N áhuatl mandatory in public schools in Mexico City

[Marcos Villaseñor]

I am looking forward to read what the Indigenous leaderships says  
about the subject.

Marcos


On Aug 19, 2007, at 10:08 AM, Douglas Hinds wrote:

>
> Hola Maria, Kier, Marcos, chelo and any others following this
> thread.
>
> Maria Bolivar wrote:
>
>> What I am lamenting is not that they included Nahuatl in the
>> mandatory curriculum, rather that they did it as they did, by
>> decree
>
> Without a legal disposition no funds would be available for
> implementing the program. Since (aside from property taxes) only the
> federal government can level taxes, the govt. of the D.F. depends on
> funding from the federal govt (governed by a different party) in
> order to carry this out. No decree, no funding (and they don't get
> enough funds to fully implement their programs, as is).
>
>> and suddenly or as a spur of the moment thing.
>
> We don't really know how much analysis and planning supported the
> decision to make nahuatl universally and obligatorily taught in
> all of Mexico City's public junior high and high schools.
>
> Nor do we know what motived Marcelo to do this, or what practical
> benefits (if any) will accrue from the program if and when it's
> implemented, or how well it will be implemented. We'll just have to
> wait and see.
>
> Personally, I would like to see more support for the sustainable,
> equitable and integral development (and compatible with the C169 of
> the the UN's ILO) of Mexico's indigenous communities, so they
> wouldn't have to migrate to the D.F. and other overpopulated
> megacities (including this one).
>
> I tried calling a friend (Nahua Governor for San Luis Potosi,
> Hidalgo and part of Veracruz and Tamaulipas) who teaches in the
> bilingual teachers college located in Tamazunchale to see what he
> knows about this, as well as an ex-head of Sedesol's (Social
> Development Sec.) Indigenous Program (now teaching law in the UNAM)
> but neither was home at the moment.
>
> In any case, what's to know? It's too soon! We'll just have to wait
> and see what happens, won't we?
>
> Lastly, I think it's important to recognize that in order to get to
> somewhere that you want to go, you have to begin from wherever you
> are, and a step is a step.
>
> Governments are necessary evils and in the best of cases they design
> and implement policies that exploit natural and human resources in
> socially and ecologically responsible ways (and they could learn a
> lot from their indigenous predecessors in that regard).
>
> I wouldn't expect a whole lot from the present federal govt. in that
> sense but they have a chance to do some good over the next 5+ years.
> (It would be nice if politicians had to take an oath similar to the
> one doctors take: Above all, do no harm).
>
>> Languages like Náhuatl, Huichol, Yaqui, Maya deserve some serious
>> attention and the implementation of long term measures so more
>> people can access them and teach it. I frankly do not think there
>> are many programs in Mexico training teachers of any of the native
>> American languages.
>
>> As for English and French, I wish you did not considered them
>> odious -as per by decree also-, but useful. We should learn from
>> the fact English has been a mandatory language and very few people
>> speak it fluently or care to learn it. I would follow the French
>> or German education model in that area. French kids do learn
>> German, English and Spanish. They spend time in the country to
>> perfect it. They choose it because those are the languages of
>> their neighbors. You may learn French and English, fluently, in
>> Private Mexican Schools but not in Public Schools. My son had a
>> teacher in Zacatecas Public School who asked him not to answer and
>> who got mad at my son when he attempted to explain to him he was
>> misusing a word in English.
>
> Most of the time what's taught is neither English nor Spanish but
> rather, English as conceived by someone unfamiliar with it's sounds
> and sentence structure.
>
> Agradeciendo   de   antemano  la  atención  brindada,  aprovecho  la
> oportunidad para manifestarles la seguridad de nuestra mayor estima.
>
> Douglas Hinds
> Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural, A.C.
> Guadalajara (actualmente)
>
>
>
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