Free Education for All

Having grown up a sheltered, middle class, white girl who has done little traveling in other countries. Now, I'm going to admit now to my ignorance when it comes to third world countries and the realities of the lives of the people who live there. I'm well aware that I should already know of these realities, and it blows my mind when I see things like this post about a free school in India. This "school" is located under a bridge and lets children from the nearby slums attend and get an education for free.

Now for the questions showing my ignorance:

I commented on the actual post saying "Wow. This is amazing. It's great to see the children so eager to learn and try to make a better life from what they were given. How did this get started? Is there no other free education available? Are there other schools like this?"

I am also wondering, why is it that this is the only education that these children have access to? Does India not have any free education other than "schools" under bridges from those willing to teach them? Why can't more people realize that without education, the problems of poverty and children living in slums will repeat generation after generation? What would need to happen for more countries to realize this AND be able to do something about it?

Furthermore, these children are so involved and engaged with their education and are proactively trying to learn. It's so wrong that these children who so want to learn are being so under served, and many kids in our country only go to school because they are forced to. How can we instill this kind of need and purpose for education in our own sheltered, middle class, children?

The Equality of Public Schools

Reading Fire in the Ashes was an incredibly heart wrenching and thought provoking experience. Although we were only assigned a couple chapters to read for a class, I found myself flipping through many other the other chapters. In the discussion following the story chapters, I came across a long but all-encompassing thought that Kozol was trying to convey with most of the stories within the book. The thought is as follows:

"The point I need to emphasize again is that all these children had unusual advantages. Someone intervened in every case, and with dramatic consequences...it is not that we should celebrate exceptionality of opportunity but that the public schools themselves in neighborhoods of widespread destitution ought to have the rich resources, small classes, and well prepared and well-rewarded teachers that would enable us to give to every child the feast of learning that is now available to the children of the poor only on the basis of a careful selectivity or by catching the attention of ...another grown-up whom they meet by chance. Charity and chance and narrow selectivity are not the way to educate the children of a genuine democracy" (Kozol, 2012, p. 303-304)

This issue of Public Schools not being created equal and poor students not having nearly as many opportunities as wealthy students has bothered me quite a bit. It's quite irritating that people want to live in a better world, but they only want to provide privilege for their own kids. How does ensuring your child's school has laptops while ignoring the fact another doesn't have textbooks help build a strong country? It doesn't. It creates dropouts and ignorance within communities and states.We should be equalizing opportunities and finances for all public schools and ensuring high quality teachers are everywhere. Hold teachers accountable for their classrooms and their commitment to every child; only allow highly trained and qualified individuals to become teachers.

To make this country better, everyone needs to be educated. Education allows people to create a better life for themselves, their families, and their country. If we are to become stronger, the people need to be stronger and able to support this great democracy. Without equal education for all, this country will slowly crumble beneath the growing weight of ignorance and poverty.