2024-04-09 12:42:13
‘Another Brick In The Wall’ It is one of the most famous songs of The Wall, the album that Pink Floyd released in 1979. “We don’t need education/ We do not need thought control.” The Argentine deputy Alberto ‘Bertie’ Benegas Lynchwhose father, named in the same way, is considered by the president Javier Miley A “hero” of liberalism and an inspiring force, he had a failed attempt to appropriate the lyrics written by Roger Waters to criticize the rigors of post-war England. Benegas Lynch, who may not be aware of that song, had gained notoriety months ago for his request for a break in diplomatic relations with the Vatican and the proposal of privatize the sea and the whales. This time, in the midst of the Government’s “chainsaw plan” and the conflict that mobilizes teachers over salary and labor issues, and the budget cut in the educational area, he defended that children not study if this school dropout helps the economy of a family. With an agricultural tone, Bertie explained that “many times it can happen on the ranch (a field) that “You can’t afford to send your son to school because you need him in the workshop with his father working.”. The legislator confessed his rejection of the “compulsory nature of education”, consecrated since 1884, and said that this task should not be in the hands of the State but in those of the parents.
““Working distances boys and girls from their right to learn, play and grow happily.”, Unicef immediately reacted. “More than freedom, it sounds like slavery to me,” said Left Front deputy Myriam Bregman. Center-right deputy Maximiliano Ferrario accused the libertarian of “being 140 years behind schedule” with his proposals. Even Sandra Petovello, the Minister of Human Capital who has the Secretary of Education under her wing, had to distance herself from Benegas Lynch and publish an image on Instagram with the caption “men working and children studying.” At that point, Milei had no choice but to qualify as “absolutely unfortunate” the phrase of the son of one of his mentors. “We liberals are not a pack and everyone has their own opinion.”
“Brainwashing”
The president wants Argentines to educate themselves, but under the principles that he defends tooth and nail: anarcho-capitalism or, what he calls more generically “the ideas of freedom.” Culture and universities, the president maintains, “brainwash” students. Schools are also a source of contamination and that is why, days ago, his spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, announced that the Government aims to combat “indoctrination” and the “acts tinged with ideological militancy” that take place in the classrooms.
The trigger for the government initiative was a school event commemorating the 42 years since the Armed Forces’ incursion into the Falkland Islands, claimed by this country as their own, and which, a month later, started the war with Great Britain. A teacher criticized the glorification of the conflict by the media, which immediately followed the strategy of the military dictatorship. “They convinced society that going to war was right and necessary.” Her words caused discomfort in a group of ex-combatants, who left the school ceremony. At the same time, the teacher reminded parents and students that the current Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, had harshly criticized Argentina’s sovereign claims against London. The main teachers’ union, CTERA, in conflict with the Government over salary and labor issues, believes that the extreme right found the “incident” it was looking for. Now, the Executive wants to modify articles 11 and 126 of the Education Law to discipline teachers.
The former head of the education portfolio, Nicolás Trotta, described the discussion promoted by the Government as “false” and recalled that the first “indoctrinator” of minors was the president himself, when he visited the religious school where he was trained weeks ago. “When you look at everything that is politically correct, it is socialist. There are many people who are socialists without knowing it, that is why I stood at the Davos Forum and “I told everyone that they are ‘lefties’.”, he told the students. One of them, who, next to him, was holding the Argentine flag, fainted. “Mentioning communists is so dangerous that it always causes problems,” the president mocked. According to Guillermina Tiramonti, researcher in the Education Area of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso), the head of state has used “a school and the educational system to give his dogmatic speech.”
The union response
CTERA expressed concern about “the undemocratic measures” deployed by Milei. “We denounce the repression, censorship and persecution that is being carried out against teaching.” Argentina, the union recalled, no longer has a Ministry of Education but rather a secretariat whose objective is “destroy the public school“and favor the private institutes. The Government has launched an Educational Voucher Assistance program aimed at accompanying families who send their children to institutes outside the state level. “To all the adjustment measures, defunding, job insecurity and violation of rights, now we add the threat to teachers. To believe that when a teacher teaches he is indoctrinating is to disrespect not only those teachers, but also to the students. Because “The idea of indoctrination assumes that whoever is learning is an ‘airhead.'”
Martha Argerich’s Lament
CTERA’s perplexity is shared from a distance by Martha Argerich, one of the great pianists of the 20th century. Like many figures of her lineage, she is of few words. She still speaks through her fingers on the ivory. But from Switzerland she was furious because the far-right government of her country of origin decided to no longer finance the training scholarships that bear her name. “If the State does not support and contribute to culture, the future is really dangerous”, said. Argerich recalled that “when she was young” she received the support of the Argentine State to train in Europe. “I deeply regret that many are now left without that possibility.” The Government that financed her training with Friedrich Gulda in Switzerland is Milei’s main aversion: the first Peronism.
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