Letter from Mirlo to educators...
[ Escucha esta carta leída por Georgina en español aquí ]
Dear educators,
To accompany children in their growth is above all a privilege and a responsibility…
Technology has brought a lot of “information” and so many changes… On this, we can all agree, but there are many questions about education that only each of us can answer, from our experience and our conscience.
Therefore, I ask myself and encourage you to ask yourself:
What shaped my education more, school or experiences at home or in the outside world?
Who were my models, my “heroes”…?
What place do the stories that I was told, that I read, that I discovered on a screen (film, TV, computer...) occupy?
What music marked my childhood and my tastes?
What games and experiences will I never forget?
By answering these questions, we review our life, what we have received, and we can look at the next generations with the best of us, and without complexes. Given the studies that affirm that the new generations will have it more difficult than us, educators (parents, teachers...), we have the responsibility to give the best of ourselves. And, although we cannot predict the future, what genuinely served us is what we can offer as an example, accepting that the child will make his own path adopting what he considers.
But does your official educational system accept your valuable vision, your principles? Are you truly free as an educator?
Through this letter, I know that I am addressing an audience mostly of Spaniards, but not only.
The circumstances of educators (parents and family at home, and teachers in schools) are different depending on the country, and many parents find it difficult to freely choose their children's education in accordance with their principles and vision of life.
In my environment I observe, for example, how the humanities, music and the arts are put aside, even when the history of humanity is a legacy, which always helps us to progress, from the mistakes and successes of the past.
I also see how in many places where the law defends freedom of speech and the right to education, school materials are often carefully edited for indoctrination into well-defined ideas.
This unfortunately produces the isolation of those who disagree with the predominant ideas. A clash occurs between school and home. As a consequence, children's education suffers and parental freedom is suppressed in all types of decisions.
Surely that is why, in countries with a tradition of homeschooling, this form of education is gaining more and more strength, in addition to other models that are growing successfully outside of public education systems. It is the response of critical parents, or simply dissatisfied parents, who want a dignified and better future for their children.
I would like to contribute to the freedom of parents and educators to choose their ways, and for each one to be able to access materials in accordance with their principles and vision of life. Music, the arts, the humanities are necessary and useful for emotional education, the development of creativity, and for the child to become a free and ethical adult.
At Mirlo Studio we want to propose a new solution
We are going to use technology in order to support parental freedom in the education of children. This also explains why we're not on regular social media, and also why we're building our next educational content platform.
At first we started designing a digital media library, with the idea of hosting our materials there. However, we know that there are many more who share our interest in bringing music, arts and humanities to the Internet to inspire new generations. That is why we decided to open our media library to those educators who want to participate by collaborating to create the first platform on the upcoming Internet, with secure and transparent technology that protects us from censorship, if necessary.
We are creating a first prototype with our own content (our stories, music and games...) for the first members of our community who are putting their valuable grain of sand into this project. What will this content library be called? We don't know yet because we want to decide it among all the participants.
For this reason, we will soon invite you to a virtual meeting of MIRLOS.
See you soon,
