Mexico City, October 23, 2023.- Since 1997, Library Day has been celebrated every October 24 to honor these spaces in memory of a shocking event: the burning of the Sarajevo Library in 1992, on the orders of the Serbian nationalist politician Nikola Koljevich, who was also a professor of poetry and literary criticism at the University of Sarajevo.
To mark this occasion, Binnui Navarro Romo, an academic analyst at the Mexico City Campus Library, interviewed two scholars from the Universidad Panamericana— Luis Alberto García Barrón, M.A., education coordinator at the School of Psychology, and Dr. Leonardo Ramos-Umaña, professor at the Institute of Humanities. Both scholars’ areas of research are relevant to the question:How can a university community guard against such unexpected deviations in the course of its history?
Assimilate and Build
Luis Alberto García Barrón, M.A., spoke to us about “open solidarity” through narrative art for moral education. The convergence of social psychology and the practical philosophy of the ancients into a single discussion provides us with a shared framework of guidelines to deepen our understanding and take action in response to events such as those in Sarajevo.
“In the case of what happened in Serbia and on many other occasions where we see people—even intellectuals—advocating for the idea of doing away with certain cultural traditions, what I see is a freezing of memory that, in reality, amounts to a loss of memory, ”explains Luis Alberto.
He also states:“Forgetfulness makes it impossible to build any kind of ethical education.” Now that everything is moving so quickly—including in the field of education—and there is no room for reflection, oral discourse, and dialogue, through which we might find an antidote to prevent what happened in Serbia and in so many other places from happening again, what I propose is precisely to seek out that space and maintain a pace of thought that allows us to assimilate and build that narrative and collective framework that keeps us highly vigilant against forgetting.”
However, regarding the above, he comments: “The problem is that, in education, what happens in the classroom often ends up reflecting the teacher’s perspective or a particular educational vision (…). Ideally, I would like to rethink that idea of reintroducing the narrative approach.”
“It’s not so much the fact that children and young people read—that’s already happening— but rather the fact that they’re able to create new narratives as a community and get used to the act of storytelling, ”he adds.
The Good Life
Dr. Leonardo Ramos-Umaña has conducted extensive research into the insights that ancient vocabularies can offer us about the “good life” in contemporary contexts.
In this way, he explains the importance of reading by referring to a passage from *Meditations* by Marcus Aurelius that reads: “Quench your thirst for books, so that you may not die grumbling, but truly resigned and grateful in your heart to the gods.”
Dr. Ramos acknowledges that this is a controversial statement; however, he clarifies: “I believe that the idea behind Marcus Aurelius’s statement is not, as it may seem at first glance, an attack on reading books. (…) Rather, it is a call to read with composure—that is, to take the time to read a text, digest it, and only then make the most of it.”
“Effort is a habit— so how can we promote that effort if educational policies encourage precisely the opposite?” the scholar asks. He goes on to reveal: “Between the overuse of the word ‘empathy’ and the view of students (…) as subjects with all rights but no duties, we are fostering entire generations condemned to a state of perpetual minority(to use Kant’s words in *What Is Enlightenment?*)”.
Similarly, Dr. Ramos points out that: “The true value of preserving classical sources lies in keeping alive the ideas they contain. (…) No book is the revealed truth; they are simply shoes we can wear on our own journey toward the revelation of the truth—our truth.”
He concludes: “Only what is not alive remains unchanged, and philosophy is living thought; philosophy is the life of thought.”
The UP Library aims to foster a culture of intellectual cooperation and dialogue. Learn more at: https://biblio.upmx.mx/home/index.html
