The Blessings Of Socialism Is A Myth

02/24/2020   Cuba Insight A publication of the Cuban Studies Institute

SOCIALISM AND EDUCATION IN CUBA *By Jaime Suchlicki   Faithful to Lenin’s ideas that the school should “educate and prepare members of the Communist society,” the Castro revolution used education as the instrument to build the new society – to develop the socialist man. Speaking of the educational aims of the revolutionary regime, party Organization Secretary Armando Hart explained that the objective of socialist education was “the ideological, scientific and technical formation of whole generations capable of actively constructing socialism and communism.” “The task of teaching and the ideological struggle are intimately related,” he emphasized. “It is necessary to educate man against the individualistic ideology and to instill in him the work methods derived from the Marxist-Leninist concept.” The creation of the new man required a change in the values and attitudes of most Cubans. Allegiance had to be transferred from the family to the party and to the fatherland. The faltering influence of the Church had to be eliminated completely. The aversion of the Cubans to manual labor, together with the tradition that women’s place was in the home, had to be eradicated. The belief that events were determined by nature had to be transformed. And finally, the orientation toward the present had to be modified. Continue Reading *Jaime Suchlicki is Professor Emeritus, University of Miami and Director, Cuban Studies Institute, and author of six books on Cuba, Mexico and Latin America.

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