FACE TO FACE WITH…

Víctor Manuel Guiu Aguilar, writer and teacher

Víctor M. Guiu: “I was already a student deceived by the system”

License Creative Commons

David Rabadà

In May 2024, I received a most promising email. Someone from Híjar, a town in the province of Teruel, had read my work and wished to contact me concerning the debacle of the national education system. He was even kind enough to send me his latest book on the subject. Víctor Manuel Guiu Aguilar is one of those transparent, sincere, and clear individuals the world needs to advance. He developed his professional career in rural Aragon as a freelancer and a technician for local development associations and public administrations. A poet, writer, and teacher, he possesses almost everything, including a critical vision of current education with strong arguments.

He writes about this in his biweekly column, “Feo, Fuerte y Formal,” in the newspaper Diario de Teruel. He also publishes a weekly “Fotopoema” in the Bajo Aragón region and is a member of the polypoetry groups “La Europa del Aborigen” and “Poética Líquida.” But this writer does not stop there, as he has published numerous collections of poetry, including “Rafael Rojo Libanés,” “La Europa del Aborigen,” “Mágico González,” and “Poesía Líquida,” among others. In recent years, he has written three satirical books or “somarda¹ essays” published by Dobleuve: Lo rural ha muerto, viva lo rural, La Globalimbecilización. Mal-tratado breve de filosofía parda, and Restar llevando. Mal-tratado breve sobre ¿Educación? The latter was the book he sent me, which I read avidly and with great agreement. In short, Víctor is an “itchy feet,” a restless soul who even appears in poetry and short story anthologies, along with regular contributions to magazines, newspapers, and other online media. Therefore, I could not resist proposing this interview to him.

Víctor, can you explain the details of your latest books?

Both in La Globalimbecilización and in Restar llevando, I discuss the social drift towards a concept that increasingly pervades our education: “globalimbecillización”.

Are we all being turned into imbeciles?

Not everyone, but certainly a significant portion of our students and teachers. Both books include numerous anecdotes illustrating the destruction of education, if indeed there is anything left of it today. My editors suggested that I write something accessible and engaging, something that could resonate with people and help them grasp the surreal situations I described in our conversations.

Are you referring to your classroom experiences?

Yes, exactly. That’s why I needed to write books that even “Agamemnon and his swineherd” could understand, books that could briefly and clearly highlight the absurdity into which we have transformed schools and high schools and, why not say it, universities as well. Society as a whole should reflect on this. Many others have written and delved deeply into the pedagogical lies and anti-educational laws we are forced to endure. So, these books are born out of exhaustion and the need to open our eyes to the grand deception of education, the fraud of pedagogism.

What positive relationships would you establish between your professional projects and the educational training you received?

It is impossible to predict when a piece of knowledge acquired at some point in life will become useful, just as you cannot foresee what will happen to you next week. It is always better to know than not to know.

What would you say to the experts who claim we teach too much in secondary school?

I would tell them that culture is acquired by drinking from many sources, but the main source for those who do not have an adequate environment is formal instruction. In a household with few books and little interest in culture, it is difficult to develop an interest in history. Indivisibly linking culture and education with paid work is a mistake born from the neoliberal worldview that has been imposed on us and which we have accepted without protest.

Regarding the current education system, and if you had gone through it, would it have improved or worsened your professional activity?

Education has entered a spin, but it has been devaluing for several decades. I was already a student deceived by the system. After completing COU, I entered the Art History degree, which had been hyper-specialized. From a degree where you learned the basics of literature, geography, Latin, history, and art, we moved to a degree where you learned art without contextualizing it. From then on, you had to fend for yourself and learn the rest of the humanities on your own. I am already the product of a generation that knows much less than the previous one, at least in the university sphere.

“We need to dismantle the faculties of Education as they are currently organized. We need to return to the didactics of specialties”

Why do you think it has worsened your situation?

In my case, when I started working as a teacher, I suddenly found myself teaching geography, history, and art. Within in a few years, I had to teach economics, philosophy, entrepreneurship, and other areas. I had to cover a broader curriculum and needed more training and reading to weather the storm. But what does a young recent graduate do in that scenario?

I imagine they learn what they were NOT taught at university.

Exactly. In my village, the old folks used to say: “the more you know, the more you will see.” It is impossible to get worse by knowing more. We need to train our future teachers in many subjects and stop with the empty gestures that only benefit the gurus and the whims of the faculties of the so-called Sciences of Education.

Analysing your professional path, how do you think the current education system should be improved?

To begin with, we need to dismantle the faculties of Education as they are currently organized. We need to return to the didactics of specialties and stop exploring innovations that lead us to stupidity. We have been on this path since LOGSE. Now, go and tell a politician who has been wrong for thirty years to change it. They will look for a scapegoat before a solution. “The road ends, but the fool continues.” Either we return to education based on content, effort, and concepts such as repetition, reading, and writing, or there is no solution. Do you know of any party with the potential to govern that truly wants to improve the system?

No, none.

That’s right, that’s where we are. God help us.

___

¹“somarda” is a colloquial term used in the Spanish region of Aragon that means sarcastic or ironic.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons