MIAMI, 19 (AP) - If he were attending school in Cuba, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez would be taught to honor President Fidel Castro and urged to be a pioneering communist.
But in Miami, the private school the boy is attending is run by a Cuban exile and it teaches its students that Cubans have suffered under Castro's revolution.
The contrast underlines the deep disagreements that for four decades have pitted many Cuban exiles in Miami against Castro's government and have led to a highly politicized custody fight for the boy.
``With this schooling they are violating the rights of the father, who has not been consulted,'' Cuban education specialist Rafael Bell Rodriguez said during a roundtable broadcast live on government television in Havana on Tuesday night.
``They are trying to educate the child in a society of competition, inequalities, individualism, violence and vice,'' added Marisela Rodriguez Penate, another education specialist participating in the discussion.
Elian was rescued last November after his mother and 10 others died when their boat sank while trying to reach the United States.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and the Cuban government are demanding the boy's return, a move backed by the Clinton administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The issue will apparently be settled in federal court.
In the meantime, Elian is attending the Lincoln-Marti School, learning basic skills and English in his first-grade class. The school, named after Abraham Lincoln and Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, has given Elian a full scholarship of $3,000 per year.
Demetrio Perez, the Cuban-born director of Lincoln-Marti, said Elian walked into class on his second day at school and greeted his teacher in English, saying: ``My name is Elian.''
If he is able to stay, the boy will be taught a curriculum quite different from that which he would study in Cuba, said Perez, who supports efforts to keep Elian in Miami.
In Cuba, Perez said, students are taught to salute the country's flag with its single white star, to respect revolutionary icon Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara and to recite the slogan of the Pioneers, the nation's communist youth organization: ``Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che!''
Perez has written a textbook entitled ``Citizens Training Handbook'' that is used with older students at the school in teaching values, civics, morality and other topics.
The book's dedication mentions Cuba and calls it ``a nation oppressed by communism.'' Its chapter on economy says Cuba has been unable to provide for ``people's most basic needs, such as food, clothing and housing.''
AP-NY-01-19-00 0839EST
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