Some background information

Near where I live there’s a lovely little state school with a big playground which  is lying unused, in a state of abandon. When I pass by I always remember Oscar Wilde’s story of The Selfish Giant who would not  let the local children play in his big beautiful garden, even though they had nowhere else to play.

I thought, ‘If the local authorities don’t know what to do with this place I’ll give them an idea.’

Teachers of English in the schools here in Spain are doing a wonderful job and the idea was to offer evening classes to help schoolchildren consolidate their learning and to extend teaching of the English language to reach a greater number of people by offering classes to adults in the morning and late evening.
The teachers would come from any of the many English speaking countries in the world.

The idea was to create a warm learning environment with attractive activities and teaching methods. The beauty of the language class is that it brings children from different schools, different backgrounds together and they are all equal. They could have playground games in English in that wonderful playground.
Families of low income and people who are long term unemployed would be able to bring their children too and come themselves to improve their chances of finding good employment.
To quote a former pupil in a debate about the right of parents to choose and pay for the best education for their children,

‘All children have the right to the best education.’

We cannot underestimate the importance of the ability to communicate in the 'lingua franca' of global research  and the need for young Spanish learners to master English in the contemporary world of increasing internationalization.This school would aim to have high quality teaching open to all because a key E.U. policy is that access to knowledge is a right for everyone and it must be promoted.

Together with my friend and neighbour, Ascen, I approached the local authorities with this proposal. We were told that the school was being used for offices by the local government in Madrid and that before they could do anything with the idea we would have to prove that our interest was not for personal gain but for the community.

Thankfully, my neighbours José and Ascen had the courage and goodwill to join me and form this non profit making association.Together we could get it moving and time will tell if is a good idea and a viable one. Right now we are taking it step by step.

At this stage we are connecting people who are interested in any aspect of the English language. This is a very broad definition but it covers those who have always wanted to learn the language and those who, like myself, have it and want to use it in a social context. We have had shared readings of Oscar Wilde's wonderful plays and stories at the local library already.

We have introduced into the association the idea of bringing together those English speakers who live in the area and would really enjoy a space where they could exchange books, meet people and pursue common interests and those English learners who have invested a lot of time and money in classes but have no opportunity to practise outside the classroom context. A lot of people just need someone to organize the activities for them and that is what we propose to do in ASEDOW. I’m sure our paths can meet.

The lovely thing about this project is that it is not top down.
People are pushing it up.
We are going about this in a happy way. Please don’t come worried about your level of English. Leave your worries at home.
Relax and enjoy the activities that are coming up.

Hopefully these activities will lead us back eventually to the original idea of
 la escuela de inglés de  Oscar Wilde.