Personal Statement of Master's Program Portfolio

"Nadie educa a nadie, así como tampoco nadie se educa a sí mismo, los hombres se educan en  comunicación y el mundo es el mediador"

“Nobody educates himself, just as nobody educates anybody else, men educate each other in communication and the world is the mediator”

Paulo Freire.

La educación como práctica de la Libertad 

Translated by: Verónica Mancheno

To grow is to learn. To learn is to change. Therefore, learning is an innate capacity of the living. No one can make someone else learn or keep someone else from learning. Neither can a person decide what someone else will or will not learn. A person learns because a person is. A person will learn anything that his/her being requires to be. That is the only requirement for learning.

Learning is not in question. Development will take place regardless of outside factors. The only requirement for development is being. One cannot be without continuously developing. The question lies in how we develop and what type of development. What in the environment and our interaction with the environment fosters optimum growth – optimum learning? In our case, as human beings, what will be the ideal environment for our human life – a good life?

The answer is simple: the ideal environment for the growth of a human being is one that fosters that which is inherently human. Then, what is to be human with all our biological trademarks? Life has to make sense. Like no other species in the planet, we are always asking why? The things that our bodies perceive have to have a reason and that reason has to resound in our minds, our hearts – in our entire bodies. What in the environment fosters processes of sense making? Four letters: love.

When there is love there is a road to freedom

When there is love there is a road to understanding

When there is love there is a road to dialogue and with dialogue deeper understanding. There, joy and blissfulness exist in abundance because we are.  It is not just me pinned against you, not just you over me, as we work and coordinate side by side. It is we are. And when we can be, we are free. We have a good life.

That is my guiding star for all my decisions: love. Not standards, not budgets, neither policies nor political games. Not societal repressed ideologies and expectations. I can do all those things because I can learn to play the game. But when the rubber meets the road, it is love the ultimate sayer of my actions.

And what is love for me? It is my unwavering, un-quenching commitment to our well being, to our lives – good lives. It is my dogged will to do whatever it takes, within our physical context, with our capacities, and with all the resources available to us,  to make each one of us (including me, and beginning with me – because if I die, I can no longer love) have a good life.

And that is my purpose and the only thing that makes sense in my life.

“I am because you are. I am because we are.”