get that paper – de la Cadena and diplomas

“The flip side of this phrase was that well-off common folk who lacked the symbolic capital that a university degree represented did not have access to the social status that their high income could have otherwise granted them” (de la Cadena 49).

Is this not still extremely true today? Even us as a group subscribe to this. We had a graduation ceremony (the getting of the paper) at Machu Picchu to symbolize the accomplishment and honor the new social strata university graduates have access to.

Our visit to the Kusi Kawsay school in Pisac highlighted how important the option of alternative education is. We learned about how they use holistic learning practices, emphasize outdoor spaces, incorporate Andean cosmoviviencia, and strive to maintain the Indigenous cultural practice such as weaving and traditional dance. Even with all these clear personal and community benefits, not all parents want to send their children to a school like this. We heard from one father who said that in order for his child to end up being a “professional”, Kusi Kawsay wouldn’t provide the correct preparation. The development of his son as a member of the neo-colonial definition of success in Peru was more important to him and his family than an Waldorf-type education. This was interesting to me. Growing up in the public school system, I’ve felt for a long time that there are few efforts made to develop youth as people rather than only develop their skills as students. At university, there is more emphasis on learning to question and think critically but by that time it may be too late. Something is being lost by putting so much social value on the outcome and forgetting to focus on the development of the individual.

Additionally it seems westernized education has gotten less and less community-based and instead focuses on individual achievement. We saw in Amaru how important community ties are. The imposition of the colonial education system is slowly reconstructing the ways communities interact as young students learn that success comes from personal effort instead of communal effort. In Amaru, the farmers took time out of their weeks to plow and prepare each others fields because it benefits the community as a whole. This type of reciprocal work was an important element of the Incan work culture as well. You worked your own land, but you also helped out with the community plots, the plots of those who were sick or disabled, and the land of the community leader (but always last).

Our new-found obsession with personal achievement, such as a piece of paper that says you completed things to a satisfactory level at a certain place with a certain level of cultural prestige, is erasing some of community-mindedness that previous forms of life and education were adept at maintaining.