Ciudad Educativa (Educational City)

The Universidad de Santo Tomás and the professors of the its school of social work created Ciudad Educativa as an educational alternative for street and working kids. It was born inside the public school system, but as the teachers began to understand better the conditions in which their students lived, the school became a teacher-owned cooperative. All students have been expelled from other schools, largely because of Chile’s institutional discrimination against working children.

According to the professors at the University, schools in Chile are “extraordinarily expulsive” of poor children. Teachers, mostly from poor families themselves, demand the impossible from their students: expensive school supplies, exaggerated politesse, and homework that no one could do in a poor household. (For instance: “cut out ten photos of fruit from ten magazines,” for a family that has no magazines in the house.) For a working child, this situation is almost impossible.

Ciudad Educativa offers and alternative for children for all parts of Santiago, many of who travel hours to attend. Teachers give classes like they would in any school, but with much sensitivity. Students from the university work as TAs and run workshops and games for the kids. Affection and caring are deeply important to the work: “in that context, things get done!” the director told me. The school also provided free breakfast and lunch for 100 children.

Contact through:

Universidad Santo Tomás
(Vergara 317 (esq. Grajales), tercer piso
Centro, Santiago, Chile

Malvina Ponce de León
562 787 1606

mpleon@ust.cl