“The reason why we are not in solidarity with each other is
because the moment that we are, there is nothing left to do but love each
other.”
-
Participant, Teacher Workshop
(possible paraphrase of Oscar Romero)
“Finally I feel free to speak my truth.” - Participant, teacher workshop
Eighty-nine teachers, plus fifteen staff, equals 104 total
participants in the 2017 Contextos – Bread Loaf Peace Literacy Conference. We
gathered at 8:30 for the opening ceremony, kicked off by Alan’s Taiko drumming
performance, conducted on a pair of plastic buckets secured for the occasion.
Jennifer Correas gave opening remarks, and I spoke on behalf of the Bread Loaf
Peace Literacy Network. At nine, we broke off into three workshops - “La
Melodia de Tu Palabra” (The Melody of Your Words) with Alan, Lily, Esmeralda, Berfalia
and Ixkik; “Tejiendo Nuestras Historias” (Weaving our Stories) with Rex, Maria,
Melvin and Jennifer; and “Memoria y Teatro” (Memory and Theater) with me,
Carlos, Celena and Lorena. The workshops
took place from 9am-12noon, including a 20-minute refreshment break. Each had
about 30 participants. We had lunch from 12-1pm, followed by another session in
which we discussed classroom application of what we had done during the morning
session. At 1:30, we reconvened as a large group for an open mic. The conference was hosted by ESEN, a business school that partners with ConTextos and offers the space. It was a gorgeous campus - think of a small college in a tropical setting among stands of bamboo. The spaces were large, technology was excellent, and the environment was lovely.
It was an emotional morning, including a wide range of
emotions. There was much laughter and joy, and also tears, and pain. Most of
our participants lived through the brutal Salvadoran civil war from 1980-1992
(some of the brutality endorsed and funded by the USA, but that’s another
story). For many of our participants, the war has been a story they don’t
discuss. One participant in a workshop today told her very personal, very
difficult story, explaining that she doesn’t talk about it because it’s took
painful – but in doing so, she was in fact talking about it.
In the Weaving our Stories workshop, Jennifer told the story
of Maria of Pequin, which I referenced in a previous blog post, and how it
deeply affected her. Before she was done, hands went up in the room from others
who had similar stories. In the end, one participant related that “finally I
feel free to speak my truth.” It is a principle of Bread Loaf writing workshops
that participants are encouraged to speak their truth. It was a powerful
principle at work today.
The open mic afternoon, mc’d by the irrepressible Carlos
Recinos (ABL ’15), began with a performance by the “Melody of Your Words”
participants, who had re-written John Lennon’s song “Imagine” with their own
words, and sang it in three parts. It was stunning, and tears began to flow. In
my opening remarks, I expressed our belief that by coming together across
boundaries to create and share, we can make the world a more peaceful place.
The 30-person choir singing their own version of “Imagine” included teachers
from El Salvador, Guatemala, and the USA, and a nun from Nicaragua. It was a
special moment.
The open mic continued, including a performance by a theater
group, many poems, memoirs, and testimonies. Some were funny, some were fun, some
were emotive and serious. It lasted an hour. Celena Cuy, a teacher from
Collegion Impacto School in Guatemala, read an “I remember…” memoir written in
Kaqchikel (pronounce “catch-a-keel”), an indigenous language spoken by 7% of
the Guatemalan population. Rex Lee Jim read a poem in Navajo. Amaryllis Lopez
of Lawrence read her name poem in English. And many read pieces in Spanish. Our
rule is that you can write in any language, form or register, and we heard many
today – four languages, various language codes, poems, memoirs, plays, and
song. It was very Bread Loafian.
After the open mic there was a flurry of selfies, hugs,
thank you’s and I will miss you’s. Those of us visiting from the US were deeply
moved by the experience, and grateful to have been a part.
We headed back to the ConTextos offices, where I sat down
with the evaluation forms. Even with my
poor ability at reading Spanish, I could tell they were “off the hook” (to
quote my boss, Lou Bernieri). They were uniformly positive, with folks Wee asked participants to write down 3
strategies they planned to take back to their classroom, 2 ideas for future
conferences, and 1 additional comment. A
representative sampling of the comments is posted below.
One of the comments is perhaps the best compliment I have
ever heard for Bread Loaf: “[these workshops] make innovative, dynamic,
creative teachers committed to education.”
Over dinner at Pupusa Factory (my favorite pupusa place in
Santa Tecla – Lily prefers El Peche Cosme), we reflected on the day and shared
other stories. In the theater workshop I helped facilitate, many participants
wrote some deeply personal, emotive stories, but chose not to share those in
the performances. Other facilitators observed the same thing – people accessed
those memories, and some wrote about them, but they aren’t able to share them.
A lot did happen today, but it’s only one day. I never want to delude myself
into thinking that a group of self-important people from the US can show up,
run a one-day writing workshop, and make the whole world better. It doesn’t
work like that. The wounds of the war run deep, the stories are both horrific
and enobling, and the process of healing certainly does not belong to me. I was
honored to hear some of the stories today. If we were able to give folks some
models to help them speak their truth, we have been successful. But only those
who know the truth have the right to speak it.
Tomorrow we leave from the ConTextos offices at 6am for a
five-hour drive into the northeast mountains, to a small town called Perquin.
We will arrive about noon, and spend the afternoon conducting a workshop for
~100 youth. We will spend the evening in Perquin, hold meetings on Saturday
morning, and drive back Saturday afternoon.
I do not expect that I will be able to post to the blog in
Perquin – so I will have to take notes the old-fashioned way, in my notebook. I
will post again on Saturday night.
Thanks for reading,
Rich
Some of the Comments
Excellent active participation workshops. Dynamic, creative,
easy to implement.
Everything was excellent!
Can it be 2 or 3 days?
Why do they not do these workshops more often?
God bless you, continue with that enthusiasm
Continuously create new workshops for all teachers in our
country to motivate,
educate, and improve education for
all
No recommendations – everything was excellent
Expand to more schools!
Grateful for this workshop, since I have learned a lot
There is no way to say thanks: only thank you and blessings
Congratulations for being prepared for what was a very
emotional day
The dynamics helped me de-stress. They taught me how to
write about our history.
Makes innovative, dynamic, creative teachers committed to
education
Wow!
I thought it was perfect – they should only have more time
This conference moved my emotions by writing
When and where is the next meeting?
To write what I think
The day has been gratifying and beautiful and has given us
the opportunity to
express ourselves
Thank you for your time and dedication to improve the
education and our country.
What you will take
back to the classroom?
Diverse methodologies and activities
How to help students face emotions through games
To include this space in any discipline
Principles of writing our stories
The rules of writing workshops
Write our truth!
Before beginning class, do body exercises to activate the
mind and predispose it to the activity of the classroom
The photograph exercise for memory
Creativity
I will form a poetry club!
Memory and theater
Writing odes
To write our stories
Free myself from fears
Be an agent of change
Apply music to learning
Motivate students by engaging them with movement
Schools Represented at the Teacher Workshop
Schools Represented at the Teacher Workshop
CE Soledad Moreno de Benavides
CE Aldea de las Mercedes
CE Cantón de Sisiguayo
CE Ingeniero Guillermo Borja Nathan
Colegio Impacto/Estrella de Mar (Guatemala)
CE Cantón Hato de Reyes
Católico Ricardo Poma
CE El Milagro
Kinder Little Ones
Ministerio de Educación
Externado de San José
CE Salvador Martínez Figueroa
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