Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Blog Action Day

I don't really have a favorite cause, but since I (well, my friends and I) just led a discussion about education at our club, I'll talk about that.
"Education is the answer to everything."
-Stephen Lewis
By 2015, the U.N. wants to achieve universal primary school education. As of now, 150 million drop out of primary school after five years or less. These children are considered "illiterate" since 5 years is the amount of time it takes to achieve basic literacy. So...133 million "young people" cannot read or write. (I'm sort of cheating...this information is what we handed out at our meeting today, and I have a copy of it in front of me).

If one generation completes primary education--or secondary!--than the next generation is likely to as well. This, at least, what people are claiming. I think it makes sense. If parents believe that education can take you somewhere, they are likely to encourage their children to get an education.
The United Nations has 3 other development goals: sustainable development, health, and poverty (I always think it should be "eradicate poverty," since just saying "poverty" sounds like you are trying to create it rather than eliminate it). I think education ranks aboce these, in some ways, because with a strong education, you are more likely to be able to solve problems. Not that educating the whole world means there will be no more problems...

The club officers after School-in-Action night last spring...




4 comments:

Piri said...

I do believe education is the key to everything - just about. I think you need your basic needs met first. Interesting post, thanks for participating in Blog Action Day.

Lona said...

I believe that a lot of our national problems stem from the fact that, as a country, we have been "dumbed down".

Innes said...

maybe you can spin this discussion into A COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY!!!

mom

Gordon said...

Education is a good thing that I praise highly. The problem is that teachers are taught a lot about the methodology of how to teach, and that is good, but they don't always know a lot of subject matter to teach, and that is bad. I think it is a good thing for a teacher to throw in a few random facts in addition to the required curriculum.

Unavoidably this means separating the dummies from the non-disabled.

I also formerly advocated the voucher system. The deprecation of the voucher system mainly results from NEA bias influencing educational research. NEA obviously have their pocketbooks to protect. Vouchers are good for improving the education system.

Except for one thing that is, and that is why I have changed my mind about vouchers. If a religious minority chooses to establish a school for suicide bombers, the vouchers would end up funding it. Too bad for vouchers, otherwise a good thing.