Sometimes we do something without thinking about it first, right? That happened to me the last few weeks when, on a whim, I went through the English translation of the electronic books that derived from a former academic work of mine. I first went through Contributions for a welcoming school to refresh my memory about the New Education League in preparation for the next Magister-Auctor Saga book Leaden Times. And no alarm bells ringed. So I continued with Memories at the shadow of a fig tree, and that was where the shoe pinched… Suddenly I plunged back into experiences up to 30 years ago. Rereading those memories brought back many of my own memories. Yes, institutions are man-made. And over time there are only two possibilities. Either the institution evolves with the people who live and work within it, or it remains stuck in history making the life and work of the people dull or impossible. Reading about the still existing school I wondered… perhaps I was regressing to the past…
However, there I read the words of a long-dead friend when she spoke about an organisation that we, along with many others, made our refuge. In that group we were able to think together about our intervention in society and thus redesign that intervention. She said we had the luxury of having the institution giving us the opportunity to institute.
And yet even such an institution can become that institutionalised so the people working in it experience difficulties to institute. It is the eternal dilemma: what do we keep and what do we change? And what is our ultimate goal?
The school the Memoirs talk about has changed a lot since then. For a long time now the fig tree is no longer there. Fortunately, children and adults did not give up or mourn eternally about what was gone. New generations found new starting points preserving only what had to be preserved: a space-time where adults and children continue to ask questions and to develop projects in cooperation picking up those questions. That is surely more difficult for them in today's Portugal than it was in Portugal of thirty years ago. That's why it's so exciting to see them work based on the analysis they make today and not the one that another generation made about what was their ‘today’. They thus achieve adapting the instruments of the past in order to remain resilient against the growing individualism created by the financial arrogance that is weakening democracy. And that is why I am happy my grandsons in that school in further collaboration with other children and their accompanying adults who continue to contribute for building the welcoming school. Meanwhile I’ll stick to writing fiction.
However, there I read the words of a long-dead friend when she spoke about an organisation that we, along with many others, made our refuge. In that group we were able to think together about our intervention in society and thus redesign that intervention. She said we had the luxury of having the institution giving us the opportunity to institute.
And yet even such an institution can become that institutionalised so the people working in it experience difficulties to institute. It is the eternal dilemma: what do we keep and what do we change? And what is our ultimate goal?
The school the Memoirs talk about has changed a lot since then. For a long time now the fig tree is no longer there. Fortunately, children and adults did not give up or mourn eternally about what was gone. New generations found new starting points preserving only what had to be preserved: a space-time where adults and children continue to ask questions and to develop projects in cooperation picking up those questions. That is surely more difficult for them in today's Portugal than it was in Portugal of thirty years ago. That's why it's so exciting to see them work based on the analysis they make today and not the one that another generation made about what was their ‘today’. They thus achieve adapting the instruments of the past in order to remain resilient against the growing individualism created by the financial arrogance that is weakening democracy. And that is why I am happy my grandsons in that school in further collaboration with other children and their accompanying adults who continue to contribute for building the welcoming school. Meanwhile I’ll stick to writing fiction.