Reseña

It was 5:30 in the morning, still not fully daylight, when we heard the shower running. Carlos went downstairs to check and it was Carlitos, our son, who was already showering at that hour, with his clothes and backpack ready for school. For the past three years, Carlitos has been studying at Árbol de Vida, and he doesn’t just like it… He loves it! He wakes up every day at 6:00 AM without needing an alarm or any insistence from us. In fact, as we mentioned above, there are days when he is ready even earlier to get there as soon as possible. Since he started studying there, there hasn’t been a single day where he has mentioned or even hinted at not wanting to go. But it wasn’t always like this. His time in preschool was difficult. Although he has always been a happy, friendly, and responsible child, you could see in his little face that he lacked motivation when he arrived at the place; there were days when he didn’t want to get out of the car and would ask us if he could go to work with us. One day, he came home with a bruise and told us that he got it while playing, but later, after he had left preschool, he told us that there was a child who always bothered him and that he didn’t feel safe. When the pandemic hit, we decided to educate him at home with the help of a private tutor. We will always be grateful to Miss Ariana; she awakened in Carlitos a desire to learn that hadn’t been there before. When we felt he was ready, we decided it was time for him to start traditional education. We chose a very well-known school that also had good references. We filled out the application and, between nerves and expectations, the day of the admission test arrived. Carlitos was 14 nuclear education l Prologue excited to see the facilities, a huge school with sports fields and lots of kids he saw as potential friends. But… disappointment flooded us when we received the test results. It seemed strange that we were gathered ‘separately’ with a psychologist and the grade supervisor. They told us they were concerned because Carlitos hadn’t been able to draw a family, and that this might be a sign he needed a different kind of education, somewhere else. We didn’t know how to react. “There are over 60 children in this grade, and we cannot guarantee personalized attention, which he needs according to his test results,” the psychologist told us with an air of superiority. Basically, they were telling us that our son would be accepted, but we shouldn’t expect any special treatment, and that maybe we needed to have him evaluated by a specialist… My heart clenched, and a thousand thoughts raced through my mind. We left in silence, and Carlitos, a little confused, tried to explain that the teacher who evaluated him had asked him some questions he didn’t understand. We took his hand and told him that everything was fine with him, and that he wouldn’t be studying at that school, that we would find a better place. We got home and we didn’t stop encouraging him. Carlitos couldn’t get over the fact that, according to the teacher, he hadn’t been able to draw a family, even though he drew all the time and could draw anything. He took paper and pencil and made the most beautiful family portrait he had ever done, including Rulfo, our dog. Carlos congratulated him and reassured him that there was nothing wrong with him, that he was a very smart boy. “Yes,— Carlitos replied—, it’s just that she asked me to draw a new picture by the name my family, and I don’t know her family”. As you can see, it was all a misunderstanding. While searching online, I found Árbol de Vida School. I saw a video of Sensei Ethel, the principal, and couldn’t have felt more identified with her story of facing traditional education. We looked for more information about alternative education, arranged a meeting, and since then Carlitos has been a phoenix. We are very, very grateful to the teachers Keneth, Ethel, and everyone who is part of Árbol de Vida School. These people are passionate about education, about teaching from the heart, making children and nuclear education l Prologue 15 young people feel happy to be at the School. It’s an education that doesn’t discriminate or measure everyone the same, but rather understands that each human being is different in their abilities or powers, as they so aptly call them. Today, Carlitos is an outstanding student in subjects like Art and Music. He surprises us every day with new performances on the piano or new drawings of his favorite cartoons, but above all, Carlitos is a happy child, with that spark of curiosity and desire to take on the world that we hope no one will ever extinguish.