Tag Archives: Learning

Going back or moving forward?

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Going back or moving forward? (English version)

by Ron Brenneman

After thirty-six years in Central America, I have decided it is time to move on and face the new challenge of going “back home”. Perhaps a more accurate portrayal would be to expand my area of activity to include the area where I once grew up.

I have no intention of completely abandoning El Salvador, but it is now time to step out of the day to day operational duties I had taken on in my adopted country. It is also time to introduce my children to their other country.

El Salvador has entered into a new phase. The new president calls it the end of the post-war, while some good friends, based on the Japanese experience after WWII, call it the beginning of the post-war era. Either way it is called, the recent Salvadoran presidential election marked a change and a drastic decline in the two major political parties.

Both ARENA and the FMLN were both created as instruments of war. A never-ending “cold war” between the two, a continuation of conflict set in rhetoric of the 80s, blocked out innovation and real progress as a nation for 27 years after the peace accords were signed. The voters, sick and tired of the situation, soundly booted both of them out and elected a fresh face.

Reflecting upon the election results and the underlying message, I was forced to revise my own thinking and participation in education, community development and business in El Salvador. I had made my home in northern Morazán, formerly one of the major theatres of the Salvadoran Civil War. I came to the realization that much of my vision and strategy for development is based on that same mindset of the conflict in the 80s.

While I do consider myself to be one of “the good guys”, I must accept that it is time to step aside. Outside intervention remains just that, regardless of good intentions. I recall a delightful conversation several years ago, in which an insightful friend analyzed my vision of community as the desire to install a Mennonite colony in Morazán. I did not agree, of course, nevertheless the need to be aware of baggage was a point well taken.

The era of change in El Salvador, of fresh vision and ideas, must have its own space to flourish and must be supported, but in such a manner that allows authentic local leadership and natural institutional building. Too long have outside models and standards been held up as ideal. I trust that to some degree, those outdated models took a beating in the election as well.

Before showering me with praise for such vision and foresight, I will confess that it took a jolting reminder of my own mortality, in the form of serious heart failure, to put me into a deeper reflective mode. This type of reminder quickly converts us into sages and wise philosophers.

Perkin Educational Opportunities Foundation (PEOF) and Amún Shéa Center for Integrated Development have grown into solid institutions over the past twelve years. Starting from that one-room schoolhouse in 2008, they have grown into a program with positive tangible impact on public education, especially in the province of Morazán.

Alliances and agreements with governmental and non-governmental organizations in strategic areas of interest to develop, such as Agro-ecology, Science and Technology and Forest Restoration broaden the bridge being built between development and relevant education.

The program has solid roots and I have full confidence in the capable team of executive directors who have taken on the responsibility, not just of maintaining but, of broadening the influence and impact of PEOF and Amún Shéa in El Salvador. While I will maintain a level of input with strategic planning and fundraising, the daily operations, administration and implementation will be managed by the Executive Director team.

To our loyal supporters and fundraisers, I would request you continue and redouble your valuable support to PEOF and Amún Shéa. With your support, I am confident the program will flourish and continue to bring positive change, and more so as an authentic homegrown solution to the problems facing a new El Salvador.

I recall conversations with several of you during the last several years regarding what would happen when I am no longer around. The ever-present question was of whether the program was just Ron´s project or if it would indeed take root on its own. A transition initiated in this manner truly has a much better chance of success than one of a sudden and dramatic departure.

As a family, we are currently working our way through the bureaucratic paperwork to get all of us up to the east coast, to the state of Delaware. Quite the challenge to just pick up and go. From what I´ve glimpsed so far, little is the same as when I left in 1983. While in many ways it seems like starting from scratch, family and friends form an important bridge over the gap of time and distance. Not entirely sure what we will do yet, but fishing, gardening, carpentry and pole lima beans are all in the picture.

Training our Children for Unemployment

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Irrigation

Fundamental changes are currently taking place in this brief and eternal moment we share as reality. The idea that we can actually take some type of action and “get things back to normal” brings to mind that oft repeated adage “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” There is no “going back!” We can only move forward.

