Martín López Calva: La mala educación

“Evaluar es hacer a otros lo que no quieres que te hagan a ti” decía irónicamente un profesor. Tenía razón, porque los procesos de evaluación en nuestro sistema educativo han sido siempre vistos como mecanismos de castigo o “ajusticiamiento” por parte de quien ejerce el poder dentro del aula, la escuela o el gobierno.

Conviene reflexionar sobre esta cultura distorsionada de la evaluación a propósito de la reciente aplicación de la prueba ENLACE.

Si bien es cierto que todo instrumento de evaluación es mejorable y que los procesos de aplicación de esta prueba necesitan irse afinando, también es verdad que la existencia de una evaluación nacional estandarizada cuyos resultados se dan a conocer públicamente es un gran avance para nuestra educación.

Porque los resultados anuales de ENLACE, revisados desde una visión positiva de la evaluación educativa, es decir, desde la concepción de la evaluación como un proceso necesario y permanente de retroalimentación para la mejora de la calidad, pueden ser de gran utilidad para que cada escuela trabaje de manera colegiada y colaborativa con sus docentes los aspectos en que sus estudiantes muestren deficiencias concretas.

Lo anterior redundaría en una cultura de mejora continua que resulta muy necesaria en nuestras escuelas.

Para lograr este objetivo, tendrían que cumplirse dos condiciones mínimas: 1. Que los directivos, profesores y padres de familia sepan exactamente qué es lo que ENLACE evalúa y no pretendan sacar conclusiones o tomar decisiones pedagógicas más allá de lo que la prueba mide y 2. Que cada escuela revise los resultados comparando con otras instituciones similares pero sobre todo, analizando los aspectos en los que la misma institución avanza o retrocede año con año en cada nivel (la competencia fundamental es respecto de sí mismos).

Por otra parte, una sociedad como la mexicana, que está luchando –con muchos problemas y contradicciones– por llegar a ser verdaderamente democrática y equitativa, tiene que construir un sistema educativo que se sustente en una “cultura de la transparencia” y la rendición de cuentas.

La construcción de una auténtica “cultura de la evaluación” a través de elementos como ENLACE, puede ser un factor que contribuya de manera gradual a una reforma educativa en nuestro país puesto que proporcionará información para una participación social más efectiva y corresponsable en la gestión escolar.

Los resultados de México en este tipo de pruebas a nivel internacional son preocupantes y el desempeño de Puebla en ENLACE no es tampoco satisfactorio.

Pero “la mala educación” no es resultado de las deficiencias de los instrumentos o de la aplicación de las pruebas. “La mala educación” es resultado de procesos de enseñanza–aprendizaje marcados por la rutina, la falta de reflexión y retroalimentación, así como de la opacidad y la falta de rendición de cuentas de nuestro sistema educativo.

Este texto se encuentra en: http://circulodeescritores.blogspot.com
Sus comentarios son bienvenidos.

*El autor es académico de la Universidad Iberoamericana
* La Jornada de Oriente
* http://www.lajornadadeoriente.com.mx/2008/04/29/puebla/c2ibe10.php

Amy Goodman: Former Marine Returns to Iraq as Embedded Photographer Only to be Ordered Home

James Lee is a former Marine from California who served two tours of duty in Iraq in 2001 to 2004. He’s been back in Iraq more recently, this time as an embedded photographer. Lee is now a journalism student at San Francisco State University and filed reports from Iraq for the college newspaper, the Golden Gate XPress. But earlier this month, Lee was abruptly de-embedded. On April 2nd, just before General Petraeus was due to brief Congress on progress in Iraq, Lee was ordered to leave Basra. [includes rush transcript]
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AMY GOODMAN: Just a few days ago, we were in Santa Barbara, celebrating KCSB, the community radio station of the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was there that I met James Lee, a former Marine from California who served two tours of duty in Iraq in 2001 and 2004. In 2004, he was in Fallujah where he got his finger shot off in friendly fire. He has been back in Iraq more recently, this time as an embedded photographer. Lee is now a journalism student at San Francisco State University, filed reports from Iraq for the Golden Gate XPress. But earlier this month, Lee was abruptly de-embedded. On April 2, just before General Petraeus was due to brief Congress on progress in Iraq, Lee was ordered to leave Basra, just a few hours after he had gotten there. I spoke to Lee while on the road in Santa Barbara.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell me your experience.

