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Waar: MKZ, Eerste Shcinkelstraat 16, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wanneer: 27/03/2014 - 19:00

A benefit Voku (people's kitchen) for the "La Pinya" free school in Barcelona

Brief history of the Free School “La Pinya”

In 2004, a group of families started to collectively articulate the construction of a common space for their sons and daughters. They had in common an specific sensitivity towards education and growing of children, and the need to actively participate in all possible aspects of this processes. From this point La Pinya was born and still nowadays keeps growing, together with its children, thanks to the collective effort made by fathers, mothers, companions and collaborators.

La Pinya is a collective which carries an educative project, formalized in an association, and is based on tools and practices that respect the development and growing processes of the infants. The attitude of respect and accompaniment of the individual and collective needs of the child is the main axis that articulates the project.

For La Pinya, an space for kids just makes sense if it gives them the protagonism they deserve, respecting the processes associated with their growing; for this objective, the collective accompanies the children giving answer to their needs, without advancing or thinking for them, in the idea that kids have their own rhythm and particular interests, which are not determinable by adults.

At the same time, we understand the kid as a member of this community, La Pinya, who enjoys and is responsible for it; that's why ge give a main importance to the personal growing of this kid within the collective context where he or she is developing, and to the adquisició of tools that will allow a living based on freedom, respect and mutual support.

We believe necessary to locate La Pinya inside a network of initiatives that struggle for social transformation. In a society where money is more important than people, and consumerism, competitivity and individualism seem to be the only modus vivendi, we aim exactly in the opposite direction. We aim towards social justice, where the community has a fundamental value and is built with the free participation of each individual. This is why we try to build this project based on mutual aid, compromise and collective responsibility.

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La Pinya and the money issue

La Pinya is placed in an squatted space in Barcelona. We recicle all the materials we can but, still, La Pinya needs also some money. The project couldn't function if there wasn't a group of people who dedicates lots of hours every week to stay with the kids, follow their learning processes, etc. They are the companions, and is necessary to give them certain economical stability. To cover their salarys, together with the minimal material expenses, we need around 3,000 € per month.

Until now we have reached this amount thanks to the economical support from the families and a variety of self-managed activities organized by the collective: parties, vokus, lotteries, etc. Eventhough, after all this years, we can see that the biggest part of the income, which allow us to keep functioning, comes mainly from the families (around 200 € per month for each kid).

Even if it isn't a very high amount of money, compared to other symilar projects, we might find ourselves in the undesirable situation of having some kids not being able to continue (or to enter) La Pinya, or seeing how monoparental families can't have a chance to participate in it. We firmly believe free education has to be available for everyone, no matter his or her economical situation, because we believe in an education which is free and popular at the same time.

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The objective of our education is that the brain of the individual will become the instrument of his own will.

Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, Anarchist pedagog and founder of the Modern School.