So after years, decades, I’ve returned to the location of my first teaching job, when I was 22 years old. Concordia Language Villages. Think summer camp, but in one of several different world languages. Here is a reflection from the back of the class at El Lago del Bosque, the Spanish Village.
There’s class at 12:00 (lunch isn’t until later, this is the Spanish Village with meals that feel late to me but are culturally appropriate). I opt to visit the most advanced class and, as I introduce myself in Spanish, I get stuck in unfamiliar verb forms and vocabulary. That’s how it is to be an intermediate non-native speaker. You have to have thick skin. The teacher, Rafa, helps me out with a correct past tense form.
For some reason this class, the most advanced one, is all girls, eight of them. The teacher Rafa is from Chile.
On the board is a message in Nordic runes (!) and on the walls a variety of papers related to the class and to the camp in general. The back wall has only one diminutive sign, high and to the right: La pared, “the wall.” That’s it.
Rafa introduces the activity, a simulation of the parliament in Chile. He lays out half sheets of paper on the middle of the table, each with a different political party. The students have to pick which party they are going to represent. Partido Democracia Cristiana, Convergencia Social, Revolución Democratica … They have eight parties in total to choose from, there are actually 22 different recognized political parties in Chile. The students each pull one of the sheets to them, reading. They’ll probably look for a party with a platform that they agree with, that would be one’s tendency, but of course they could pick a political party to represent that they don’t personally align with. The purpose here, I’m sure, is to work respectfully with different viewpoints. One good way to do that is to see the world through another’s eyes, whether it be a governmental system in another country or a political platform that is not your own. Or both.
The room is quiet as they read. A fan churns in the corner. Every now and then Rafa helps with a word or phrase that isn’t clear.
They talk about which parties are on the right, the central left, and which parties are “outsiders,” which is apparently the word used in Spanish. After a bit of discussion the students, in four pairs, have each chosen a party to represent. Now they have to think as though they are from the party they have chosen. Rafa lays out the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goal 16: “Peace, Justice. and Strong Institutions.” Each pair chooses two goals that their party would like to support.
Pretty high level stuff, here at summer camp. Each pair of student will begin creating a plan for how to advance their party’s agenda. They are asked to think about projects they could create and promote. What would the projects be? How could they move forward? Rafa gives them some time to think it through, answering a few vocabulary questions, giving them time to work in their pairs. The students prepare their points. Closest to me are the two girls representing the Partido de la Gente. Sounds good! I sort of wish I felt like the partidos in the United States felt more like they were “of the people.”
As class draws to a close, Rafa asks the students to focus now on one particular point. They are to bring a more specific focus to the work they’ve done so far, choosing one measure to pursue in depth. There isn’t time now, but I bet in a future class they’ll each present the initiative that they have chosen. The other pairs will be able to ask questions, disagree, and present their own viewpoints from the perspective of the party they are representing.
This summer camp certainly isn’t just canoeing and campfires (though I hope they have those opportunities, too). It’s politics, society, communicating with each other in a developing language, and coming into contact with the different ways we try, as people, to share our time together peacefully, productively, and fairly.