Very thought provoking post there thanks. Re: the lesotho herders, of course it should be their choice to educate themselves and if they choose to refuse education then that is up to them, but they should have access to the possibilities that eductaion could bring them. That way if they choose not to accept education at least we can say they\’ve done so from an informed point of view.

Re: whether education is a basic human right, I think the problem stems from parents. Parents have to be in a position to be able to care for their children. Unfortunately in some places in the world today the parents generation have not been put into a position where they can teach their children the fundamentals - ie reading and writing - where they can go on and learn more according to how they feel they need to.

Well, thats what I think

The Lord knows we need it!

Theo

First had I witnessed what happens when you deny education as a human right to people.

During apartheid blacks were given poor education or none at all. Now they have 2 generations trying to live in a modern country that have no education. No education always equals crime. In major cities in South Africa, especially Joberg you will see electric fences ont he majority of nice houses, when it is dark outside you are allowed to run red lights due to the mass car jackings.

You really shot your country in the foot if you do not provide education for your people. Eventually civil unrest and despair reaches the point where the government gets toppled. So it’s not like the saving money on not spending it on education for your people is going to be a long term investment

In Brazil, public education is terrible. Many schools tend to be only a children repository, where they stand alone from the streets for some daily hours. There is not, generally, a master plan about educational needs, realities, even cultural varieties or purposes. However, despite all the richness of USA, their public educational model is not very far from this.

It is a fact that a significant guilty for poverty in Brazil, more than economic unequality, is the educational unequality. Here in the state of São Paulo, solds are higher, illiterate rates are the lowest of the country, economical equality is the best (or less worse) and this is due education.

Educational situation in our country is so serious that changes start to be taken. One of them is the trial to impose a “meritocracy model” of financing projects, or, those schools that present the highest levels of educational success (evaluated by not only exams but also program, teachers absenses rates, and some other aspects) will gain more money for their projects. In the state of São Paulo, and many cities of them (we have federal schools, state schools and municipal ones), theachers that don’t be absent gain a sold bonus.

At least, there is a conscience about the importance of the public education, in the contrary way that USA or Chile.

Other aspect in your post is about the cultural importance of education, particularly about language. I tend to believe that other languages are essential to all individuals that don’t want to “loose anything”. I also believe that when you learn other languages, you are able to understand yours, because you have more basis to understand grammar, lexicon, composing, etc.

There is also the highly significant aspect: global culture. I tend to believe that american culture is much poorer that many others, due to the fact that they don’t speak other languages, which tend to block many possibilities and close themselves into a trap of misunderstanding and maybe “dumpness”. They don’t know in fact what happen in the world, only what is related to american culture.

I lived in Spain, and in a certain way the same happens there. Spanish people is very proud of their language, and any problem with that, but they refuse to learn english or any other languages. I don’t know in Italy how it happens, but in Spain even the movies, in the cinemas, are lip synched!!. In Europe situation is not so severe cause the contact between people of several countries amenize in a certain way the problems of linguistic isolation.

In Brazil, american culture is very strong, but it didn’t represent any loss, by the contrary, cultural richness was improved by this process. And in the academical field, brazilian researchers tend to succeed not only in the USA but in several countries, and one of the keys for that is their contact to English, Spanish and other idioms, by films, food, inmigration, etc.

–Jaycn

Many thanks for your comment!

Regarding “Are we sure that Lesotho herders should continue to be herders?”… perhaps it should their choice not ours? Of course, that implies them having a voice in the decision, which may imply some basic level of information if not education.

Regarding language, I couldn’t agree with you more. I taught in Africa at an “English only school.” The enforcement of English only was one of the only things I didn’t like there, because I thought it devalued students’ native culture. (The other argument was that all secondary education there is in English, so they did need to learn English to advance, but I think that is bad government policy.) We also taught a British curriculum, but one of the things i did as a teacher was to drop some British history and substitute in African history. That was a lot of fun.

One of the great opportunities in open education (and with the Internet) is to start making the Internet more multi-lingual. Wikipedia is a good example of how this can be done. It is wonderful that there are so many people willing to do this.