Makiguchi in Action Project in Brazil Report

Volume 4, Issue 1

by Kwabena Siaka

The success of the Makiguchi in Action project in Brazil is a wonderful testimony to the compassion and wisdom inherent in Soka education. You are invited to our new SEIN blog - http://sein2007.blogspot.com/ for further dialogue.

Kwabena Siaka and Michel Nader from MIA Brazil will be available throughout March to answer questions and discuss MIA further.

Contact Constance Haig at haig.constance@orbital.com for help logging in.

In his 2001 Peace Proposal Daisaku Ikeda spoke of the need and in fact the necessity of women to take the lead in generating a civilization of the spirit, based on the wisdom and strength of 'mothers', in the general sense and compassionate women in the specific sense. Their tendency to lean toward cooperation and collaboration with a special reverence for life to me seems to be at the heart of the systematic application of Soka education.

In March 2005, I had the good fortune to evaluate the Makiguchi Project in Action (MIA) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The program is active in 200 public schools and has 100 schools on the waiting list. The program is essentially a teacher education program. Why is it so successful?

The program is primarily run by women and they bring to the instruction a mothers' heart. Each and every student receives this kind of treatment. and for many of them, it may have been the first time they experienced this kind of 'reverence for life'. Needless to say, the personal response from the participants is phenomenal. As a participant-observer all I can say is that the transformations I observed in those teachers in the space of 75 minutes was truly astonishing! In fact I was transformed as well. My time there even revived my faith in education as a means to achieve a genuine change in the world. I left Brazil totally charged up to make a difference through education.

The MIA effort in Brazil is widely supported by the communities in which they are involved. Not because of any directed attempt by the members to spread the word, so to speak, but through word of mouth from participants or school administrators. Schools contact MIA to ask for the project to come to their schools. MIA was also helped by a timely government initiative to support the development of a more humanistic, whole child approach to education. So the government requires and pays for two hours a month of teacher professional development.

Furthermore, parents, who otherwise had been excluded from the reform process, are welcome at the MIA program, and in fact, are given the same treatment, when possible, as the teachers. Parents involvement are seen as crucial to the long term impact and sustainability of the program. Family involvement, an important community factor, is a key element in Makiguchi's paradigm.

Classroom methods and process
The MIA approach is very subtle and very respectful. And at the same time very direct. During an art class session, for example, teachers are given an art project to work on individually. In one of the classes I visited, the project was to make a drawing, which later became a shape. Three to four assistants circulated, encouraging and praising the participants (teachers) at various stages in the process. Parents were also welcomed to join the activity. Throughout the session (treatment) the lead moderator would quote something from the Buddhist perspective on life or teaching. There was no big lecture on teaching or anything of that sort. In fact, I was wondering when that would come. Instead, from time to time, the lead moderator would say something like this, "Every person is precious, each of us has a mission that only we can fulfill." The content of these messages and the philosophical influences came from a variety of thinking such as Friere, Dewey, Jung, Ikeda, Toda, and Nichiren. The materials that the participants had at their disposal were kept to a minimum to encourage cooperation. The notion of interdependence was introduced in this way and a simple quote or comment was made to reinforce this point. No pressure or dictates were applied or given to the participants.

Community involvement of non members
The interaction with the schools and the community is essentially a dialogical process. What I mean by this is that a process of negotiations (dialogue) begins as soon as a school contacts the program. The MIA have found that it is better to have a liaison situated within the school context. This key person helps facilitate the introduction of the program into the school "community". Which includes the families as well. This person can advise MIA on local concerns and customs.

That is not to say that there is no resistance at the beginning. One of the common questions is "are you trying to covert us to Buddhism?" A great deal of effort is made to keep the MIA project separate from the SGI. That is not to say that they shy away from introducing the concepts of Soka education, which is based on a humanistic paradigm and Buddhist philosophy. But it is not identified as Buddhist teachings and no SGI brochures are handed out at the end. It's simply handled as any other workshop. They also introduce the organization of SGI and its principles, goals and activities through a short 15 minute video followed by a question and answer session with the school community. This kind of dialogue continues throughout the school program, which is conducted in four phases over a two year period, each phase lasts six months. The training sessions are held on a regular basis at each site.

The MIA project is something to see in operation. With a thousand volunteers the coordination required is incredible. It takes quite a determination to see it through. But the women division members in Brazil are incredible as well! Ordinary women, showing the power of the Mystic Law in their daily life. It's beautiful.

The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created in 2001 to inspire educators who use Soka Education in their work and to share experiences. SEIN's goal is to create a strong network of Soka educators who can support the international development of humanistic education. We have two newsletters and two online conferences each year and we are now adding the SEIN blog. Our new projects are a website, a dialogue handbook and an online disarmament exhibition.

If you want to join the SEIN Planning Group, or want to be added to the mailing list, be removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.