The Modern School in Cuba

How Fidel Castro extols the benefits of the Modern School in Cuba

October 19611

We will shortly be able to give you a detailed account of the first Congress of Cuban followers of Freinet Techniques, which was held at the Cité Scolaire (School Center) on 15 and 16 September. As you can imagine, I was very sorry not to have been able to accept the kind invitation to visit Cuba for the occasion. We do hope that during the next holidays a delegation of the Modern School will be able to contact our comrades in Cuba. 

 

 

This is indeed an important event. For the first time, a country that is large, if not in terms of population, at least in terms of the political and moral influence it has acquired in the world, is officially adopting Freinet techniques, manufacturing printing equipment, publishing our files translated into Spanish, and printing 60,000 copies of our supplements, books and children's albums. Cuba is proving that our techniques are simple, within the reach of the people, that they arouse enthusiasm and the need for culture, and above all that they are better able than traditional methods to train people.

In a recent radio address, Fidel Castro told the Cuban people about the progress represented and guaranteed by the bold innovations made in the education of the people. We are pleased to publish a translation of this speech, with thanks to Fidel Castro for his lucid and generous concern for a liberating education, to the Minister of National Education for the boldness of his decisions, and to our friend Almendros, who remains the great driving force behind the educational revolution of which Cuba is an eloquent example.

C. FREINET

What Fidel Castro is saying

October 1961²

«The School Centers (Cités Scolaires) continue. This is a revolutionary, entirely new undertaking, the precise aim of which is to call together all the children isolated in the mountains and have them live as a real community in these centers.

This innovation is part of a whole that is already very important, because we have other innovations: children's hostels, school complexes at various levels, and above all the complete reform of teaching, the new orientation of teachers, the renovation of books and all school equipment, all adapted to all the regions of Cuba, the permanent transformation of barrack-like schools into new schools, the creation of schools adapted to all this. This has long been an imperative objective, because until now we have lacked these secondary schools, and we are also keen to provide as many scholarships as possible so that no intelligence is lost in our towns and countryside.

Indeed, this wealth of intelligence that Cuba so badly needs will be promoted to run our factories, our economy and our whole country. So we must not let a crumb of this precious intelligence go to waste. From now on, we will no longer be able to say that a worker is qualified because he is a daddy's boy, but simply because of his vocation and aptitudes. From now on, all Cuban children will have the same opportunities to study. It is this equality of knowledge that is the work of the Revolution in education.

I'm going to tell you a little about what the children do in the School Centers: they write their own texts. They make their own books. What a difference from what we were taught in ready-made books that were foreign to us. We read: M, A, MA; M, A, MA; MAMA... We had no idea what any of that meant. They would say, "This letter is pronounced like this. This one is pronounced like this...". That's how we learned from yesterday's books. They didn't give us any ideas of our own. They talked about dogs and cats, but they weren't ours... So we didn't put any ideas or emotions into them. We learned everything mechanically and impersonally.

This mechanised education created a certain mental type, also mechanised, and the consequence is that many people today have great difficulty simply writing down their thoughts because they were not taught to start from this thought, to experience it and then to use the technique that enables them to communicate it to others. On the contrary, we have been taught to use technology before we had an idea to express.

Today, in our School centers, children have printing sets. They go for walks, to visit anything that interests them in nature or economy. They observe and then, when they come back, they get together with their teachers, talk about what they've seen, discuss it, ask for explanations, and come up with a whole series of ideas and very lively and real projects.

Their best work is selected, written on the black board and discussed again before being printed. So, as you can see, the children are their own judges and practise selecting their best work. The result is beautiful stories that are the pages of a remarkable book for each child, who day by day acquires knowledge linked to his or her own life, and in this way develops a mind that is open to everything and that perceives and records everything. The children's little books are a shining example of this.

They also paint and use all the techniques of artistic expression. They themselves have produced the engravings that illustrate their little notebooks and books. Everything here is very personal and lively.

Here are a few pages from one such book:

"An excursion. - On Sunday, a group of us went to the Bartolomé Maso centre. When we arrived, we were given guarapa (Sugar cane juice). They showed us all the machines. The sugar was a beautiful golden colour".

Ramon ORTI

It's certainly childish, but you can see for yourself that not everything these children write has been brought to them straight from the city. They write about the things they have observed in the fields, all the events in the countryside that they have seen and experienced. Above all, you must express only the things you know well if you want to think clearly.

You see, these humble children's notebooks are pieces of literature for me, because they reflect the profound themes of children's lives, their aspirations, their dreams, what they love and also what captures their curiosity, what they see in a circus as well as what they observe in a sugar factory, on a boat, in everything that surrounds them. This is how they get used to using writing as a means of expressing their ideas. They won't be like many people who want to write something without knowing what to write. They fill their writing with hollow, empty ideas that mean nothing. They don't know that it's easy to write when you've thought it through.

