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Venezuela Update
This article first appeared in New Horizons' Newsletter, Vol III . No. 1, September, 1982.
Following up on an article in our February (1982) issue on Venezuela's Intelligence Project, we have some further details on the program now in its third year.
According to Dr. Luis Alberto Machado, Minister for the Development of Human Intelligence since 1979, the guidance principles of the project are as follows:
"Human dignity is exactly alike for all human beings; children, youngsters, and elderly people. They all have the right to develop their own personality. It is possible to stimulate and increase in a deliberate manner the cognitive dimensions of every individual, regardless of age or educational level. "
"As the first priority of the Government and of society, education has to reach all Venezuelans, notwithstanding their age or place they occupy in the productive and social processes. "
"In order to guarantee the future of today's and tomorrow's children, it is first necessary to change the attitude of today's adults. "
"According to these concepts, a comprehensive, extensive, and flexible model has been developed to work simultaneously with various populations in developing intellectual skills as well as social and emotional capacities. "
Adapted to Venezuela's culture and needs, the programs have been developed chiefly from the work of Edward de Bono, England, Reuven Feuerstein, Israel, the Harvard Intelligence Project, US, and Jaacov Agam, Paris. The programs have all been based on successful pilot studies over a two year period, and now are being expanded to reach the entire population of the particular age groups involved.
One of the most significant aspects of the programs is their low cost, due to the use of existing, "infrastructures, " such as schools, social and governmental agencies, and radio and television. Business and industry have contributed to the cost of training trainers, teachers, facilitators and a large corps of volunteers.
The programs include the Family Project, aimed at the prenatal period through age six, the Visual Education program, based on Jaacov Agam's work, aimed at early elementary school children and the Chess Program, for all children from age 7 to 9. For later elementary school there have been developed the Learning to Think Program, (De Bono), the Integral Creativity Program, the Representation of Space and the Child project, and Instrumental Enrichment, (Feuerstein). Project Intelligence, developed at Harvard , has been planned for high school students, the Thinking Methods and Systems Project for higher education students, and the Thinking Development program for all adults.
The Family Project reaches mothers through prenatal and maternity services, community agencies and the communications media. Each maternity hospital ward has its own audiovisual modules for which 11 TV programs have been prepared. The focus is on the importance of early visual and sensory-motor stimulation and proper nutrition. During 1982, it is estimated that over 250,000 will receive information on how to create a strong basis for the development of intelligence.
Sixty professionals, 1,000 volunteers, and 15,000 preschool teachers will be trained in the "Adequate Stimulation Model." Through television and radio even remote rural areas can be reached. The project is constantly being assessed through a sample of 520 mothers and their infants divided into 3 research and 2 control groups.
The Ministry of Education is analyzing ways of training high school students to take the Family Project to poorer districts of cities and towns. This is envisioned as a social service project that would be compulsory for all high school students.
All of the other aforementioned programs are currently involving thousands of school teachers, trained volunteers, and the entire student as well as adult population of Venezuela.
Clearly, the grand experiment in developing more fully the capacities of the Venezuelan people is a project worthy of the human race. A world in which thought and energy and financial resources are devoted to helping human beings to develop their potential more fully is a world in which there would be little time, energy, or financial resources to wage war. We will continue to publish further details about the progress of the Intelligence Project as information becomes available.
Copyright © 1982 New Horizons for Learning.
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