Project TribuCan is an innovative and pioneer educational program because, even though the concept of educational tribu or educational society has been studied from a theoretical perspective, not many experiences have been put into practice.
Through the Educational Mobilization movement , led by José Antonio Marina, a promotion campaign has been initiated aiming to make the society aware of the responsibility it holds in childhood and adolescent education.
It is obvious that the family has been traditionally the main protagonist of the education of boys and girls through behavioural models and the role of the teaching mother who transmits social values.
The incorporation of women to the world of professional work, the vertiginous changes in life style, the short time that parents have to care for their sons and daughters, the attracting power of television, the indiscriminate use of computers and video games… have all contributed to make the burden of responsibility for education fall on the schools’ shoulders.
Nowadays, Schools are assuming responsibilities that are not an issue that concerns them in its entirety. It’s not trying to dodge the issue, but rather trying to involve all the social entities that directly or indirectly have a bearing on the behaviour of our sons and daughters in order to transmit the democratic values, the importance of personal work, the sense of responsibility and the taste for well-made work.
José Antonio Marina, defender of this project, summarises the philosophy of Tribucan at the launch of the website Movilización educativa with the following reflection:
“The universal worry about education has aroused a system of excuses in which everyone passes the buck. Parents blame the School, schools blame parents, everybody blames television, television blames viewers, and we end up asking the government for solutions, while it appeals to the citizens’ responsibility, and then it starts all over again. We could be spinning in this infernal cycle of excuses until Judgement Day.
The only solution that comes to my mind is that of not waiting for others to solve the problem, but rather asking myself: “What can I do to solve it?” I’ve heard this question many times, and I think that if we could make use of the concerns, generosity, energy and talent of thousands of people willing to cooperate, we could really cause a beneficent cultural change, which happens to be what we really need to improve education. This is the objective- optimistic, as you may notice- of educational mobilization. It’s all about getting rid of the victimization, the helplessness and the dramatic atmosphere in which the worlds of both family and school education are caught up”.