Víctor Bermúdez, a philosophy teacher in Mérida and former Ministry of Education official, has warned that Spain’s education system is losing control over what happens in classrooms, describing much of current teaching as a “simulacrum.” Bermúdez, co-author of the official curriculum for philosophy and history, recently published Defensa de la enseñanza de la Filosofía: trayectorias en Iberoamérica, highlighting a growing disconnect between students and the cultural knowledge traditionally shared in schools, according to an interview with El País.
Returning to his public school in September after five years at the ministry, Bermúdez said teachers are facing a “moment of great educational confusion,” where the ability to instill shared cultural references and moral formation is rapidly eroding. He cited the proliferation of private information sources and the influence of artificial intelligence as factors undermining the school’s authority to shape student knowledge.
Bermúdez emphasized that while students are highly intelligent, they struggle to comprehend complex texts and express themselves in the traditional language of education. He expressed concern over widespread reliance on AI tools, warning that many students mistake machine-generated outputs for their own intellectual work, and lamented that schools have yet to adapt evaluation methods to the new technological environment.
The philosopher highlighted the erosion of a shared cultural framework, noting that many secondary students lack basic historical and geographical understanding, and that the focus on skills-based education has come at the expense of common knowledge. “Globalization has broken the European cultural bubble without providing anything to fill the gap,” Bermúdez said, criticizing how social media and simplified online content have further fragmented young people’s understanding.
Despite these challenges, Bermúdez sees a potential role for philosophy in revitalizing education. He argues that philosophical thinking can help students develop conceptual tools to navigate a world saturated with information and crises, from ecological to social upheaval. “If they lack conceptual tools and categories to organize information, how will they face what is coming?” he asked.
Bermúdez’s observations paint a stark picture of Spanish schools struggling to compete with digital distractions while attempting to maintain their role as spaces for civic formation and shared cultural literacy, as reported by El País.
