115. L'educació del futur / Education of the future

There is an important link between Gayatri C. Spivak's work as an academic at top universities in the United States and her work engaged in grassroots education in India. The basis of her theoretical views on teaching lies in the connection between the two. When asked how can we be of help to someone who is not like us, the author answers that the key lies in the humility of recognizing that you don't know the best way to help someone until you ask them. When she teaches children in her native country, for example, the first thing she does is recognize that she is there to serve them, and to do that she needs to know them thoroughly through understanding their needs. She firmly stands against dogmatism. She indicates that, with our desire to "do good" and educate others, we in the West must resist the impulse of superiority to think that we know more than others.

«Education is a fetish and everyone wants to educate. Giving things, school buildings, and textbooks. I tell them to first learn what help means to the other.»

Authors: Gayatri Spivak, Marina Garcés

Related to Open City Thinking Biennale 2018