Katie Scott
SOC 202-02
09/17/09
5:45 PM
This article begins with the statement, "In the Ugandan countryside, dedicated educators bring the printed word to students desperate for access to the wider world." This wraps up what this article about education in the country or Uganda is like compared to that in most developed countries such as the United States. The article touched on questions like, how do you pass around books or have students read books when there are no books? Or, how do you write lecture notes or do examples on the board, when there are no chalk boards or dry erase boards? The classrooms in the villages of Uganda are overcrowed and underfunded, yet the students are very eager to learn. Just to put things into perspective, the articles makes note of a a director of a secondary school near the village of Kitengesa, in Southern Uganda. This man told the reporter that it was his dream to have a community library. Due to many organizations and donations this library was started and is still ran today. Children in Uganda stated that this library has put them in a "spirit of studying."
When hearing about the lack or resources and facilities that these schools have compared to even the lowest income school here in America, it makes me think twice about complaining about what we have. As a pre-service teacher, I am all the time hearin teachers complain about budget cuts, and lack of resources and supplies for their classrooms. Yet, while schools such as the ones spoken about in Uganda, have no books or chalk boards, our schools have rooms full of computers and smart boards. Another thing that shocked me from this article was the fact that these students in Uganda are eager to learn and said that just having a library in their community put them in the spirit of learning. I think that all educators, parents, and students should be required to read this article so that when we go to complain about what we don't have, we will be reminded of ho bad it could be.
http://www.edutopia.org/global-education-uganda-community-library
3 comments:
I am majoring in education as well, and I think it's sad that the kids over there don't have the opportunity to learn because they are underfunded. Kids over here have all the tools they need to learn, they are just unwilling sometimes. But it's kind of ironic that over there it's totally switched, the kids are eager to learn but don't have the necessary tools to help enhance their learning. It really is sad and I guess sometimes we forget how good we have it over here.
It makes you wonder, if college students had to suffer like these kids do, would they throw it away as quickly?
I agree with your reaction, as well as, Matthew's comment. I am also majoring in education.
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