Learning for freedom

A big reason I came to this school to learn more Spanish is because of its deliberate political stance. It was founded in part to enable people coming from outside Guatemala to understand what has happened here over the many years of invasion, displacement, corporate exploitation and genocide. Today they gave us newcomers an orientation to the school and an hour of it was on this Guatemala history, with no punches pulled.

In a way, the use of context like this reminds me of Paulo Freire’s approach to literacy teaching for the impoverished in Brazil. He approached his students from the point of view that language isn’t neutral, it provides people with agency and in particular, it can serve as a means towards personal and political liberation. I, for one, want my learning of Spanish to serve the purpose of justice work, as I find ways to ally with Latin@ people who are struggling with the white supremacist system in the U.S. It’s my motivation and it helps that the instructors and staff here are in that same page.

I think there may be another way that my experience here will be Freirian. Friere is known for his learning theory, which is that teaching and learning is not well served by a so-called “banking system,” where the teacher attempts to just deposit knowledge in the brain of the passive student. People learn better through a more constructivist process where each learner creates his or her own meaning in an active way, generating questions and seeking answers. They key is to have motivated learners. Which comes back to the purpose for learning in the first place. Learning for freedom. For me and para mis hermanos y hermanas.

Based on just my first day, it seems to me that my teacher is approaching me in this very way. For much of the first hour, she just let me do the talking, as much as I could, and ask the questions. She helped me express myself and held off on any grammatical corrections. That came later. From the start, she wanted me to give her a direction and something to work with. I liked it. It suited my own learning style and acknowledged my agency.

But it was a lot of work, doing all that talking. Each day we do a 4 hour, one-on-one session with our teacher and at the end of today, I was a lot less sharp listening to her and finding my own words and ideas in Spanish. I came home wiped out.

As I came home at the end of my four hours for lunch, I was a little worried that I’d have to now engage with my home stay mom at the table and wouldn’t have the energy for that. But the first thing she said to me was that I should go lie down and rest while she finished preparing our mid-day meal. Then at lunch, we had some light conversation, but she could see I was tired and she spoke slowly and repetitously. She told me that she has worked as a home stay person for this school for twenty eight years and has had many many students. She gave me a pep talk about it being just my first day and that little by little, I will learn more and more and get better and better at this. She said the first day is the hardest. I felt lightened and encouraged by her positive attitude. She has some experience with people like me, it seems.

Now, at the end of the day, I feel grateful. Still wiped out, though.