Experiences as a Student in Chile with only Pre-computer Technologies
Abstract
This chapter takes the form of a narrative and describes a mix of experiences dealing with exclusion, poverty, teaching methods, and reforms in the school system in Chile, which not only included monetary injections but also the consideration and research into the use of ICTs in its early manifestations, such as TV as a teaching tool. The chapter also describes some of the experiences during the early days of the Pinochet Dictatorship as a student. The events experienced by the writer, as described in this chapter, took place between 1966 and 1975.Teaching methods in the 1960s in Chile, as experienced as a primary school student in Arica, were repetitive and required a good memory rather than striving to engage the young eager student. Despite the increased emphasis on improving education during the 1960s in Chile, whilst attending a rural school, a new reality was presented which in retrospect, seemed to reveal that there was still much more to be done and/or that the measures were missing the intended mark. However, as a child, the realities faced by the rural students were evident, even to a young student who had never attended a school outside Arica before. Computers were unknown to us at the time and I could not have imagined those students from a low socio-economic background having easy access one, had they been around back then. I can state though, that the earliest mathematical tool, I used as a student, was an abacus that we made as part of a project.By the 1970s education and the socio-economics aspects of it took centre stage and new reforms and an increased budget was allocated to it. Yet, there was no silver bullet to solve those socio-economic deformities that existed at the time. Thus, the lack of Social Inclusion and Social Capital remained an issue and which was bound to marginalise students from a low socio-economical group, especially those in rural school. Later on, the Pinochet coup was to change the whole of the education landscape.
Origin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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