Although we glowingly refer to our children as the future, we have largely surrendered their training for life to an outdated archaic educational system which does little more than remove them from our presence during part of the day. Indeed, that day often provides little in the way of substantive education. The little formation that does take place does not prepare them for the real world. An argument could actually be made that we are training them for unemployment. Yes, there are exceptions to this, but unfortunately they are exactly that; exceptions!

Globalization is a very interesting phenomenon, and one which has brought about a most profound change to humanity. Initiated primarily to leverage corporate advantage, it has morphed into the social field as well. Perhaps it is this corporate global takeover that has so homogenized our social and economic woes throughout the world? However an obvious advantage of globalization is that we are also now equipped to share experiences and build common solutions.

Our globally shared obstacles, to the happy and prosperous existence some once considered an inherent right, include:

  1. An ever deepening chasm between the populace and government as national laws respond to faceless “international agreements” and corporate interests, as opposed to the “will of the people”.
  2. A diminishing of “stable job markets,” resulting from outsourcing, hiring practices designed to reduce the burden of long-term financial commitment, a general reduction in available positions and unfunded government mandates.
  3. An unstable and abused natural environment, becoming much less friendly and bountiful in providing our basic needs, including air, water and food production.

Any political stance on these points is pointless and only distracts from the task at hand of forming our children for the new normal. The new normal calls for greater self-reliance, initiative and adaptability. It calls for greater cooperation at grassroots level and less dependency on bureaucratic systems. It calls for the construction of local alternatives and solutions. It calls for an educational system with a purpose, willing and able to adapt to local needs and, above all, willing to teach and learn new things.

We must start training our children to be productive and successful in a world where traditional employment becomes increasingly scarce. Their substance and happiness must be of their own making, as a result of cooperation and must not depend on external sources. Our task is to strive to understand the nature of current changes and to build pro-active strategies and responding flexibility into the programs and systems that prepare our children for their own changes.

Seeking Harmony

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I am in the midst of learning valuable lessons. As the lessons continue, I find it hard to say what the conclusions may be. I do now recognize that each person and event around me is one of my teachers. In all likelihood, the conclusion will continue to be just out of reach, just as the horizon is on a journey.

World-changing ideas seem to abound. So why then do things stay more or less the same? You would think that great ideas, formed to improve our wellbeing as humankind, would be snapped up like Black Friday Specials. Is status quo really that much more comfortable?

I have a passion. Much more than an idea, I have a working model with experience and results! It is a learning process that is currently changing the world around me. I thought that people would be falling over themselves to support it. It is rather self-evident, is it not, that things are not as they should be and if they had half the chance they should jump right in to fix it? Ok, that isn’t happening, so I´ve got to get more information out there to them.

So, while I thoroughly dislike the “asking” part of fundraising, I do understand it to be necessary. Otherwise the passion remains a dream, lovely but unrealized; great ideas circling back on themselves until I run out of steam. Traditional funding seems to be fading away or has made itself much harder to find. Social media is the new path to enlightenment and endowment, so I begin to facebook, publish, blog, tweet, scoop, pin, post, crowdfund, email and I´m not even sure what else, except that perfect keywords appear in my dreams only to dissipate right before awakening.

I find that I must lay aside my passion for a period, in order to realize it. I halt the focus on innovating the educational process to become a dull administrator struggling to cover a budget that has those unattractive operating costs and teacher´s salaries in it. The huge problem is finding the balance between getting the information out and becoming a nuisance to friend and stranger alike. “This is overkill, Ron, counterproductive, too many posts, too much, too often,” complains a good friend. Thirty minutes later, another writes, “Love those photos and the information. I´d really like to see more of that.” Ok, what to do?

This whole thing remains a learning process, which I now understand is its purpose, not only for the students enrolled in class but for all involved and particularly for me. The higher you dream, the more involved you must become in the nuts and bolts on the ground level. Harmony is not one-sided, but managing the extremes. A sincere thank you to all of you, my teachers.