‘Al andar’ can be translated from Spanish as ‘by walking’ as in “We make the road by walking”, a book that records a conversation about education between Paulo Freire and Richard Horton, two prominent thinkers of education and social change. For Spanish speakers “We make the road by walking” evokes the line ‘se hace camino al andar‘ in Antonio Machado’s poem or in Joan Manuel Serrat’s song. Hence the ‘al andar’ translation of ‘by walking’.
In this blog I wish to highlight the simultaneity of walking, thinking and their relation to the notion of making way – three things one might consider to be inherent to education. Here ‘walking’ does not solely refer to being on foot – although it does retain the “slow” pace of this embodied movement. In thinking and walking we are thinking with the presence of our moving bodies in given surroundings. We think while simultaneously experiencing and dealing with a material reality that shapes our thinking just as our thinking has the potential to shape our material reality. In the spirit of ‘al andar‘ this blog contains bits and pieces – essays of sorts – from ‘walking’ and thinking about education and democracy.
An alternative name for this blog was going to allude to the Ancient Greek word peripatetikós (περιπατητικός) which can be translated as “of walking”, and one of its English derivations, the noun ‘peripatetic’, which according to the Oxford Languages, refers to:
- 1. a person who travels from place to place, especially a teacher who works in more than one school or college.
- 2. an Aristotelian philosopher.
I do not have a preference for Aristotelian philosophy but I do appreciate Aristotle’s practice of walking while thinking with his pupils. With regards to the first definition, it corresponds quite well to my trajectory as I have lived, studied and taught in different countries.
What made me hesitate about this name was the feminine version of the French noun ‘péripatéticien‘:
Enough said. Maybe one day I will have the courage to claim both. Until then, clearly there is a lot of thinking and walking to do!
P.S. The photo above was taken during a walk in Mexico City. The contrast in styles reminds me that balancing between conservation and creative vitality is perhaps education’s first and foremost challenge.