with one group editing the punctuation in the text, another group playing a game on homophones, the third group building an animal puzzle, where as the fourth group was required to browse through a few websites and note their observation, and the fifth was investigating about rainforest dilemmas. If we had more time at the school, it would have been interesting to speak with the teacher to learn about the challenges she might have faced while differentiating curriculum.

 

The third school we visited was a German school, namely Pestalozzi, which had an extremely interesting history. In 1934, many German Jews had escaped to Argentina, and to educate the refugee kids, a group of parents had started this school. It continues to run with the same ethos and the students are taught about the history of the school. It has an adjoining cultural center that exhibits a different artist every year around social justice themes, which are introduced and discussed in classrooms. We also observed an elementary Math club, where students across different grades worked together and engaged with challenging Math problems, preparing for the Olympiad. The same problem was given to all the groups, and the students had to devise innovative ways of solving the presented problem. There was tremendous enthusiasm and students were full of vigor to collaborate, work together and come up with solutions. 

 

While visiting the University of San Andres, I posed a question to all students, asking them how they envisioned themselves as agents of change in their respective community. It definitely was food for thought as it made the students pause and think about how their role can have an impact on the growth of their community and nation. Change does begin with each individual and students need to be made aware that irrespective of the field they are in, whether in the capacity of a lawyer, economist, doctor or professor, they can be instrumental in making a difference.

 

Buenos Aires, as a city is full of color and on visiting places such as La Boca and a famous street called Caminito, one soaks in the vivacious aura of the city. There was a painter who has no hands and paints with his mouth, creating distinguished pieces of art. Another place that defines the city is San Telmo and a flea market called Plaza Dorego. It is bustling with people, vitality, performances and cafés. At every corner, there are people doing Tango, and one can sit for hours looking at them dancing. As part of our tour, we all got to attend Tango lessons, with the renowned Juan Carlos Copes. Tango is very different from salsa, it’s super intimate and sensual. Juan Carlos Copes and his troop often perform at ‘Tango Porteño’ and seeing them in action was amazing. There are spaces in the city, such as La Viruta, which offer Tango lessons in the evenings as well followed by free flowing Tango. All the people that we met were incredible dancers and as we switched partners after every song, I got to experience each one’s unique panache.

 

We were staying in the Recoleta neighborhood, which has a flea market every weekend. There’s a National Fine Arts Museum and Centro Cultural Recoleta, which displays diverse artists through the year. It also has the famous cemetery with Evita’s tomb. As the First Lady from 1946-1952, she fought for women and labor rights and worked tirelessly for the under-privileged of the nation. She unfortunately, was diagnosed with cancer in her 30’s, which is when she sung ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’. At the time we were visiting, Argentina had their first elected female President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who remains deeply inspired by Evita’s passion and leadership.

 

Recommendations for restaurants include Palacio Balcarce, a famous Recoleta palace, which used to be a party leader’s residence. It’s fancy smancy and the food is every bit worth it. Another place called La Parolaccia is located in Puerto Madero, right next to the port and one can enjoy a meal while overlooking the water. 1810 in Palamero is a traditional Argentine restaurant and their local dish, Locera, i.e. beef and pork stew with corn, is delicious. Argentina is well known for ice cream, and one must try it either at Volta and Freddo or both ;) Some of the other restaurants and bars we experimented with were Milion, Brurela, Mellow to name a few. We saw this show called Fuerza Bruta, which was nothing like I had seen before. The performers were within the audience and the lighting and music was all very psychedelic! There were performers above us in a plastic swimming pool, which kept coming close in proximity, for us to be able to touch it and then suddenly retreat away from us. Very fascinating.

 

A guided tour to San Isidro and El Tigre, introduced us to the history of Buenos Aires. In 1536, Spaniards had come in search for the legend of Il Dorado, and instead found native people so they abandoned their search. Argentina and Rio de Plata, denotes the Land and River of Silver, which is why the Spanish returned in 1580 to resume their pursuit of wealth. It was General José de San Martin who led the liberation movement for Argentina, Chile and Peru and came to be known as the Immortal Grandfather. The people revolted in 1810 and finally, proclaimed independence in 1816. Independence was followed by tumultuous civil wars, and during this time José de San Martin exiled himself, as he did not want to be involved in internal strife. Finally, in 1880, Argentina entered the world market and Patagonia began to export its raw material. Around 1870, Argentina adopted an open door policy and invited 200k immigrants to enter the country, which amounted to 5 million immigrants in the 1900’s. This time was considered a golden era in Argentina. However, in 1929 with the onset of the Great Depression, unemployment augmented resulting in the first military coup in 1930 of the six that were to follow in 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966 and 1976.

 

During the military rule, state terrorism was sponsored by the dictatorship and children started disappearing. Around 30,000 children were kidnapped and family’s pleas, questions and rage were only met with silence. In 1977, Argentine mothers pioneered a movement called Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. They began to march in the Plaza de Mayo and organized demonstrations in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace. This movement was powerful and the Argentinean mothers were immutable. Awareness of these atrocities and brutalities soon spread on an international scale and the world became cognizant of the terror that people were living with, in Argentina. Eventually, because of these concerted efforts, the military coup ended in 1983. While walking in Plaza de Mayo, one can see the headscarves of the mothers who become the agents of change.

 

Street Art in Argentina is pervasive and we explored the graffiti prevalent in the Colegiales and Palermo part of town. Graffiti is viewed as an expression of opinion in the public space. Initially, it was politicians who wrote on the walls to popularize their names especially during elections. Civilians decided to re-claim their space back from the politicians. Two artists who had travelled to Argentina started this movement. They painted animated cartoons outside their house. And soon enough other artists followed. Children commenced painting on the walls. Most of the walls in the city are accessible to anyone who wants to paint. The artists / children just have to take permission from the house owners, who most of the time don’t mind. The artists prefer walls that are white, and there is a tremendous code of respect for other artists’ work. A café on Port Street displays all graffiti in the form of an exhibition.

 

To experience the Ranch life, we spent a day at Estancia Don Silvano, where we saw a Gaucho show, rode horses, ate Argentine grill and enjoyed the folk music and Tango performances - a truly authentic way of experiencing the local Argentinian culture. They invited each one of us to sing, dance or share something from our language and culture, and it was the epitome of cultural exchange, connection, laughter and fun. For me, the objective of participating in the study tour had really been to experience and understand the culture of Argentina. Building friendships with Argentinian people, experimenting with their cuisine, learning about the nation’s history and politics, understanding and partaking in traditions and practices such as Graffiti Art or Tango and exploring their education system were some of the facets that helped me discover the Argentinian way. I miss you already, Argentina.

​

- Kamiya Kumar

03/14/14-03/23/14
 
Highlights 
  • Recoleta neighborhood and the famous cemetery, including Evita’s tomb.
  • La Boca and Caminito
  • San Telmo and Plaza Dorego Flea Market
  • Guided historic tour to San Isidro and El Tigre
  • Colonial Estancia Don Silvano
  • Street Art tour in Colegiales and Palermo area 
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