Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Startling Facts

As I have been writting reports and success stories, I have come across some facts that have startled me. During the 'Presidency' of Samuel Doe, a little under 50% of the population had any formal education. for 20 years it was like this, then Liberia was plungedinto an 'uncivil war' that destroyed what was left of the education system. Families stopped sending their girls to school, which is common in impoverished nations, and this only leads to the increase of violent crimes against women. After reading Three Cups of Tea , where Greg Morteson makes it his life's ambition to build schools that allow girls to attend in Islam centered Pakistan and Afghanistan, I can see how much education is important, to all. The US education system is not perfect, far from it, but I begin to see how blessed I am to have the privledge of public education. I wish that as an elementary student we could have seen different cultures schools or lack of. I think it would have great impacts on our children and teach them at an early age how important education is, instead of just focusing on standardized tests. I think it would be amazing if U.S. schools would 'adopt' a needy school or community in another part of the world and donate money(pennies), books, clothes, and other necessities. Then set up means to connect the schools via satellite or internet or just photos if the school doesnt have electricity to run such amenities, to see where their donations were going. Would we change the world? probably not, but you could start giving kids a global perspective. Ok back to work!

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