Don't let the Flame of the Valley be extinguished

By Carlos Alberto Montaner

In Ecuador, a brilliant engineer has formulated an original theory about the origin and workings of the universe. His name is Antonio Mortensen, he studied at Notre Dame University in the United States and has devoted almost all of his long life to observing nature and drawing his own conclusions.

He has the freshness of the Greek thinkers who, 25 centuries ago, peered at the world with a mixture of curiosity and intellectual audacity whose effect reaches to our times and shapes our understanding of reality. Although his physical and metaphysical reflections are remarkable -- it is a topic where matter and spirit blend -- the most transcendental aspect of his work is not theoretical but practical: Mortensen began by looking at the stars and ended up founding an amazing school that he called ``The Flame of the Valley.''

''Flame'' because, according to his theory, the nature of fire sums up the essence of the universe: a huge burst, a starting point, a final point and an axis that connects them. ''Valley'' because the small institution is situated in the Valley of Chillo, 10 miles from Quito.

What happens in that tiny hall of elementary learning, attended by only three dozen girls and boys? Something that must have happened in Plato's and Aristotle's Athens: The children give free rein to their imagination, without limitations. Mortensen gives them a simple explanation about the intimate unity of the universe and lets them reason and reach their own conclusions. His idea of the potential capacity of children is the one attributed to Salvador Dali: ``All of them are born geniuses; few survive school.''

The result of this teaching method is extraordinary. Before they reach age 10, the children solve complex equations, grapple with logarithms and are able to explain concepts of physics usually tackled by students twice their age.

How can this educational ''miracle'' occur? Because learning is not based on memory or repetition but on wonderment and intelligent comprehension. The children marvel at what they discover, and that psychological impact is permanently imprinted.

Unconventional process

The conventional learning process is inverted. Traditionally, children memorize in order to learn. But in Mortensen's method the children learn, and that experience is automatically engraved in their memory and helps facilitate other associated reasoning.

It is odd that Ecuador, a country whose public-education system is very deficient, pays no attention to such an important phenomenon occurring within its own borders. Isn't it obvious that the struggle against poverty and relief from the great ills that afflict our societies begin with a major educational effort? Maybe a couple of generations of young people leaving their classrooms filled with creativity and energy would be enough to radically change the poor economic and social performance of our countries.

After all, one of the most interesting findings of modern education is that nothing is more important than the teaching methods when it comes to good or bad results. The number of students per classroom, the investment per student and the quality of the textbooks are factors that have some weight, but none is as transcendental as the method used to convey knowledge and, of course, the teacher's skill with the method he or she uses.

This can be seen in countries like South Korea and Taiwan, where the average grades of math students are much higher than those of students in the United States or Canada -- even though the Asian nations spend only one third per capita of what the two great powers of North America spend on education.

This column is something of an S.O.S. I don't know Mr. Mortensen personally, but I learned about his work, read some of his papers, saw a brief documentary about his little school and was very impressed. I asked how old he was and was told he was in his mid-70s.

At that point, I felt a certain distress. It was inevitable that in a few years this successful experiment would disappear without a trace. First, Mortensen's vital flame would be extinguished. A few years later, The Flame of the Valley would surely be extinguished. And all of us unknowingly -- perhaps the universe itself -- would lose a great deal.

March 9, 2004