FACE TO FACE WITH

Damià Bardera, teacher and writer

Damià Bardera: “We have a serious educational problem”

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David Rabadà

He’s a young 42 years old writer and essayist that spent the first twenty years of his life between his hometown, Viladamat (Alt Empordà) and Torroella de Montgrí (Baix Empordà). The call of the University, and perhaps a certain fatigue with so much north wind, let him to settle in Girona, where he obtained a doctorate in Philosophy and where he currently lives. With a sincere and friendly disposition, it is a delight to deal with him, especially for his clarity in writing what he thinks about the current educational system, which has made him quite popular.

Besides being an outstanding essayist, Damià Bardera also writes poetry. In 2007 he was awarded with the Marià Manent Poetry Prize from Premià de Dalt. And we have to mention as well his great ability writing tales, since being finalist in the V El Temps de les Cireres Prize. In short, he has published more than twelve books. One of poetry: El penúltim vòmit (2008); eight collections of story tales: I alguns contes per llegir-los d’amagat (2010), Fauna animal (2011), Els homes del sac (2012), Els nens del sac (2013), Contes de propina (2014), Nens de llet (2016), Un circ al pati de casa (2019) and Bèsties de companyia (2022); a novel: Viladelsac (2015), and two essays: Mediterròniament. La catalanitat emotional (Biblioteca del Núvol, 2013), written in collaboration with Eudald Espluga, and L’home del sac: arquetip modern del no-res (Emboscall, 2015). Some of his stories have been translated into Dutch, Polish and Croatian.

What pushed you to write so much?

The “so much” is always relative, since it depends on the need you have to write. In my case, I write literature because I can’t do otherwise, it’s my way of being in the world.

I realice then that writing is something inevitable for you, like someone who sings to express himself, but your latest book, Incompetències bàsiques –“Basic Incompetences”- becomes a setback to the educational system rather than a natural expression of yourself. Actually, what is the fundamental error of current education?

It is not easy to pinpoint, but if I had to point out a main error it would be that of basing the educational system on a lie, on a sad theatre where teachers do not know what role they should adopt, but they pretend that they do, while the students pretend that they are learning in front of inspectors who do not know what they do, except not giving any kind of explanation, and politicians from the Department of Education appearing to be very concerned about the situation.

I see from your writings that you cannot at all be considered gregarious or a follower of the current educational trends. Could we say that you are a grump with facts and logic?

I am quite a grump, yes. I’m like a kind of child who goes to a magic show and constantly looks for the trap, the trick, because he knows it must be there, he knows that what he’s seeing is an illusion.

Is the current educational system an illusion full of knowledge or a magic empty of content?

If you go to a magic show you already know what you’re going to find there, while in the educational system you’d expect to find knowledge, training and culture, but it turns out that all this has no importance at all today.

Un error principal sería fundamentar el sistema educativo en una mentira, en un

“A main error it would be that of basing the educational system on a lie, on a sad theatre where teachers do not know what role they should adopt”

If the current education system is a big scam, have you thought about joining any entity that might defend the truth?

No, I’m not much of a member of associations, but you never know. Nevertheless, some unions, or some people within unions, have a critical view of the education system that I can easily feel identified with.

Any examples in mind?

I know that the Pere Quart collective is promoting a manifesto to try to bring together all the people, associations, families and groups that are dissatisfied with the current education system. It would be an «anti-pedagogist» manifesto, to put it quickly. I’m going to sign this manifesto, of course I will.

I understand that the Episteme Foundation will also sign this manifesto and critic it, something that has received criticisme from the educational left. Do you think that, in educational matters, the left is doing the dirty work for the right?

There is quite a long time since left has gone mad in education. Instead of claiming the legacy of the Enlightenment and being consistent with this heritage, it has dedicated itself to distrusting reason. The result is an absolutization of emotions in which there is no room for disagreement, irony or nuance. In the end, everything comes down to personal identity and dwelling on victimhood.

“There is quite a long time since left has gone mad in education. Instead of claiming the legacy of the Enlightenment and being consistent with this heritage, it has dedicated itself to distrusting reason”

What should a serious, rational, and efficient pedagogy be like?

It should be based on content and on the autonomy of the teaching staff, which does not necessarily mean just giving theoretical classes. It should also have a humanistic orientation in which the teaching staff should be able to teach and not to dedicate themselves to emotional education or constantly preparing teaching materials, bureaucrazy.

What role should new technologies have in the educational system?

They should be a complement for the teacher who considers it appropriate. Learning cannot revolve around new technologies, nor can they be imposed on teachers.

In class, what is more efficient, textbooks or digital media?

It depends on the subject, the level, and the type of students. As a general rule, I use material taken from different books and I do not give up on digital media.

Going to your personal career, what positive relationships would you establish between your professional growth and the educational training received in primary school?

It is a question that, frankly, I do not know how to answer. I was a very bad student and there was no way in the world that my subsequent professional career could have been predicted. I don’t have bad memories of school. I did the seventh and eighth of EGB in a state-funded school and then, instead of doing BUP and COU, I did the third and fourth years of ESO in the same school.

With regard to the current educational system, and if you had been educated in it, would this have made your current career prospects better or worse?

I think it would have made things worse. It is true that I was a bad student, I was bored in class and the teachers often had to reprimand me. I was not an easy student. However, despite not being a great student, the education I received up to the eighth year of EGB was solid and provided me with some ashlars of knowledge that, later on, when I decided to study upper secondary, already at the age of twenty, in an evening High School, I had no problems in resuming the thread of my studies.

“The teacher has to be a reference and must be willing to assume this responsibility, that’s what he should be supposed to, and what he has to”

That is, you dropped out of school, but school did not abandon you.

True, afer I had given up with my studies, I was yet able to learn and train myself in a self-taught way thanks to the training I had received, although at the time I did not value it. With the current system, I dont think I would have been able to train myself in a self-taught way.

Can students learn by themselves with teachers as guides?

It depends on the student and the teacher. There are no magic recipes in  education. The teacher can act as a guide, but must not be just a guide. The teacher has to be a reference and must be willing to assume this responsibility, that’s what he should be supposed to, and what he has to.

Looking at your professional career, how do you think the current teaching system should be improved?

First, it would be necessary for all educational agents to assume that we have a serious educational problem. As this does not happen, nor do I think it will happen, then there is not much point in trying to respond.

Ideologies are often a part of our person, but, from a utopian perspective, what would be your wish for the personal or national environment in which you live?

I would like a humanistic education, in which the school transmits the legacy of the cultural and scientific tradition that has brought us to where we are and that has made us who we are, without renouncing to Catalan, which is the language with which I live and experience the world. Everything that dehumanizes and alienates people, such as screens, unproven methodologies or false emotional education, should be kept out of school.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons