Nick Lucenti

I thought that the photovoice project was fun and interesting.  My pictures did not come out exactly as I had hoped but I think that the overall experience was good.  It was cool to see everyone talk about their pictures and why they thought they related to education.  The black and white photos came out much better than the color ones in my opinion.

I don’t know if there was one specific reading that really grabbed me throughout the course.  All of this material was very new to me so I think that the later readings started to make more sense because I had a better understanding of what the authors were trying to get across, and also had a better basic knowledge of certain policies and ideologies that supported my understanding of the readings.  I still think that one of the best things we did all term was watching schooling the world.  I thought that the film really started out the class well and was a good intro into some of the areas that we would be exploring.

This was a great course that introduced me to another side of my own education that I had not yet explored.  It was a great learning process for me to learn about something that I was not familiar with.  I enjoyed class discussion, and the overall enthusiasm that was displayed by the class, that is what made the class go.  I look forward to taking what I learned from this class and using it down the road.

On the education for all blog the main focuses that seems to span across many of the posts is the goal to give every child a shot in getting a quality education.  I find it intriguing to look at some of the ways they are trying to accomplish this and also some of the other articles that have furthered my knowledge on the subject on educating the world.  I think that one of the articles that really interested me was talking about getting the youth involved in spreading global education.  These kids know how the education system works seeing that they have been in it, and can understand how to better things, and how to possibly bring about changes where needed.  It seems like a good move to get young people involved to further the spread of knowledge and awareness around the world.

Another article that caught my eye was an article that talked about that ability to read in Liberia.  The article talks about students lack of reading skills which not only inhibits them from being able to learn from reading in class and outside of class, but it also hurts them significantly on tests.  These tests have directions on them that require the student to read them and the subsequently answer those questions.  Because of the students  lack of basic reading skills it is hard for them to move on in schooling.  They end up failing out and not being able to continue their education. The way they want to try and implement a better approach to reading is by giving the teachers better training in how to teach reading skills.  They are also going to encourage the kids to work things out on their own instead of just having them write down things and not speak during class. The “I do, We do, You do” approach seems to be very successful and changing the way that things work in Liberia for the betterment of children’s reading.  Therefore moving their education along as well.

I think that this is a great blog and has helped me learn more an more about educating the world.

I think that this movie really opened my eyes to how education really is around the world.  I am very new to this subject and have had not had much experience with many of these topics, but I feel like I have learned a lot in a short amount of time about how education works around the world.  A very interesting topic that I saw and feel comes from Western thinking is the invention of failure.

It seemed that in the Indian culture there was a high value placed on being educated and making it through to a high level of education.  As the movie progressed there was a sense that many of these kids that started going to school do not make it through and then consider themselves failures.  As one of the men said in the movie, that these kids will refer to themselves as failures for the rest of their lives. I think the idea of failing in school really is a Western idea, putting grades and evaluating every aspect of education.  There is much more to life than grades and how high you make it through the education chain.  It was interesting to see how the elders in the community viewed schooling.  Some of the women that have been in the village their whole lives and have made major contributions to the well being of the whole community, are considered to be uneducated and of lesser value to society.  They are living the simple life that they grew up with, and find it hard to see the value in leaving their rich culture to try and go after money and big jobs. These ideas being implanted by aid organizations and other influences trying to promote Western education ideas.  Shields quotes Samoff and Brock- Utne saying, “A major critique of international development programmes is that they reflect the interests and priorities of donor organizations rather than those of aid recipients” (Shields 40).  If they don’t achieve these goals set then they are considered failures and return to their village and in turn do not know how to do anything on the land.  They lose their roots and the culture that their elders have believed in so strongly throughout their lives.  These cultural values are just as important as being well educated, and there is a gap between education and culture that needs to be fixed.

I think that overall that many kids and young adults in other countries are being negatively effected by the Western education ideals that are being forced on them.  They are being told that they need to be doctors and lawyers, and to make a lot of money to be happy and considered a success.  Many of these people will not attain these lofty goals, and in the process lose their cultural values as well.