Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 37) go gl bal Elba Corea, a parent volunteer. Kids in costume for El Festival de la Voz. Reformers and protesters trace inequality and other problems in the education system to changes during General Augusto Pinochet’s seventeen-year military dictatorship, which ended in 1990. series of steps to respond to problems. First on the list is a one-on-one between the teacher and student, after which administrators meet with the student and ultimately the family if problems persist. Learn to Think, the Facts Will Follow Olivares says Pinochet’s educational legacy is directly at odds with personalized education. “With the military government, everyone was seen as a number,” he says. Critics say many Chilean teachers are still too focused on transmitting a static body of knowledge, and don’t emphasize the development of skills like critical thinking. By contrast, Cristián Infante, the director of Luis Beltrán, and Olivares both say the school focuses on thinking and the individual rather than only on facts and memorization. But perhaps because of the changed emphasis, the school is also doing well on the facts-based front: Its students achieved the highest scores in their district on the country’s 2007 national assessment tests. Olivares says the school is a popular destination for university education students doing practical training—a fact that may help its innovations spread. In addition to recognizing and accommodating differences among students, the system is designed to foster autonomy in the students, from the independent nature of the work itself to getting As Goes the Family . . . The school’s policy of reaching out to families distinguishes it from other Chilean schools. As one parent volunteer puts it, “I connected a lot more with this school, because in other schools the parents arrived at the door, left their children, and attended meetings only to find out what grade the child got and how much they had to pay for activities.” Since Luis Beltrán’s founding fourteen years ago, the school’s faculty has worked hard not only to involve students’ families but also to provide support. Through a connected IT’S PERSONAL Watch returning students Janet Piña and her foundation, the school son graduate at delivers food baskets www.edutopia.org/colegio-san-luis-beltran-video to needy families and provides medicine for those who can’t afford it. This community aspect is so unique that it won a 1999 Ashoka innovation fellowship for one of the founders, Carmen Cisternas. Part of the family support are the evening classes for parents. Janet Piña, who left school more than twenty years ago, attends the night school with her son, a former Luis Beltrán student who failed his junior year. “First, he repeated the first year of high school, and after that, the third year of high school,” recalls Piña. “Because I was also missing the third and fourth years of high school, we had the great idea for us both to study together.” Now, Piña and her son are finishing their studies. “We’re going to graduate!” says the forty-year-old, breaking into laughter. “I’m proud, because it’s super hard, but all the same, I’ve done it.” Laila Weir is a freelance writer and editor based in Santiago, Chile. Her work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and online publications around the world. The school is a rarity in a country known for the low quality of education. and returning all their materials. Olivares sees another difference between his school and the remnants of Pinochet’s system. Under the military, he says, “the most important thing inside a classroom was discipline.” He adds that most Chilean schools continue to use a rigid disciplinary system in which “inspectors,” not teachers, handle problems by consulting a rule book to find automatic punishments for a litany of misbehaviors. Olivares says Luis Beltrán uses a guide agreed on by parents, students, and school representatives that offers a gradually escalating LOIC COMOLLI AND LAILA WEIR EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 37 http://www.edutopia.org/colegio-san-luis-beltran-video http://EDUTOPIA.ORG
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