JAMES LEE: My name is James Lee. I am a photojournalist. I’m also a Marine veteran, served two combat deployments in Iraq. And after my last deployment, I was—in Fallujah back in 2004, I was shot by another Marine unit during a combat operation and ended up being evacuated after being injured during a friendly fire incident. After leaving the Marine Corps, I decided to return to Iraq as a photojournalist.

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened?

JAMES LEE: I was with the military for about five months total. My last assignment was in the city of Basra. I had become aware of a declining security situation in some neighborhoods around Baghdad and in Basra and decided that I wanted to go down and photograph to document the Iraqi army’s ability or inability to conduct independent combat operations in Iraq.

I arrived in Basra after a three-day convoy with Iraqi soldiers from Baghdad down to Basra. I was only in Basra about four hours, when I was notified by the public affairs office assigned to Basra that they didn’t want any Western media in Basra covering the fighting and that an aircraft was been dispatched down to Basra to pick me up to fly me back to Baghdad.

AMY GOODMAN: What was the reason they gave?

JAMES LEE: Originally I was told that an order came directly from the office of General Petraeus, that they didn’t want any Western media covering the events and—

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

JAMES LEE: Because Petraeus was in Washington at the time, and they were concerned about images coming out from Basra that didn’t support their mission at the time.

AMY GOODMAN: Is that what you speculate, or that’s what they said?

JAMES LEE: That’s what I was told by the public affairs officer; that’s what he thought the reason was. I thought that it contradicted some guidelines that General Petraeus had published to his subordinate command directly relating to the media. And I obtained Petraeus’s personal phone number a few weeks earlier from a French reporter who had interviewed him. So I called that number, and he had already left for Washington, but one of his adjutants that answered the phone said that that order didn’t come from Petraeus and that I had every right to remain in Basra.

I notified the unit that I was with about that fact, and they changed their story and said, “Well, you’re now able to stay.” But about two hours later, they reversed their position and said now a new authority was ordering me out of Basra and that it wasn’t Petraeus. I was told that it was a two-star Marine general; they would not identify who he was. And later, once I arrived back in Baghdad after being forced to leave Basra, I was told that the order now came from the Iraqi army themselves. So, they had quite a few reasons why I couldn’t be there doing my job.

AMY GOODMAN: Why didn’t they want you to see what—or what was the reality on the ground?

JAMES LEE: The reality on the ground was, more than a thousand Iraqi soldiers refused to fight the Mahdi Army, whether they were afraid that they didn’t have the ability to do it or they didn’t believe that they should be fighting the Mahdi Army. For whatever reason, many of them put down their weapons and refused to go into Basra and fight the Mahdi Army. And I think those images would have been very powerful, and I think it would have created a lot of doubt on the part of the American public about the Iraqis army’s commitment to coalition missions in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: What was Fallujah like when you were there as a soldier?

JAMES LEE: Extremely chaotic. We had surrounded the city of Fallujah—

AMY GOODMAN: What month was this in 2004?

JAMES LEE: April.

AMY GOODMAN: The first siege.

JAMES LEE: The first siege. The city had basically been evacuated by most people, but there were still pockets of some civilians who decided to remain behind and safeguard their homes and shops.

AMY GOODMAN: And how long were you there then before you were shot?

JAMES LEE: I was only in Fallujah for about a week when I was shot by another Marine unit that was operating in the same area that I was in.

AMY GOODMAN: And how did they shoot you?

JAMES LEE: They misidentified my position as an enemy position, and I was targeted by my own troops. And I ended up—I was shot through the left hand.

AMY GOODMAN: Where you seriously injured? You lost the top of your finger?

JAMES LEE: I’ve lost some use of two fingers. They reattached the middle finger, and it remained attached for about a year. And then they decided that it would be best to remove it, so they amputated it after about a year.

AMY GOODMAN: What was the difference between being a soldier and an embedded journalist?

