WIÑAYPAQ

Educational Benefits

In 2008, the families involved in the project number approximately fourty, with the number of students who attended the school reaching sixty.

Unfortunately, many of Peru’s schools, use a policy of physical violence and fear in an attempt to control and “motivate.” Often militaristic, machista, and very hierarchically structured, this method does not promote independent and creative thinking and development.

In the case of our project, Wiñaypaq, we offer an alternative mode of education—one that helps the students to develop relationships of respect on many levels. This alternative system fosters respect between individuals, between cultures, between the sexes, and towards the natural world. The system also acknowledges and utilizes the values of the cultures from which the students come and helps to address the socio-economic needs of the families with a system built on respectful reciprocity.

We do this by having the students and teachers participate in activities such as sustainable agriculture, while following the agricultural calendar and rituals of the local population. In addition to teaching all of the basic subjects of an elementary school (math, science, history, etc), we place much importance on education through the liberal and performing arts (dance, music, theater, ceramics, painting, literature, communication etc).

Our system of education is based on the idea of nonviolence, equality, and respect of students’ rights. The school’s philosophy adheres to not only a respect and promotion of the Quechua language, but also to all of the characteristics of traditional culture, especially the importance of a respectful relationship between humans and the Pachamama, or “Mother Earth.” This relationship has its basis in the Andean vision of the cosmos and of the relationships of all of the beings on the earth. Most of the students come from communities that follow this “cosmovision.”

The school works hard to maintain a relationship with all of the communities from which the students come by participating in festivals, organizing the leaders of the families within the communities, participating in rituals concerning agriculture, and many other activities within the communities.

With year 2008 we start to work in the Agricultural Indigenous Community of Wayllarqocha, as well as in the Indigenous Community of Yanaruma, serving a new group of 20 children and an important number of young people and adults, organizing workshops of Andean textiles, nutrition, traditional Andean medicine, music, painting, etc.

Educational Philosophy

Intercultural Education in our school is not merely the presence of folkloric aspects from different cultures; rather, it is the respectful relationship and interaction of these cultures we promote. We see this educational philosophy as “Education of Relationships”. In this, we consider relationships between individuals (interpersonal), between cultures (intercultural), between humans and the natural world, and between individuals and their cultural heritage.

We have seen the results of this philosophy and hope to continue seeing results through the manner in which the students integrate themselves into the world with tolerance and respect. We want the students to preserve their cultural heritage while learning to always have respect for others and the cultures of others. In this way, we minimize, at least in the educational environment, the tensions and interpersonal conflicts—between sexes and cultures—that so commonly plague our society. Through this philosophy, the educational experience of the students is more effective, satisfactory, and beneficial to the students and the world in which they live.