Social exclusion and violence:
Education for social cohesion

I HAVE P.O.D.E.R

ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY

The program "I have P.O.D.E.R" tries to promote thinking, exchange and critical analysis concerning spaces about the problems affecting adolescents and pre-adolescents (addictive behaviors, group pressure, violence manifestations, family communication problems, etc.). It aims at building didactic tools that may facilitate the teachers' daily practice when they have to face conflictive and troublesome social situations that influence the classroom. Likewise, the project promotes the effective cooperative and responsible participation of students, in order to elaborate peaceful alternatives that may contribute to overcome common conflicts among teenagers.
The meaning of P.O.D.E.R is the proposal of a subject for adolescents: Purpose (trust your own decisions), Orgullo (pride, be proud of yourself), Determination (you know when and how to choose the best), Enthusiasm (enjoy being yourself), Responsibility (control your life being responsible of your own decisions).

The program "I have P.O.D.E.R" ("poder" is the Spanish for "power") is addressed to pre-adolescents and adolescents (from 9 to 17 years) of the 2nd and 3rd cycles of EGB (General Elementary Education) and Multimodal. It has benefited a total of 3.000.000 students and almost 200,000 teachers in schools located in different regions of Argentina. The project is carried out by Conciencia (conscience), civic association that works in favor of the citizens' rights and responsibilities awareness. This organization is currently doing a selection and preparation of the future trainers in Uruguay and will develop monitoring and follow-up activities. Through this project, teachers are put in contact with a kit of materials containing concrete activities to be carried out with their students. The kit includes a working guide with suggestions for the follow-up activities. The activities propose the role-play technique, questions for individual and group reflection and the analysis of several troublesome situations. The presentation of the program and the materials are carried out in 4 hours. The attending teachers get their material to work with their students and other 10 colleagues, along with the follow-up cards that they must send in a 3-months time. The teachers complete a total of 20 training hours, including semi-attended modality tutorships.

The program begins with the acknowledgement of the need for the school to face situations like juvenile alcohol and drug consumption, student drop-out rate, the decreasing presence of the family and the different manifestations of violence and social unrest, produced by the social-economical crisis in Argentina, Uruguay and many other countries. Given this reality, teachers often find themselves helpless to face these social problems influencing the classroom activities. Besides, the adolescent lives a tensional period of adjustment and the necessity of adapting him/herself to social adult values and patterns. This requires a follow-up process around him/her, the school being a privileged social linkage space. Thus, the project intends to support the students in the taking on of their responsibilities and the value-building process through a reflexive, critical and participatory work with their peers. The proposed motto "I have P.O.D.E.R" might well be discussed by the students themselves, in order to foster their critical thinking.
While the school has traditionally tried to exclude the "outside" conflicts, today it cannot keep itself far from the social problems. A new education based on "learning to live together" requires new strategies and positions. It is necessary for the school to include and get involved both in the social matters and in those related to the evolving momentum of the students, who are the real subjects of learning.

Ms. Silvia Rueda de Uranga
President of CONCIENCIA
Non- partisan Civic Association - Central Headquarters
731 Tucuman 1st floor A.C.P. (1046)
Buenos Aires - Argentina
Tel.: 4322-3878
Fax: 4322-3878
E-mail: conciencia@conciencia.org
Web page: http://www.concienciadigital.com.ar

Institutional Partners
Ministry of Education of the Nation (Argentina9, Provincial Ministries of Education, Secretariat of Education of Buenos Aires, Condor Foundation (Jujuy, Argentina), New Millenium Foundation (Salta, Argentina), Rural Woman and Family Foundation (Uruguay)
Financial Partners
Philips Morris International through its Argentine branch office Massalín Particulares SA

Launching in Argentina: 1997
Launching in Uruguay: 2001
The program has been developed by Lifetime Learning Systems (American organization which elaborates and distributes educational material for schools and other institutions). This project has been spread out, since 1989, to the USA, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Argentina and recently Uruguay.

2000: Evaluation by Teachers and Students. Conciencia Association realized an Evaluation Seminar. According to the surveys, an 87% of the students state they feel better prepared to solve situations in a peaceful way, and 96% of the teachers answer that the program has a positive effect on their students.