Disclaimer: Just a Dose of Daily Cheese(It’s about to get cheesy)

Every new registration period, students fish for a class that pushes one to think, to question and to change perspectives that have been held for too long. When I registered for Fall classes in the Spring, I had an entirely different outlook on what I had wanted out of my future education. It was prior to my first study abroad trip and still in the deep throes of planning my second study abroad cruise I wanted to take around the world. Looking back, I have no idea what compelled me to register for the International 399 Education and Development class, as it was only loosely connected to what I had wanted to do, but today, I could not be happier that I did. The moments that this class created for myself was an experience unlike any other. Twenty classes, forty hours and sixteen minds created fruitful discussions, viewpoints and research that I have not yet experienced in any other classroom setting.

1.The documentary Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden, by Director Carol Black, introduced me to my first moment of finding education in a class about education. It was an inception of my schooling experience, everything I thought I had known had only been a presumption. I watched along with my classmates in a critical critiquing style and listened objectively as my American mindset of “helping” the world was stripped from myself and displayed before me, a crucifixion of everything I’d hoped to do in the world. This moment was one of relief and set me up to have an open mind for the rest of the term, constantly searching for any benefits and necessities of International Development and globalized ideas.

2.The next moment was subtler, it may not have even been distinguishable as a single moment in time but more a final moment of realization. Midway through the course, I realized that we had learned about different reasons for development, different theories that pushed that development and how that tied into education. We had class on the floor, ridding ourselves of the traditional chair, table, central teacher, westernized mentality and opened discourse for a new method of listening, discussing and learning. Never had this happened in a class of mine before. We had been taking pictures for an accompanying photo project during this time. I was asked “What is education?” and all of my answers kept changing, each day, with each class. When I drank tea provided to me as I sat on Indian blankets, I had my second moment where I actively questioned, what is education? My perspective was changing.

3. This class required a large research project and presentation, chosen by your own personal interest, guaranteeing hours of interesting researching and a final presentation that could be full of personal interest and even passion. I chose to study education in a country I would soon study abroad in, while others chose to focus on areas they had once visited or dreamed they will visit soon. Watching my peers, I saw international problems in an educated light, with occasional first hand experience. My peers were actively teaching me, and with the bonds we had been creating throughout the year, my interest in their words was at an outstandingly high level.

4. The final moment of key success in this class, that reassured me that I had not wasted four credits, was my final presentation and policy memo write-up. I had never been asked to create something from such extensive research and then given the time to present it in a manner that ensured that my words mattered. They were not skimmed over by a professor with 300 other papers, they were heard by fifteen or so other sets of ears.

And then, we had our final brunch on our final day. We shared our photographs and our ranging epiphanies. I’m left to study for a final that is personalized to my interests and am reviewing the extensive readings that expanded my views and interests. It’s been fabulous, and I can only hope that every student with any intrigue in the world will one day also stumble upon this class.

“It is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was.”—Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori Education System.

Public versus private: an age old question that only seems to outweigh one another in an individual’s eyes, thus, hardly ever finding objective light. David Archer, the Head of Programme Development with ActionAid and a board member of the Global Campaign for Education, blogged on Education in Crisis’ website in order to comment on a recent decision of the Department for International Development. For the past three years, funds have been allocated to private education systems in poor nations by public funds from the UK. While he acknowledges the immediate importance of aid to many developing nations in regards to education, he does not unconditionally support aid to all education. Instead, he brings the point across that promoting private education, even low-cost private schools, perpetuates a larger problem of inequality rather than a remedy for the education gap, accessibility conundrum and extreme poverty that the DFID is trying to eradicate.

Although Archer focuses on the responsibility of the DFID and the conflicting ethics of public UK aid for private for-profit systems, the underlying issue of this blog post hits on something much larger. Whether private education is a vessel for improving educational access and consequently, ending extreme poverty, is up for contention. According to Archer, “the biggest gains in education occurred when governments eliminated user fees to deliver on the right to education, leading to tens of millions of children enrolling in school for the first time, and supporting low-cost private schools mocks the importance of that evidence.” Perhaps, Archer’s correct. It is common for private schools to charge amounts that exclude members of lower classes and force parents to prioritize which child should receive education. This often leaves girls and children with disabilities at a cyclical life disadvantage and stuck without opportunity.

However, I believe that a glance through a radical lens could justify public funds for private schooling. There is a saying that may apply to this situation in regards to development— a rising tide lifts all boats. Simply put, helping the larger issue can bring success to every member of a struggling society.  Meaning, that just possibly, some countries that lack government funds and the means to build schools could benefit in the long term from privatized help.

Educating and building a working class from a privileged group of citizens may cause immediate inequality, but it seems important to consider that educating some, is better than educating none. Archer argues that private education systems in these countries hinder the government’s responsibility of ensuring education for all, but I suggest that private education may be a stepping stone for the DFID’s eventual goal of attaining money for all. For where there is money, there are options to alleviate poverty, illiteracy and more social inequalities. Even if it’s not changed over night, what more could we strive to universally achieve?

This post is in response to the original Education in Crisis blog post— “Should Public Money Be Used for Private Schools?”

Check out the original post here

My childhood was filled with lessons that were given to me by my parents, my schoolteachers and even my peers. The guilt-filled lunches were not unfamiliar as I recall the need to eat everything on my plate. I was taught that waste was a privilege I need not indulge in, because of course, there are millions of starving children throughout the African continent. It was this constant reminder that subconsciously instilled an idea of Western superiority in me from a young age. I believed I was being cultivated to be a responsible “citizen of the world” by being conscious of the good fortune that my circumstances allowed. I believed in the methodology of the “developed” world and was well aware that rest of the world did not yet match our good fortune. I found injustice in unequal opportunity and began connecting my own dots. I rooted the cause of hunger to poverty, poverty to a lack of education, a lack of education as a sign of underdevelopment and underdevelopment meaning they needed our “help”.

After watching “Schooling the World” my preconceived notions were challenged and my perspectives were utterly changed. Like so many other optimistic and well-intentioned souls, I believed wholeheartedly that education was the key to empowerment and equality. A society could only progress once it attained an educated middle class. I had believed poverty would be eradicated by complete access to education and that each community needed to fulfill this human right to basic access of elementary education, so they too could be progressive. However, considering what education might look like, what might be taught, or who sets the standards never crossed my mind. I, like many other Westerners, just wanted to “help” those I considered in need.

Is it possible to help?

I became stumped by this question and the need to find a silver lining. “Schooling the World” portrayed a side of international education that highlighted the grievances of many villages considered to be in poverty— forced to send their kids to school. These villages are losing their youthful populations to boarding schools that are teaching impractical skills and are instilling cultures that are foreign from their own. It strikes a unique cord to realize that these villages are not suffering from poverty but from the forced assumption that they are ignorant and need to develop in order to stay competitive within global markets. I believed that Helena Norberg-Hodge hit the nail directly on the head when she stated within the film that, “It is the creation of development and aid that has created modern day poverty” [1]. My view that some communities are innately poor was radically challenged. Questions flared up for me: Is GDP the best measure of poverty? Why are these countries struggling to compete in the Western market? What sacrifices are being made to ensure that these people are “given opportunity”.

In the film, there are interviews with teachers that have given up their former lives to share their knowledge with these children, principals that are striving to create the best education and interviews with the students who have experienced the system. Watching each of them, it is clear to see the good intention that the teachers hold– wanting each of these kids to rise above their outdated culture and step into the global economy. However, many of these children are being subjected to Western influenced schools that emphasize ideals that are not their own, taught in languages that are not the same as their parents, without practical skills that are transferable to the home lives they have left. Developed countries are giving the “developing world” an education system that does not equalize their middle class, but eradicates their culture and undermines their future.

Alternatives in Education

The need for education was a blind plight that I was ready to venture before watching the film. I believed that English was a language that I could happily teach in Thailand, Malawi or within the rural villages of India. I was optimistic that schools would fight cultural genocide and create opportunities instead of more inequality. Although this film challenged my belief system that all education is good education, there is no reason to fully lose hope that the power of education need always be wielded as a weapon for capitalism. There is a school in Ladakh, founded by a Tibetan monk that believes in an education that need not exploit people but instead, return to the fundamentals of education. As written on their about page, “The Siddhartha School gives the children of Ladakh access to the highest-quality, thoroughly modern education in the region, while also honoring their life-ways and traditions in the curriculum and school activities” [2]. This school teaches in English, Tibetan, Hindi and Ladakhi and fights the notion that all educations must be based on a Western education. Alternatives in international education exist and becoming aware of each option is worth the extra time to ensure that “help” is created by a local community and not a single western goal.

[1] Carol Black. (Director) Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden. 2010. Web.

[2] “About Siddhartha School.” Siddhartha School Project. N.p., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.