Por la escuela del hacer

With the massification of schools that has expanded access to studies, although without reducing the inequality of academic success, the school has become such a relentless classifying machine that diplomas play a decisive role in access to education and to employment. One of the main risks induced by this evolution is that of reducing school cultures and learning to this classification function. Reasonably, most students learn for success without becoming deeply attached to school cultures.

So, what should one learn? Of course, we will agree on the need to provide all students with the basic knowledge. But reflection on programmes is necessarily limited to the extent that each discipline defends its programme and that the programme ages faster than knowledge. Therefore, we must change our way of thinking, considering that useful knowledge for societies and individuals is what remains after students finish school.

To achieve this goal, students must do something at school. It is not enough that they learn science or literature, they have to do scientific experiments, they have to write, they have to put on plays, they have to play sports, they have to build Fab Labs, etc. The things we do are the ones that remain in learning, skills and memories. Although knowledge is currently available everywhere thanks to screens, the classroom should be the place where students do something, produce, experiment, apply their intellectual and social skills. The ranking feature will not stop, but everyone will have learned how to interact with each other. Obviously, it is a cultural revolution and we know that they are the longest and most difficult to achieve.