Return Thoughts: Fair Governance Lessons from the Mayans (Daniel)

What is fair play? How do groups of individuals come together to accomplish shared goals?

These are questions that come out in my professional and personal life. As a teacher educator, I work to help teachers motivate and empower students and as a professional parliamentarian, I am often called upon to help organizations reach higher levels of success.

I was fascinated to learn about some aspects of the Mayan culture including: 

• The Alcade
• Fahina

The Alcalde

The Alcalde is a selected member of the village that chosen to lead the group. It is interesting to note that their responsibilities are not to make decisions, rather facilitate the process to reach consensus and keep the peace and order. As a parliamentarian, I can appreciate the idea of a leader helping a group to be successful in their goals opposed to an authoritarian dictator making decisions. 

This concept of Alacade is integrated into the learning at one of our school visit sites: Tumul K'in Center of Learning. The elect an Alcalde for each grade level each year to help lead the student body in self-governance.

Fahina

Fahina is an activity where a group comes together to complete tasks for the greater good. I love how this speaks to the responsibility each of us in any group setting (i.e. class, teams, etc) to contribute. There is a personal responsibility that each of us have to be the change we wish to see in the world. This comes to life in the village on a quarterly basis and on a monthly basis in the Tumul K'in Center of Learning. Students tackle various tasks like cutting firewood, cleaning, garbage, etc.

You can learn more about our school visit here: http://www.tumulkinbelize.org

These experiences and conversations push one towards self-reflection. Questions to ask yourself like:

1) What is my "Fahina" contribution?

2) Would people in groups I am involved in want me to serve as their Alcalde?

3) How can I be more of servant-leader in day to day living?

Daniel Foster is an agricultural teacher educator at Penn State and a Professionally Registered Parliamentarian with the National Association of Parliamentarians