The greatest effort of the Foundation for Experiential Education Pablo Tesak is the promotion of methods and education derivative of the educative philosophy of John Dewey. Our main approach are school centers of the country: public, catholic, evangelical and private ones. Also, twenty five per cent of our work is done in communities trhough cultural committees formed by our cultural promoters.

The Salvadoran Center for the Promotion of Experiential Education follows the example of John Dewey who founded the School Laboratory of Chicago in 1896 based on the principles of experiential education. Our equivalent of the School Lab of Chicago is the Laboratory of Creativity. In the Laboratory of Creativity our facilitators-teachers, develop topics and exercises in three areas to develop their activities in 30 school centers in our Cultural Center Pablo Tesak.

To increase the number of beneficiaries who can not assist to the Laboratory of Creativity we have an extension program that visit schools far away from our campus, for a promotion of Experiential Education with teachers. This program of extension includes training for cultural promoters out of the formal context of education in communities.

Laboratory of Creativity

It emerges with the purpose to contribute to integral development of boys and girls from public and catholic schools. Experiential Education is a model that promotes: agriculture, science, social education, mathematics and physical education among others. Our approach is based on three components that contemplate ludic workshops that use: visual arts, creative writing and music.

Each boy and girl who assist to the Laboratory of Creativity participate in a total of 30 journal-workshops (one per month) in a period of three years playing and experiencing in the three components.

Without conditionings and unnecessary restrictions we pretend that boys and girls learn while playing and being themselves the main characters of the development of all the activities.

Children discover and learn through their own experiences, even though these imply to break with conventional and formal schemes of visual arts, orthodox methods of writing and changes in the musical pedagogy, when they play instruments made by themselves.

The program is sequential and the components go parallel with formation and promotion of 4º, 5º y 6º grades of primary school of the centers that participate.

Components of the program

Training for Teachers

This component is integrated by teachers who are encharged of children who are part of the program Laboratory of Creativity. Consists in the development of workshops with the purpose to learn the methodology of experiential education and find the ways to apply them in their own educative centers.

Visual Arts

This component is done with boys and girls of 4º grade of basic education that develop ten workshops in the year in the following topics:

1. Rock Art

2. Puppets

3. Pre-Columbian Art

4. World of Color

5. The Mural

6. Scenery

7. Masks

8. Customs and Traditions

9. Human Figure

10. Festival of creativity

Creative Writing

This component is done with boys and girls of 5th grade of basic education and develop the workshops in the year on the following topics:

1-Who am I?

2- I am part of a family

3- I am part of a town

4-I learn to coexist

5- I express my feelings

6- My people speak like this

7. What I think about my life

8 .My school and I

9- I represent what I write

10- Little communicators

Extension Program

The 75 % of the extension program consists of regional workshops based on the model of experiential education with groups from 30 to 40 teachers. Besides, the program create and empowers cultural committees within the communities to foster artistic-cultural processes.

The program uses a methodology that make possible the generation of experiences, reflections, synthesis and commitments focused in the transformation towards a pacific connivance within the communities.

Principles:

•It is inclusive: Motivates to the biggest amount of people of any age in the different activities that are made.

•Does not discriminate: It works with communities, no matter religious or ideological distinctions.

•Seeks for partners: who integrate to the cultural committees to cooperate and try to give the continuity to artistic-cultural activities.

Components of the Program

Program for Teachers

Each year the Extension Program offers workshops for teachers of different levels of education. The emphasis of the project in 2018 is kinder and first grade. These are the workshops:

1- Workshop of manufacture and handling of puppets for primary education. This workshop of 8 hours emphasizes the use of any content, but with emphasis in social studies and language.

2- Workshop of manufacture and use of masks and children theater for primary education. This workshop develops a procedimental part in which participants elaborate and learn how to make their own masks and besides contemplate the learning for the application of these techniques in their educative contexts. The content of the workshop emphasizes the development of language.

3- Workshop of manufacture and use of puzzles for primary education. This workshop pretends to develop skills of analysis and visual ando motor coordination. A social benefit of the workshop is its emphasis in the development of children leadership and teamwork.

4- Workshop of voice for teachers who are not musicians. This workshop emphasizes voice exercises for students who have teachers that cannot read musical notes nor playing musical instruments. The workshop lasts four hours.

5- Workshop of Percussion and children rhythm. In this workshop teachers learn to manufacture simple percussion instruments that can be used to teach rhythms. The workshop lasts six hours and is divided in two parts: manufacturing and rhythm.

6- Workshop of body movement and basic dance. This workshop lasts four hours and uses children music produced by children and using their percussion instruments to teach basic principles of dance.

All participants of these workshops receive a written guide of 40-60 sheets with didactic and theoretical material to complement their participation in the workshops. Most of that information is of public domain and drafted by the team of the Salvadoran Center for the Promotion of Experiential Education.

Communitary workshops of the Salvadoran Center for the Promotion of Experiential Education

Developed with the participation of boys, girls and cultural committees of the communities. It has 20 journal-workshops that use artistic expressions, among them: painting, writing, music, puppets, and theater.

Imaginarium

This component contemplates the following axes:

· The creation of companies of Puppet theater, through trainings to communitary groups in the manufacture and use of rod puppets for the staging of presentation of puppets, especially for boys and girls with the purpose to foster values and a culture of peace.

· Formed Companies of puppets: Companies of puppets such as Odontology Evangelical University of El Salvador, University of El Salvador, Health Units, Civil National Police, parish puppeteers among others.

· The elaboration of content scripts with social content and the staging of the work of puppets in different communitary contexts by our team of cultural promoters with the purpose of generate reflection spaces, analysis and commitments that make possible the transformations towards a culture of peace.

Presentations: Imaginarium in the school Against Bullying, Imaginarium A Life without Drugs, Imaginarium My body is Respected, Imaginarium All of us are equal.