One of the last projects I’m trying to squeeze out in my last months as a Peace Corps Volunteer is maybe the most ambitious yet. A few volunteers and I are working on planning a conference for principals and teachers in schools where we talk to them about, well, radically changing the way they think about education.
An example of why this is so needed in the Dominican Republic, one of the wealthier Latin American countries but second to last in quality of the educational system, happened today as I sat in on a teachers’ workshop. One of the themes of the new curriculum is education “para la vida,” for life. The idea is to make the curriculum relevant to students’ lives.
So what is education for life?, asked the principal of the elementary school, a woman for whom I have had increasing respect over the last two years.
The math teacher says, “When they go to the colmado (general store) and know how much three pounds of rice will be at 17 pesos a pound”
The high school principals adds, “So they know when they’re getting ripped off.”
The physics teachers says, “So they know how much volume of gas they’re getting in their propane tank.”
I didn’t find these answers to show a very evolved thinking about the purpose of education.
To me, education is the foundation of democracy. Without it, a nation governed by its people will make bad policy, much like what you see in the DR, such as the lack of funding for things like education and the construction of things like a metro in Santo Domingo. People living in a democracy, and a civilized society at that, need to be capable of reading and digesting information, understanding the world, critiquing their government, and participating in the political process to make it better. In a developing country, people need to learn life skills to help them improve the conditions of their family, like planning for the future, managing money, and setting goals.
The Dominican educational system does little to encourage this type of thinking. In fact, it mostly discourages it, by encouraging students to do rote memorization, by giving assignments that are only possible to complete through cheating, and low standards that basically say, if you showed up, you’re good.
The project the the volunteers and I are working on aims to give educators a different idea about what education is for and then teach them techniques to use in their schools and classrooms to encourage this type of learning. Today’s example was a clear illustration of how the first step in this process is showing educators what education is for.
This morning I was reading comments by Ben Bernanke in which he said the answer to the increasing wealth gap in America is a solid education so people can get jobs. As we know, manufacturing jobs are no longer primary and our society has become so technical, even jobs like auto repair, traditionally taught at home or in high school auto shop, now require computer mastery for complicated diagnostics and to service the computers our cars run on. I got to thinking how education is the key to any improvement in quality of life. David is working to educate women about small business. Teaching new farming techniques in 3rd world countries can put food in the stomach’s of babies. So, I would think that education is the key for everybody, it is a matter of what education fits the culture and current situation in people’s lives that will take them a step closer to having their basic needs met and to improve their community so that everybody benefits. For a Dominican, learning when they are getting ripped off, is a positive step.