School of Social and Political Education for Young People
The purpose of the School is training young people to acquire the necessary competencies to exercise citizenship more actively and to be committed to a more fraternal and united society.
The proposal is finalist in the “Global Junior Challenge 2006”, where it was chosen among 600 projects from all over the World on the use of ICT in education and the development of young people.
The School of Social and Political Education for Young People was born in 2004 from the alliance between Cláritas and the Argentine MPU (Political Movement for Unity).
Cláritas Foundation contributed professional and operative resources to materialize this proposal by means of a financing from the Italian Episcopal Conference.
The two-year duration school has national reach and integrates new information technologies and communication into a highly innovative proposal. Through a pat-time mode and blended learning it promotes the formation of local learning communities where young people of different opinions and social statuses are educated through dialogue and collaborative learning in order to get the necessary competencies to exercise citizenship from the perspective of fraternity as a political category.
From its inception in 2004 up to 2007 we received more than 900 applications.
Presentation booklet:http://www.mppu.org.ar/CuadenilloEscueladeJovenesBN2.PDF
Contents
The proposal is structured around two core ideas:
• “Fraternity” as content, procedure and purpose of political action.
• The construction of Latin-American unity as contribution to universal fraternity.
The training aims at allowing young people to interpret Latin-American reality from the abovementioned perspective and at experiencing, through local political projects, a way to overcome current fragmentation and to implement a policy to transform such reality.
Procedure
In the country's main cities local groups are made up of 15 to 20 young people from 18 to 30 years old together with a tutor. These groups receive material through the Virtual Campus. The education training material is prepared by an international community of university professors and the students can interact with teachers and with other young people in the country.
The school is organized into modules and in two annual education courses. Each course concludes with a two and a half days integration seminar where professors and young people from all over the country gather.
Pedagogical pact
A key element of the school is the pedagogical pact made by all professors, tutors, and students, which proposes a particular manner to relate to others in order to build a true learning community, which in turn is a platform and laboratory of the reality intended to be constructed. This pact stamps in the school a participation mark consolidating community bonds and it considers diversity as an enrichment opportunity. It is a permanent reference point. In an opinion poll taken to students, they all agreed to value the pact as a key element of the experience (71% gave maximum relevance to it) and one of the elements of greater influence in the new manner to understand and to exercise community commitment.
Local political projects
Objectives:
• To experience what means to work together in a specific political project using fraternity as method, principle and purpose of action.
• To acquire tools to make a diagnosis and plan to deal with a real problem.
• To deepen knowledge and commitment with local communities.
• To integrate and apply conceptual and procedural contents dealt with in the school.
Examples of projects conducted
• Project of municipal ordinance “Let’s clean up our town” (Mar del Plata)
• Assistance and advice in "PARTICIPATIVE BUDGET" (Nazareno, Salta)
• “Political manifesto” at electoral campaign for candidates and voters (Salta)
• To make people aware about building insecurity at University and notification for a dialogue panel to deal with it (Gral. Roca, Río Negro)
• Support to the political and community organization of “settlement”. (Barrio Atahualpa in Neuquén)
• Workshops on citizenship participation for young people and schools (Cerrito -Entre Ríos-, GBA Sur, Buenos Aires)
• A season of films to debate in relation to Latin-American reality (Buenos Aires)
• Pre electoral debate among candidates (CABA)
• Organization of conferences, participation in media and congresses; etc.
