What can an ancestral culture teach us about education today? A look at Macuil

Some useful principles to bring back into our school system

When talking about the future of education, we mainly think about new technologies and the latest trendy pedagogies. At least I do – I’m a child of the internet and passionate about innovation myself.

Over the course of history, humanity has accomplished many feats that have made life easier. But we’ve also lost some traditions and technologies that it’s time to re-discover and use in our modern lives.

For the past 6 months, I have been studying at Macuil, an institute that mixes modern psychology knowledge with Mexican wisdom.

Everything about it is fascinating. Here is a summary of what our education system can learn from the Mechikas (pre-Hispanic Mexican culture) and from the pedagogy at Macuil.

TEMACHTIANI and MATILIZTLI: about pedagogy

Studying the language of a culture is captivating because it tells a lot about a people’s worldview, as words shape our reality. For example, in Nahuatl (the Mechikas’ language), the word “teacher” doesn’t exist. The closest to it would be “Temachtiani”, meaning the one who helps you think.

Its deeper meaning is that teaching is not meant to pass on information, but to help the student shape their mind into one that knows how to reflect and explore itself. It also erases the common difference between the one who knows and the one who doesn’t: Everyone is expected to challenge ideas.

In Macuil, the pedagogy proposal is also based on “Matiliztli”: teaching yourself. The material studied is meant to be questioned and discussed with your peers. In class, students sit in a circle, which facilitates that exchange.

It is also meant to be practical: at Macuil we constantly apply our abstract thinking to practical crafts like art. “You need to touch what you’re learning,” says my teacher and founder of the program, María Islas.

The relationship between teacher and student

Another fascinating thing about the word Temachtiani: the word for “student” is the same, just with an extra syllable. It becomes “Temachtianime”.

This implies that students are also teachers themselves!

Additionally, education was often transmitted through apprenticeships. Beyond the benefit of learning a craft by doing it, apprenticeships are also beneficial because they create a close relationship between mentor and student.

In conventional schools, most teachers have a twisted definition of respect: they expect to obtain it as a mark of authority over their students. Unfortunately, this results in students feeling rebellious and a general lack of appreciation toward their teachers.

In Mechika’s time, students would live with their teachers and develop a bond that went beyond any instructional time. It was a caring relationship, where students & teachers knew and trusted each other.

This shows through today at Macuil because we get to know our teachers as they are, not as modern society thinks a teacher should behave. They tell us about themselves and use their own personal stories to illustrate examples. It makes us students confident and relaxed, letting us do the same. It’s only then that the learning happens, as we finally dare to be ourselves, ask questions and apply the theory to our lives.

Studying life itself

And this leads me to my final point: school, in Mechika's culture, was meant to make you relate to the world. Classrooms were outside, and one would spend a lot of time observing the movements of the planets, plants and animals. This required concentration & creativity.

Furthermore, studying nature would remind you of your own cyclical nature. This is clear in all of Macuil’s teaching. We use principles from modern psychology and from the Mechika culture to make sense of our life experiences and help others do the same. We learn to observe the similarities and differences between us and the world.

“The only exam is one’s life,” says María, while explaining to me why she believes it is critical for us to get in touch with the outdoors.

I’ve taken to repeating that often, and it’s one of the main topics I aim to explore with this newsletter: what is the point of learning various academic subjects if you cannot deal with the events that shape your life?

“The Aztecs doing a ritual to celebrate a new season” by DALL-E

Should we let historical and technological events, like the industrial age, take away the richness of ancient educational pedagogies? I believe in a world where new technologies can embrace powerful, centuries-old principles.

We can understand why they matter thanks to the Lindy effect: if those teachings are still around, it most likely means they still hold some truth for today’s world. Let’s put them in the spotlight again.

I wish you a wonderful week,
Zelda

👉 Subscribe for more insights on Social-Emotional Learning, the Future of Education & the people building it:

---

My one week seminar with Macuil just finished. I’m back to my routines and will continue moving around Mexico for the coming weeks!

Looking at the moon and trying to answer, on a symbolical level, to the question our team mate Benjamín asked “why can we observe the moon during the day too, sometimes, while we never can see the sun at night?”