Education, Foundations of Tomorrow Development

SABF 2011 third plenary was presented by Manuel Alvarez Trongé, director of Proyecto 2050. As an introduction to the topic, Alvarez Trongé invited participants to wonder about what we understand by education. Afterwards, he presented education as a tool through which we can manage, canalize and improve lives of other people, not only by transfering knowledge but also with our own development. Education implies a conviction, requires passion, willigness to help, perseverance, effort and humility, which developes human perfection.

Convinced that we all need to start from reality, in order to build up a better society, Alvarez Trongé introduced some practical cases where Fundación 2050 has been working. Fundación 2050 began with a huge gap among social classes and inequality of resource distribution. Therefore, they decided to take reality as an opportunity to work: they visited communities and saw the current status of schools that, nowadays, also act as houses, kitchens and spaces for grouping people and entertainment.

All members of Fundación 2050 are convinced that practical experiences can teach us a lot and that they have provided them with great advantages. Still, knowing what is going on is essential to focus and to challenge, efficiently, the problems that we are currently facing. This is why the audience was exposed to certain figures of the current situation in Argentina: improvements and inconvenients, all interconnected, which shows us that, even alter all this effort and initiatives, quality sigues still arise.

Last but not least, Alvarez Trongé pointed out: We are aware of the reality and its drawbacks: It is time to act and engage in education. We have to stop thinking that where we were born limits our possible achievements. It is time to claim a good education.