“Wake up,
all the teachers
Time to teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen
To what'cha have to say
'Cause they're the ones who's coming up
And the world is in their hands
When you teach the children
Teach 'em the very best you can”
If you want
children to be empowered to bring peace and stability, you must first educate
them.
Education is
a word that can mean so many things, but what is universally agreed is that
education in some form is a good thing. One dictionary says that education is: “the
knowledge, skill, and understanding that you get from attending a school,
college, or university”, another: “The wealth of knowledge acquired
by an individual after
studying particular subject matters or
experiencing life lessons that provides an
understanding of something. Education requires instruction of some sort from an
individual or composed literature. The most common forms of
education result from
years of schooling that incorporates studies of
a variety of subjects.” I have always loved learning. Not necessarily the
process of learning, the rote memorization, the mundane and often repetitive
solving of math equations, chemistry…but the ability to answer any questions
about anything because I had the books or teachers or later the computer. I was
never really good at creative writing and maybe that says something about who I
am, but I am really good at research and I think that comes from a curiosity to
KNOW.
I have had the opportunity to see different aspects of the formal
educational process- private school, home school, public school- American, British,
Ugandan…there are similarities in them and pros and cons, but what needs to be addressed
in any educational setting is the uniqueness of each child. While I don’t
advocate an un-schooling model, because I believe that children need to be
guided, encouraged, empowered, and provided the resources to learn; I have been
frustrated by teacher centered learning, parent dictated learning (often not
allowing for students to develop their own voice), and a completely centered
approach that basically lets the teacher off the hook and requires a child to
know what the educational options are that are available to them.
I have been
traveling to different school settings since I arrived back in Uganda, trying
to learn as much as I can about what is already in place, how it is serving the
kids and how it is failing them. I was fortunate enough to watch an amazing
group of secondary students debate a topic about education. Their arguments
were insightful and intelligent. And at the end I wondered if they had truly listened
to what they had just said…had they realized that they had discovered many of
the failures of a broken system? Did they see the irony in a system designed to
elevate the elite and keep the poor in poverty? A system designed by a Colonial
power that failed so miserably that it no longer has colonies? Because the
truth of intelligence is that it does not come with money. It comes with
curiosity, determination, hard work, and a love of learning. Any child can have
this, it is not reserved for those born into wealth, for those attending the “best
schools”, for those with loving families, a safe place to sleep and food to
eat.
Mother
Teresa Primary started with the children of the most vulnerable women, girls
really who had been abducted and returned to find they no longer had a place in
their community. There are still many students who in our terms have “nothing”…and
I mean literally nothing more than the clothes they came in. And yet they are
bright, hopeful, curious and so eager to learn. Our mission two years ago was
to empower these young people who so desperately want to change their world.
Keeping them in school is a start. But finding those who are not in school or
are in such rural areas that they lack the opportunity to explore their potential
is part of our mission moving forward. We cannot change the broken system, but
hopefully we can support those who will. If those wonderful young men and women
debaters take what they learned about their failed system and work to change it…work
with courageous teachers who care about their students more than their pay check;
work with local leaders willing to affect change with action and not just words
and promises; and work with each other not to empower “the best” but to
encourage all those who follow them…well that will be education in action!
