Education Around the World

Education around the world, to me, is overwhelmingly complicated. In America alone, the discrepancies from city to city, state to state, are outstanding. When we zoom out to look at the world as a whole, it makes things that much more dynamic.

Let's just look at America for a second. I personally have attended school in Ohio, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, and Washington. When we account for cities, I attended 7 different public schools prior to college. Each school I attended had vastly different standards and teaching styles. Concepts I learned in 5th grade science in Oregon, students in my 10th grade Biology class in Texas didn't know. Basic math shortcuts expected of me in Washington were never taught to me in Oregon, and I fell behind. My reading level in Colorado was at the top of my class, while my reading level in Texas was merely
average. Now don't even get me started about the standardized tests--from the WASL in Washington, to the TAKS test in Texas, absolutely nothing was the same.

Now, if the standards are different all over the United States, then we can't even expect American adults with a high school diploma to be held to the same standards. On a global scale, this means we cannot expect people around the world to be held to the same standards espacially if the aren't receiving the same education, or maybe even if they aren't receiving and education at all.

The obvious solution to this is equal education around the world. It's already acknowledged that education is a basic human right, and while huge barriers exist (including location, cultural barriers, local laws, government, women's rights, etc) we need to fight and strive for the equality that our globe needs. But what do individual communities need? Children need to be given a basic education, but they also need to be taught skills that will help them in their own reality. If they never go to school, they can't learn either of those.

We see documentaries like "Girl Rising" that we watched in class, or "Schooling the World," a documentary about the realities of what to teach children, and we see the obstacles faced by young men and women every day. Education, in some parts of the world, just isn't as simple as getting up and going to school, learning math and science. Delving into it more, we need to begin to understand the discrepancies across the world, and the complexities that lie in what needs to be taught and what will help these kids for the rest of their lives. They need to be exposed to and taught skills like respect, equality, love, compassion, teamwork, and so much more.

This isn't just teaching kids reading, math, and science. While those are important, and need to be taught, children need to be taught skills that will actually help them, too. That's one thing that didn't really stand out to me in class, but that I'm realizing more while doing outside research. Kids need to be taught more than just the basics, they need to be taught applicable skills. While here in America, we're given the option to pick electives that may help us to determine our life path, children in India or Haiti must also be exposed to things that will help them lead them on a productive journey.

If anything, we need to fight for the right for girls to go to school, education during emergencies, education throughout childhood, an inclusive classroom, and quality of schools and teachings. Ending this post on a positive note, here are some links to different organizations trying to help the education crisis our globe is facing. We see that people are out there to help, and have realized that this is a problem facing our globe, and once solved, will help communities more than we can ever imagine.
The Campaign for Education (The United States site)
Education International (A site showcasing news about reform and stories around the globe)
Global Education First (The UN Secretary General's Global Initiative on Education)