EDUCATION.

(Thursday).
Since returning from the lake Monday, this week has been full of very cerebral activity. Most of the time sheets for 2009 had not been entered, and we needed to put them into the new database, so we spent two days slaving away entering data. The director’s family was still here for several days this week, and on Tuesday his mother, who is a textiles goddess, wanted to learn how to do the traditional back-loom weaving. So Abi and I spent much of the day with her and her teacher translating since she doesn’t speak a word of Spanish (and her instructor doesn’t speak a word of English). That night was there despidida, and the food and company was absolutely incredible. They spoiled us over the past week with delicious foods and treats from the states! Yesterday, they went to the school in Cojol to present several suitcases full of supplies and other items they brought from the states, including athletic jerseys for the sports teams.

Today, we went back to the school to continue our environmental lessons with the 6th grade classes. We had them think about and discuss possible environmental changes that they would like to see in Comalapa over the next 5 years, then each class voted and settled on an over-arching project that they will work on for the next several weeks. The first class chose Reforestation as their project, and will be preparing information to present to the Municipalidad and potentially media outlets. The other class chose reducing the amount of trash on the streets, and will be creating a video including interviews and photos, and also preparing a play for other schools that will talk about the issues and how to solve them. Hopefully they will be able to learn a bit about some multi-media tools in the process. What incredible minds these kids have!

Today during class, I asked Rebecca how many of these students would actually progress to the next level of education. She said probably about 1 in 8, mostly because of monetary reasons. I found out the other day in discussion that after 6th grade, students have to pay to attend colegio including paying for their textbooks. Due to this fact, many students do not move on past the 6th grade (approximately 12 years old). At that point, they are old enough to work and bring money to their family. In the states this would be a travesty, unheard of, for a student to not move on after the 6th grade! But Rebecca reminded me that for the time that these kids are in school, they are learning incredibly practical skills (useful math, sewing, how to work with wood and tools, some weaving) along with the normal primary education goals. Who’s to say that the education they are receiving up until 6th grade is any less valuable than those who move on to continue their education? The professions that these students will be filling working in town and on farms are equally as important as those that the students who move on to become doctors. There’s this idea in the states that the level of education you’ve received determines your worth, but I definitely believe that experience can get you just as far in life. Maybe in the states we should focus less on forcing people into the highest levels of education possible and more on bettering the primary education system so that our students actually have something to grow from. I met a woman last weekend who is a kindergarten teacher in Harlem. The first thing I said in response was, “Wow! Those kids must be tough!” Due to no fault of their own of course. But we both agreed that there is an entire generation of children in the US that is being slighted by the crumbling education system. So while we pride ourselves in providing, free compulsory education for all kids in the US, which looks great on a paper, in reality, the education US kids are receiving pales in comparison to what kids are learning here, in many aspects. We still have much to learn ourselves.