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The Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna Bicentennial High School of Excellence in La Florida has welcomed a key milestone in terms of school coexistence. In this place, a discussion was held with themes to promote safer digital environments for student communities in municipal high schools and schools. A role that, by the way, is the responsibility of parents, teachers and students in a collaborative manner and under a seal of teamwork.
This talk – which was attended by directors, teachers, and education assistants from high schools, schools, and municipal kindergartens in La Florida – was led by the director of the Foundation for Digital Coexistence, Soledad Garcés, and was moderated by the coordinator general of the Futuro Foundation, Karla Eliessetch, as well as the former first lady, Cecilia Morel, executive director of the Futuro Foundation, an entity that contributes to successful educational experiences.
In the middle of the day, the mayor of the Municipality of La Florida, Rodolfo Carter, delivered some emotional words to Cecilia Morel. Looking into her eyes, she paid tribute to the former president, Sebastián Piñera, after his death last February, with messages regarding the leadership role that her husband played in education (among other works), where, within the actions he created in his mandates , there was the creation of Bicentennial High Schools of Excellence, such as the one that hosted the conversation held this week in the commune of La Florida.
This talk had as its central axis that union always be generated in favor of healthy coexistence in the gardens, schools and high schools of the Municipal Corporation. Certainly, this scenario, this intention, must be transferred to the digital environment, where young people and adolescents communicate and relate. For this reason, it is key that fathers, mothers and families promote responsible use of technologies at all times.
The director of the Foundation for Digital Coexistence, Soledad Garcés, indicated after the conversation that “one of the factors to be able to make browsing or the use of technologies safe is to delay, as much as possible, access to the Internet and interactive screens in children. The secure internet does not exist; I have to have more maturity and judgment to face the risks of the digital world.”
Along these lines, Garcés went deeper: “The risks can decrease, to the extent that I am prepared, but they will never disappear.” Likewise, the executive stated that it is important to have a dialogue with protective adults, fathers, mothers, teachers, so that when doubts or problems arise, she can turn to them. If we continue to base our relationship with adults on reward-punishment, this does not work, I withdraw and risk more of the things that can happen to me in the world of the Internet.”
Regarding the issue of course agreements or working on that sense of community where everyone takes care of each other, Soledad Garcés asserted that “what happens to me impacts you, therefore, we need to protect ourselves and agree that There are things that we are not going to do and there are things that we can take advantage of.”
In turn, the mayor of the Municipality of La Florida, Rodolfo Carter, stated that “we have to return to the heart. Children are not the future, that is false, they are the present to revolutionize everything. To demand urgent actions from us and not wait until tomorrow to be able to resolve it. Enrique MacIver, at the beginning of the 20th century, asked himself with particular lucidity: we are richer, but we are not happier. Today we live in a society full of cell phones that have more information than the first rocket that went to the Moon, but they are useless, only for bullying.”
Likewise, the communal chief, rhetorically, expressed that “we live in increasingly faster cars, and everywhere we arrive late. We have bigger houses and we are in more debt every day to fill it with things that are of no use. The only essential thing, the only thing that will accompany us eternally, is the heart. In that heart, of our children and adolescents, there is too much pain, from a society that asks them to be perfect. That they are treated with violence, many times harsher than the most brutal blow: fat, faggot, ugly, inept, loser, you don’t like… It’s a cruelty of our computerized society.”
In short, Carter pointed out that psychiatric illnesses are skyrocketing. “It is no longer a punishment within the family group, now it is the entire society that finds out. And we are always late. This conversation has remarkable depth, we thank the Foundation for bringing it. Let us never get lost in the lights of modernity. A hug will never be replaced by an app. Asking for forgiveness is much more educational for a child,” she indicated.
Then, the councilor added: “Let’s not forget that not all the money in the world and technology is going to replace the affection and the ability to be very attentive and listen when the cries of silence of this modernity, like a girl who “He has eating disorders, he tells us I need help.”
Some concepts worked on to give life to school coexistence in all possible environments are friendship, respect, trust, understanding, tolerance, acceptance, camaraderie, union, commitment, emotion, love, happiness, joy.
“Digital coexistence, basically, is having respect and tolerance, but taken to a very important sector of daily life, such as the school community. Today we will sign a collaboration agreement so that we are not left alone with this talk, but that we can grow between the Municipal Corporation and the Futuro Foundation in this matter,” commented the general secretary of the Municipal Corporation of La Florida, Cristián Águila.
Meanwhile, the former first lady, Cecilia Morel, who had her daughter, Magdalena Piñera (creator of the Piñera Morel Foundation) in front of her, thanked Mayor Carter for the tribute he paid to Sebastián Piñera. Likewise, he referred to the importance of human relationships, something that has to do with bringing out the best in other people.
“Today we know that teachers are overworked, and I want to greet them all,” Morel first expressed. Then, he indicated: “Sebastián believed that education had to be of quality and that it was a problem of today, that we did not have to wait until tomorrow to educate with quality and excellence, which was expected of all schools.”
Likewise, Cecilia Morel said that, from the Futuro Foundation, “we are very focused on teachers. We want to enrich their personal world, not only in what they can teach, but also so that they have a more solid and broader base so that, from there, they can establish a relationship with the students. Let’s listen again, something so lost. We are not able to call on the phone, because we do not want to hear what the other person is going to answer us. We want to transmit what we want. “We are very happy to maintain this type of agreement.”
Finally, the relevance of this topic for school communities has two primary components: understanding inclusion and accepting diversity. A key seal that is applied by the 26 municipal high schools and schools of the Municipal Corporation of La Florida.