JAMES LEE: The ability to ask questions and to interact, I think, on a more intimate level with Iraqi civilians. I mean, I had no interaction, really, with Iraqis while I was wearing a uniform. It wasn’t until I returned as a civilian journalist that I had the chance to sit down and speak with Iraqi interpreters and those Iraqis that did speak English.

AMY GOODMAN: Did your view of Iraq change?

JAMES LEE: Uh—

AMY GOODMAN: Speaking to Iraqis?

JAMES LEE: I think it did. It was my first opportunity, I think, to meet Iraqis. I mean, I’d been to Iraq twice before, once for the invasion and once for the battle of Fallujah during my second deployment, and never had the chance to interact with an Iraqi. And it wasn’t until the end of 2006, when I returned to Iraq, that I had the chance to sit down and speak with Iraqis for the first time.

AMY GOODMAN: And how did the soldiers treat you as a journalist?

JAMES LEE: You know, I had thought returning back to Iraq as a former Marine veteran and now as a civilian photographer, that I’d have greater access. And I realized that once you take the uniform off and you pick up a camera, they no longer view you as a Marine veteran. You’re now a journalist. And I wasn’t always welcome. I had some problems trying to tell the stories that I wanted to tell.

AMY GOODMAN: Like what?

JAMES LEE: One of my embeds when I was in Afghanistan, I was embedded with an Army unit, and I was forced to remain on a forward operating base for ten days and was never allowed to leave the base with a patrol or to go out into the community where the real stories were. So, my only access to any of the locals was an Iraqi army unit that was housed in the same forward operating base.

AMY GOODMAN: An Afghan?

JAMES LEE: In Afghanistan.

AMY GOODMAN: An Afghan army unit?

JAMES LEE: An Afghan army unit. So I had the opportunity to speak with them about their feelings about us being in Afghanistan and about the changes in their country, but if it wasn’t for those soldiers being on the same base, I would have basically been locked out of any access with the Afghanis.

AMY GOODMAN: And why were they trying to stop you from meeting them?

JAMES LEE: I was told that earlier in the year they had had some problems with German reporters, and they weren’t happy with the story that was told, and they were no longer going to support media missions. And they were just going to wait me out.

AMY GOODMAN: What did the Afghan soldiers tell you?

JAMES LEE: That there’s really limited opportunities for them in Afghanistan, and by joining the Afghan military, at least it’s an option for some credibility, some income, some stability. But most of them, I thought, would rather be doing other things with their time. They were really separated from their families and from their communities. And they’re pretty isolated when they’re out serving in these forward operating bases.

AMY GOODMAN: Ultimately in Basra, they got a plane to get you?

JAMES LEE: They did. They originally wanted me out that day when I was first notified, but the weather wouldn’t permit them to land. So I had to remain over for about another ten hours before they were able to get a flight the following morning. During that period of time, I was able to go out and take some photographs and interview some of the Iraqi soldiers that were getting ready to move into Basra.

AMY GOODMAN: A thousand refused to fight?

JAMES LEE: Over—I think it was 1,300 was the last report that I heard.

AMY GOODMAN: That is the embedded reporter James Lee, actually a former Marine, before he was injured in Fallujah in 2004. After he was injured, he went back to Camp Pendleton. Then Hurricane Katrina hit, and he and a fellow Marine wanted to go to Katrina, to New Orleans. They were told they couldn’t go, so they took vacation, and they went down to New Orleans anyway. This is what James Lee described happened when he went to New Orleans.

AMY GOODMAN: You were shipped back to the United States. Can you talk about that time period and what you did?

JAMES LEE: Sure. After being injured, I was pulled out of my role as a rifleman, and I was assigned as an instructor running a facility at Camp Pendleton that taught Marines water survival. During that timeframe, Hurricane Katrina had hit New Orleans, and I contacted my command about letting a group of Marines travel to New Orleans to assist with the rescue operations, and I was told by my command that that’s not possible, that unless we’re requested, we can’t go.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what did you do?

JAMES LEE: Myself and one other Marine had put in a request for vacation time, and we both took two weeks off, and without our command knowing, we grabbed some equipment and drove all the way to New Orleans to help out.

AMY GOODMAN: Why did they say you couldn’t go?

JAMES LEE: Because the Marines hadn’t been formally tasked to go down there and assist with recovery operations or rescue operations, we weren’t able to go as small unit. The Marine Corps also identified New Orleans as a no-travel zone, which meant no one in the military was allowed to go there for any reason.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what happened when you got there?

JAMES LEE: As myself and the other Marine drove to New Orleans, we contacted FEMA on our cell phone and coordinated getting a duty assignment with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. And once we arrived in downtown New Orleans, we were paired up with other rescuers, and we began to conduct search and rescue operations in the city.

AMY GOODMAN: And how long did you do that for?

JAMES LEE: We were there for about ten days. And I think on day six or seven, an Associated Press photographer happened to take our photographs, and those photographs ran across the nation.

AMY GOODMAN: What do they show you doing?

JAMES LEE: The photograph showed me talking to a displaced resident from the Lower Ninth Ward. He was trying to argue that he wanted to remain in his neighborhood, and I was explaining to him that we were evacuating everybody out of the area. So it was basically us having some dialogue inside of a boat.

AMY GOODMAN: And were you dressed as a Marine?

JAMES LEE: I was not. We attempted to conceal our identities by just wearing green flight suits. And I think the caption identified me and the other Marine as police officers.

AMY GOODMAN: Which you’re not.

JAMES LEE: Which we’re not.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what happened when those pictures ran?

JAMES LEE: Those pictures ran nationwide. They were in the New York Times, LA Times. And our command ended up seeing the photograph, and they placed a phone call and ordered us to return back to Camp Pendleton.

AMY GOODMAN: How fast?

JAMES LEE: They wanted us there immediately. I think we drove nonstop, and we got back in about two days.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you punished?

JAMES LEE: We weren’t. We were told as long as we didn’t let people know what we were down there doing, that we would be reimbursed for the days that we took off and that there wouldn’t be any punitive action taken against us.

AMY GOODMAN: Why not?

JAMES LEE: I was told that at that point so many people in the United States were questioning why the military wasn’t there that they thought that it would be inappropriate to punish us for what we should have been doing in the first place.

AMY GOODMAN: That is former Marine, James Lee. I met him in Santa Barbara, as we continue to be on the road. James Lee then went on to be an embedded reporter and was pulled out of Basra. He’s at San Francisco State University in California.

* Amy Goodman
* Democracy Now!
* http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/28/former_marine_returns_to_iraq_as

Marcos Roitman Rosenmann: Huelgas de inmigrantes sin papeles

La crisis actual del capitalismo tiene sus peculiaridades. Mientras los empresarios, grandes capitalistas, banqueros y patronal piden a gritos la intervención salvadora del Estado por medio de subvenciones, exenciones tributarias, mayor flexibilización del mercado laboral y bajar el salario mínimo, los trabajadores inmigrantes sin papeles van a la huelga. Eso sucede en Francia y en el sur de España. Algo está cambiando. Se trata de una circunstancia novedosa. La contradicción de un neocapitalismo de corte oligárquico, cuya organización laboral se fundamenta en la concentración del poder, la descentralización de la producción y la discontinuidad del tiempo de trabajo, facilita el nacimiento de un empleo precario cuya figura es el inmigrante sin papeles. Personas abocadas a no escatimar en las ofertas de trabajo y aceptar cualquier opción. Si bien es una seña de identidad del capitalismo trasnacional, lo específico de la flexibilización del mercado laboral y de los inmigrantes sin papeles es su ubicación en los sectores de la construcción, la hostelería, la maquila, la agricultura y el servicio doméstico.

Si se quiere una garantía de éxito y continuidad en la contratación de ilegales es necesaria una complicidad entre las organizaciones empresariales, las instituciones estatales y los empleados. Nada parece alterar este equilibrio. Unos a otros se cubren las espaldas, asumiendo los riesgos de la ilegalidad. Cuando hay una inspección son alertados, se retiran o simplemente se hace la vista gorda. En momentos de auge y euforia del capitalismo, donde el dinero circula y hay para todos, nadie se queja. Unos explotan y otros son explotados. Las ganancias se reparten desigualmente, pero cubren las expectativas. Incluso se negocia al alza y se pagan sueldos aceptables, según la benevolencia del patrón. Si se producen accidentes en el trabajo, en España y en Francia, la seguridad social sigue siendo uno de las pocos servicios públicos no privatizados por la acción del liberalismo, y cubre todos los costes médicos. Todo está atado y bien atado. Además, los costes de la baja laboral se pagan bajo cuerda. Nadie sale perjudicado. Incluso, según sea el alcance del daño, pérdida de una mano, del ojo o traumatismo, se puede negociar la regularización de la residencia y la incorporación a la empresa. Aun así, los sin papeles, para convertirse en inmigrantes de primera, cuando acuden a las instancias legales lo hacen a título individual y tutelados por abogados y especialistas. No se asocian, no se plantean una acción colectiva frente a la patronal, ni solicitan de sus empleadores el cumplimiento de la ley. Soportan colas de pernocta y vigilia en las puertas de comisarias y ministerios esperando obtener un número para acceder a una ventanilla donde un funcionario abrirá un expediente sin garantía de éxito. Pero no les importa, dan por seguro que el sufrimiento es el aliado para lograr la compasión del sistema y acceder a los papeles.

Con el euro por las nubes y el dólar por los suelos, el discurso del liberalismo económico se viene al traste. El libre mercado es una falacia. El capitalista gana todo lo que puede sin pensar en el futuro. Amasa su riqueza y cuando sus arcas se vacían pone el grito en el cielo evocando los males de un orden dislocado sin planificación económica y la dejadez de gobernantes en su deber de controlar la inflación, los salarios y los índices macroeconómicos. Implora una solución. El recetario es siempre el mismo. Ellos, los capitalistas, deben ser los receptores de las ayudas. Si alguien tiene que ajustarse el cinturón deben ser los trabajadores. Están acostumbrados a pasar hambre y sufrir penurias, forma parte de su naturaleza. No crean riqueza y en tiempos de crisis son prescindibles. Ni qué decir de los inmigrantes; pueden ser repatriados de manera inmediata. Basta con reprimir sus demandas y desarticular sus organizaciones. El Estado debe actuar en consecuencia.

Sin embargo, en medio de este discurso ramplón se levanta otra realidad. El capitalismo realmente existente en Francia y en España, en sectores que dan lustre a la imagen turística, está en manos de trabajadores inmigrantes ilegales. En otras palabras, son los sin papeles quienes les sacan las castañas del fuego. Y ahora, este colectivo se ha puesto en huelga. En la hostelería, por ejemplo, se inicia un movimiento de gran alcance. Lo cual es un punto de inflexión. La reivindicación de derechos pone en cuestión por un lado, la política de inmigración y, por otro, los tópicos sobre quiénes son y cómo se comportan los inmigrantes. Los sin papeles ya no son los negros africanos, los amarillos asiáticos, los latinos narcotraficantes, delincuentes, mafiosos marginales: son trabajadores cuya dignidad no se arrebata desde el discurso xenófobo o racista del gobierno de Nicolas Sarkozy, en Francia, o Silvio Berlusconi, en Italia, o en la España incluso del Partido Socialista Obrero Español.

Ha sido la recesión del capitalismo especulativo, donde el despido se avizora como el horizonte probable lo que levanta la reivindicación del colectivo de los sin papeles. Han dicho basta. En París y en Andalucía se inicia la restauración. Las pérdidas no dejan indiferentes a la patronal. En algunos restaurantes llegan a 7 mil euros diarios. Los camareros, los cocineros, los dependientes no se presentan a trabajar. No hay quien lleve los platos a la mesa. Y por primera vez la huelga cuenta con voces de apoyo entre empresarios, que exigen un cambio en la política de inmigración. Hay que legalizar. Contratar a los sin papeles. En la agricultura está sucediendo algo similar. Las cosechas de temporada sufren los avatares de la unidad de acción de los sin papeles, trabajadores cuya dignidad se levanta y su voz se escucha alta y clara. El miedo se pierde y se rompe la dinámica del capitalismo trasnacional fundada en la mano de obra de ilegales explotados como mano de obra semiesclava. Son nuevos tiempos. Los inmigrantes transforman el proyecto de sociedad democrática con sus nuevas organizaciones y reivindicaciones. Esperemos que no sea flor de un día.

* La Jornada
* http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/04/29/index.php?section=opinion&article=015a1pol