Renaissance of Venezuela's Intelligence Project

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Renaissance of Venezuela's Intelligence Project

by Dee Dickinson

A few weeks ago I visited Venezuela for the first time in twelve years. Although the motivating factor for my trip was doing a seminar for human resource development managers of Venezuelan corporations and school educators, the heart of my trip was spending some time with Luis Alberto Machado, former Minister for the Development of Human Intelligence. Those of you who were early members of our network will remember a number of articles in our newsletters that described the Intelligence Project. (See Venezuelan Update, 1982, Visit to Venezuela, 1983 and Universal Goal, 1986).

From 1948 to 1958, Venezuela was under a dictatorship at the end of which the country was 85% illiterate. In 1979, Dr. Machado was appointed by the President of Venezuela to become the first in the world cabinet level Minister for the Development of Human Intelligence. His mission was to raise the level of intelligence of the entire population of his country from birth to old age. He was given an office, a secretary, and practically no budget and told, "Go to it!" At that time he was the laughing stock of his country. Satires and cartoons appeared in the press, and jokes abounded. A few years later no one was laughing as the project began to demonstrate significant results.
The project began in the maternity units of hospitals where new mothers were empowered and introduced to effective ways to lay the foundations of intelligence for their children through videos and visits by trained volunteers. The Family Project, under the leadership of Beatriz Manrique, a protégé of Dr. Berry Brazelton in the U.S., was supported daily by 20 five-minute spots on all four television channels and by community centers where new parents could go every few months to learn the most appropriate ways to foster the fullest possible development of their children in mind, body, and spirit.
The Intelligence Project in the schools was under the leadership of Margarita Sanchez, who worked closely with David Perkins from Harvard, Robert Sternberg from Yale, Edward de Bono from England, Reuven Feuerstein from Israel, and Jaacov Agam from France, among others. The arts were an important part of the curriculum, and the teaching of thinking skills was taught both as a separate subject and integrated throughout the curriculum with remarkable results. Students were often invited to help brainstorm and solve some of the civic problems of their communities. On the college level, university professors were taught how to ask thought-provoking questions and help their students to develop higher order thinking skills. The adult population was also helped to learn problem solving skills in special programs supported by all the media, in the civil service, in worker training programs for illiterate adults, and in the military.
In 1984 the political system changed and the newly elected president was threatened with the idea of Venezuela's developing a more intelligent population. He changed the focus of his administration to health and welfare. The Intelligence Project was discontinued, and during the following thirteen years the schools steadily declined in academic achievement. Machado and the former directors of his project turned their attention to continuing the project elsewhere, since there was no longer the possibility of continuing their work in their own country. During this interim period, 250 million Chinese have learned thinking and problem-solving strategies and other components of the Venezuela Project from all of those involved in its original operation. In South Africa, under the leadership of Beatriz Capdevielle, Machado's former administrative assistant, and David Perkins, co-director of Project Zero at Harvard, over 30,000 Black students and over 70,000 Black workers in the mines have been helped to learn and develop thinking skills. In Mexico, under the leadership of Margarita Sanchez eight universities, including the prestigious Technical Institute of Monterey, are now requiring the learning of thinking skills as a required subject for three years. In the United States, assisted by Beatriz Manrique, a replica of Venezuela's Family Project has been developed in Maryland.
And this year the Intelligence Project is beginning once again in Venezuela. One hundred schools now require the teaching of thinking, including understanding, problem-solving, and decision-making, as a separate subject two periods a week, as well as integrating the development of higher order thinking skills throughout the curriculum. Those schools must volunteer to be part of this program and must demonstrate that all involved are in agreement. That includes all administrators, teachers, parents, and school board members.
All teachers in the program receive training by fifty highly trained professionals, and each school has a trained site-based council. All principals attend a special meeting once a month, and ongoing assessment is being carried on through Harvard University. The plan is to increase the number of schools next fall to 300, and then to continue developing the program throughout the country. Beatriz Capdevielle is doing weekly radio programs on the development of intelligence, creative thinking, and problem-solving for the adult population, and the Family Project continues under the leadership of Beatriz Manrique.
Much has been learned from the original project that was both created and terminated by political mandate. As the project begins again, it is clearly building "from the ground up" as a voluntary effort and imbued with renewed enthusiasm. We will post continuing updates as the project moves forward again in new ways.

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