It's not a question of looking for an idea to write about. You must come up with your own ideas, have something to say, something to communicate, a rich and fertile thought. Then the true intelligence of these children will develop in a fantastic way, and they will certainly surpass us in every way. »

Fidel CASTRO

In his book "Le maître qui apprenait aux enfants à grandir" (The teacher who taught children to grow up), Jean Le Gal describes how he began a class correspondence with Cuba³:

"Knowing my attachment to the defense of rights and freedoms, Freinet then suggested that I correspond with a young educational pioneer from Cuba to support her in her educational work. The children also agreed to write. An old activist from the Spanish Civil War will translate the letters and documents we receive.

We immediately send out letters, albums, a survey about our neighborhood and our newspapers. Since October [1961] we also receive letters, an illustrated children's album and a newspaper printed with the class printing press. Life and dreams can now be exchanged across the ocean. [...]

I keep Freinet informed about our exchange. In a letter dated April 27^th 1962, he encourages me to continue. [...]

But we receive no more news from Cuba. I am worried about this with Freinet. Was there perhaps a difference of opinion between Freinet and the Cuban teachers? I know about the US embargo on Cuba's sugar production and the aggression of counter-revolutionary forces that led Fidel Castro to move closer to the Soviets. Did this have an impact on the organisation of the Cuban school?

Freinet answers my questions on May 3^rd:

"A word about relations with CUBA. No, the disagreement was not between us and the Cuban teachers or our friend Almendros, who was always the animator. The difficulties were of a different nature.

As you know, the Soviets have been asserting themselves more and more in Cuba for some months now, and since they are asserting themselves politically there, they have a natural tendency to assert their educational practices as well. The educational practices of the USSR are still overly traditional, especially at the lower level, and therefore they are totally opposed to our techniques. There is no possibility of having these techniques studied at the pedagogical institutes of the USSR and contacts remain, so to speak, broken. It is therefore only natural that when they arrive in Cuba, they try to eliminate our pedagogy gently and smoothly.

Our friend Almendros is very affected by this. The Spanish temperament does not mix well with this authority. But will our friends in CUBA succeed in turning the tide? We do not know."

 

In his book "La Escuela Moderna ¿reacción o progreso?" ⁴, Herminio Almendros points out that it was in this context that communist French teachers (Georges Cogniot, Roger Garaudy, Georges Fournial) advised the Ministry of Education against using the Freinet method during a visit to Cuba.

A great adventure came to an end, for the children, for me and for the Freinet pedagogy, which had found in Cuba the political and popular environment that corresponded to its principles and aims of educating the children of the people. And it is with great sadness that I think of the enthusiasm of our young educational pioneer, who was extinguished by the Stalinist reaction.

In “Bindestrich - Trait d'Union“, the Swiss newspaper of Freinet pedagogy, in December 2016, Peter Steiger added at the end of his article "Freinet pedagogy in Cuba? - ¡Vamos a ver!" ⁵, two comments:

1.

An article about Almendros (1898 - 1974) appeared in the "Nouvel Éducateur", number 112, in October 1999. It ends with the following words ⁶:

«On 1 May 1961, Cuba was proclaimed a "Democratic Socialist Republic". Almendros takes part in a visit to various socialist countries as a member of a group of experts.

But the technology of the printing press in the school is condemned by a group of members of the French Communist Party visiting the island. The Cuban government decides to remove the printing presses from the schools.

For the second time, political and ideological issues prevent this man from continuing his work. H. Almendros' professional career is inevitably cut short.

However, he continued his work as an author, as a translator of C. Freinet's works and as an editor of books for children.

When he died on October 12^th 1974, he left behind a large body of work (translations, pedagogical treatises, books for children, articles published in various magazines).»

2.

At the time of their visit to Cuba, the three Frenchmen mentioned were no longer teachers, but full-time officials of the PCF, the French Communist Party. Here is their biographical data: Georges Cogniot (1901 - 1978), Roger Garaudy (1913 - 2012) and Georges Fournial (1905 - 1994).

Translated with DeepL.com (free version) & Andi Honegger

1 Source: Archives ICEM, France; https://www.icem-pedagogie-freinet.org/node/36717

2 Source: Archives ICEM, France; https://www.icem-pedagogie-freinet.org/node/36718

3 Jean Le Gal. Le maître qui apprenait aux enfants à grandir. Un parcours en pédagogie Freinet vers l’autogestion. Préface de Michel Onfray. Toulouse, 2007

4 Herminio Almendros. La Escuela Moderna ¿reacción o progreso?. Editorial de ciencias sociales. La Habana, 1985

5 Bindestrich – Trait d’Union. Zeitung der Freinet Gruppe Schweiz FGS. No. 83. Décembre 2016

6 Le Nouvel Educateur. No. 112. 1999. D’après Herminio Almendros Ibanez. Vida, epoca y obra. De Amparo Blat Gimeno. Cuadernos de Estudios locales. No. 13. Octobre 1998.

https://www.icem-pedagogie-freinet.org/node/14957