Federico Reyes Heroles
The word is beautiful phonetically and beautiful in its meaning: hope. It is a state of mind (of the soul) that arises when what one desires is presented as attainable. In hope, desire loses any hint of fantasy and becomes earthly; it does not deceive.
Societies are nourished by hopes, and the force that arises from them is not ethereal or vaporous. Individuals, families, workers, companies, etc., owe their daily efforts to the different hopes that visit us. A brilliant German philosopher, Ernst Bloch – of the many who fled Nazism – published in 1959 a remarkable text – three volumes – The Principle of Hope. In it, Bloch elegantly unpacks the differences between a utopia (there is no such place) and hope as a human condition: “There is no man who lives without daydreaming; the point is to get to know these dreams more and more…”. But the knowledge of these dreams has a practical and earthly purpose “…to keep them effectively and accurately aimed at their target”. When the hopes, the well-founded desires, become reality, the human being has used reason in the search for fulfillment.
Hopes and desires change between societies. Thanks to the World Values Survey, we can compare them. For example, in poor countries, hopes are very tangible: better housing, a better job, a pension, social security, and education. In contrast, in Scandinavian countries, with a high income, but above all, where social security, education, housing, transportation, and the basic needs of citizens are covered, the desires are different: to develop very personal vocations, to have more free time for alternative activities, etcetera.
In Mexico, we are not Martians; we have very clear hopes. In 2010, Banamex and the Este País Foundation conducted a study, ENVUD, What unites and what divides Mexicans, published over a year (Este País, 2011-2012). The world was coming out of a severe economic-financial crisis. On that occasion, to the question “Would you say that you are in a higher, equal or lower position than your parents were?”, the answer was the same 51%, higher 35%, and only 14% answered “lower”. Looking back, the mood was not festive, but a third of the population did not hesitate: better. The question was also asked about the future: “Do you think your children will have a social position…? Equal 34%, higher 57%. Only 7% were pessimistic: lower. When probed as to why optimism, education was almost redemptive. “My children will have more, and better education and will do better in life.”
With all its flaws and shortcomings, in that past that today wants to be presented as hell, Mexico had remarkable progress, from the construction of educational facilities, coverage in primary, secondary, middle school (barely), preschool, higher education, the multiplication of state universities, the raising of teaching standards, systematic evaluation to the creation of the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (INEE), and many more. In retrospect, during a century, investment in education and the professionalization of the field advanced.
For the first time in our recent history, an administration has shown contempt for the subject. Gilberto Guevara Niebla, one of the great experts in education, made a ten-point account of the multiple acts of this disdain: loyalty, not suitability in the Ministry of Public Education (SEP); budget reduction; canceled evaluation; teacher training in decline; disappearance of incentives, of full-time schools and of the entity for the maintenance of facilities; scholarships without criteria; punishment of indigenous people, peasants and people with disabilities; clientelistic criteria. The results of PISA 2022 are the bill. Morena achieved a terrible setback.
The despair of millions of families will be justified.
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