"Ideological Treatment" in Secondary Schools

The morning assembly for the first day of school is normally longer, more weighted with slogans and with many promises (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 2 September 2019 — The most important are the reunions, hugs and telling the stories of the vacations, but also every first Monday of September certain formalities must be fulfilled before entering the classrooms to start a new school year. The morning assembly of that first day of classes is usually longer, more loaded with slogans and with many promises that the passing of the months will blur.

Perhaps because of this, few paid attention to the principal of the basic secondary school that operates in the José Luis Arruñada teaching center in the municipality of the Plaza of the Revolution, in Havana, when she insisted that this year “the ideological treatment must be reinforced” with students. While the official said those words, the students seemed more interested in greeting the classmates they haven’t seen for two months, using their hands to try to block the sun that was starting to make their faces itch, and taking a sip of water to relieve the heat.

Some of the mothers, who waited near the ranks of children and teenagers, talked about which iPhone model is better for taking pictures; while one father assured another that the purchase of the shoes that his son was wearing this September left him “peeled like a banana.” No one seemed to notice the words of the director who made her statement with an index finger held high, a common pose in the official stands.

After the assembly, the students went to their classrooms talking to each other, talking about the last video game they tried, the week they spent on the beach with a relative who came from the Yuma (U.S.) and the brand of backpack their grandparents managed to buy them. Nobody talked about politics, nor was there a single comment about the leaders who were mentioned during the ceremony. The “ideological treatment” can’t compete with the indifference of the new generations.

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