The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, accompanied by the Councillor of the Horta-Guinardó District, Lluís Rabell, visited the Escola del Mar and held a debate with the fourth-year primary school children, who have been working on the book ‘Barcelona. La meva ciutat’ [Barcelona. My City].
The mayor was given a very special welcome. The children on the school’s protocol committee welcomed him and offered him a guided tour of all the building’s unique spaces. In addition to the classrooms, dining room and playgrounds, the mayor discovered a unique space inside the school: the Municipal Planetarium. The stars of this gathering were the fourth-year primary school children, the Nausica class, who prepared lots of questions about the city and the things that concern them the most after working on the contents of the book Barcelona. La meva ciutat [Barcelona. My City].
Students in the Nausica class were tough on the mayor and wanted to know how he decides how to invest the money collected from taxes and how decisions that affect all city residents are taken.
The children asked him what he wants to improve in the city, and the mayor said that there are three key issues: ensuring affordable housing for everyone, guaranteeing a decent job for everyone and making a clean, sustainable city. Dog excrement, the noise of cleaning vehicles and the drought were other topics for which the children asked the mayor for solutions. The mayor tries to work to have clear, tidy, safe and well-illuminated public spaces so that everyone enjoys and cares for them. Regarding the drought, he is committed to ensuring that water comes out when we turn on our taps, he explained the use of groundwater to water plants, and he said that more efforts need to be invested to make better use of groundwater.
The children at the Escola del Mar were keenly interested in learning about the mayor’s career: how did he decide to become mayor, whether he wanted to be mayor since he was a child and what is needed to be a mayor. Jaume Collboni answered that he wanted to be a veterinarian or astronaut, that he began as a class delegate and ended up being mayor, and that to be mayor all you need is ‘to be a resident of Barcelona, to love the city and to spend many, many hours’.
Recovering the Escola del Mar building
To close the Q&A session, the teachers conveyed their concerns to the mayor. On behalf of the entire teaching team, the school director asked the mayor for a commitment to continue working on projects for the municipal public schools. She also reminded him that they are still awaiting a permanent location to recover the old wooden Escola del Mar building on Barceloneta, which would become a centre of educational debate, research and pedagogical innovation.
The Escola del Mar has kept the pedagogical project designed by Pere Vergés, its first director. Part of the school’s original legacy can be found in the book Parlen els menuts. Contes escrits pels infants de l’Escola del Mar de Barcelona (1933-1936) [The Little Ones Speak. Stories Written by the Children at Barcelona’s Escola de Mar (1933-1936)], published by the Barcelona City Council and Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. The Escola del Mar celebrated its centennial in 2022 along with another century-old school, the Escola Baixeras, and it promoted a drawing contest organised by the Barcelona City Council in conjunction with the Barcelona Education Consortium. The drawings of all the participants were collected in the book Les escoles de Barcelona dibuixen la ciutat [Barcelona’s Schools Draw the City].