Education: now it is time to stick together

About a week ago, in this same newspaper we read a headline that made us proud as a country: "The most beastly Sant Fèlix". And the fact is that, to a greater or lesser extent, we are all moved by this very characteristic ability of ours to raise human towers defying balance while counting on a strength: that of building community, sticking together.The image and the praisesfor the 'verds' of Vilafranca making history for a new achievement, to a servant –who does not come from the 'casteller' world– serve as a metaphor to speak about school and the perspective that it needs. For too long, the stones in society's shoe have been entrenched within the walls of our classrooms. They have been piling up little by little, as if by chance, and now they are slowing our pace. What happens on the street bounces and impacts classrooms in a much more frantic way. But it turns out that we are playing with an exceptional variable that we cannot ignore: it is at school –though not solely– where it is appropriate to improve everyone's possibilities to live in the out-of-school.In order to adjust one's pace, sometimes it is necessary to change footwear. The "we have always done it this way" turns out to no longer work for us, neither in classrooms nor in offices. In an interview, the journalist and writer Nora Ephron said: "If the shoe doesn't fit in the shoe store, it will never fit you well." If we do not choose the right footwear for school, the shoe will not serve to walk comfortably and with guarantees.Luckily, we already know what we need because we know what works. We know that 0-3 matters a lot, we know that the language needs an urgent shock plan and that this seriously impacts learning processes at early ages. We know that the coffee for everyone formula is obsolete. We know that qualified leadership and stable, cohesive projects and teams are needed, that out-of-school is a necessary link, that the system needs evaluation processes... But neither the character limit of this article nor its purpose allow for listing everything we know.And while we talk again and again about what is already identified and evidenced, or while we generate only catastrophic headlines, we waste time focusing on solutions and continue to wallow in a spiral of discouragement and discredit. Negative messages also shape the view we have of school.

If we know what should happen, let's get to work rigorously on what we must mobilize to make it happen. Paper holds everything, and we already have too many papers that drown us. It is time to roll up our sleeves, and to do so, a key factor must be taken into account: decisions must move away from certain interests and must place the person at the center. And the person is the children, boys and girls and young people who will start a new school year again. Also the percentage of students who, in Catalonia, cross the classroom door threshold every day dragging a backpack that they cannot easily leave in the locker, as they do with their mobile phone.And this must challenge us all. The school alone cannot.We put the person at the center and we put education at the center of decisions, because too much depends on what happens in today's school and the decisions that are made for today's school. The challenge is great, yes; the fast-paced technological disruption, the climate change that makes us sweat even more, the impact of globalization… It is time and we must stick together.I think about the keys that were probably hidden behind that "beastly" Sant Fèlix and how necessary they are for the system as well. Strength is needed to push with courage towards the school that is needed and to strengthen the structure as it deserves and requires; courage to put those who really matter at the center of decisions; common sense to focus on evidence and not so much on whims; balance to sustain what must remain and what we must rethink; a gaze fixed upward to push upwards with a clear roadmap; and silence to isolate the school and the decisions that affect it from certain noises.Perhaps too many sandcastles have been built, and we already know what happens: a new wave arrives and the castle collapses. Let us give stability to the system. But, above all, let us regain trust in the school. Because from our schools must emerge young people committed to the world, young entrepreneurs, young people qualified to face a changing and complex society. Young people have changed because they are the fruit of a society that is also changing: we must be able to see them with this empowering perspective.This week I have been able to visit different centers, and everywhere I have seen committed teams. This year there will also be a teacher ready to welcome the child starting I3 or to embrace the adolescent changing stages.The human team of the entire education service of Catalonia needs to be strengthened, and we must build this unity together: from educational policies to positively contrasted school cultures and practices.The school only works if it is built communally.