education for everyone?

HI
I think that children in poor countries should also have the right to get in school. Mostly it's like people who have money their children can go in school but children who can't afford it because their parents don't have money they can't study. Why is it like that? Why don't they get the Chance to study even though. If you have money it's cool you can study but if you don't have, sorry! I think everyone should have the opportunity to study and get education rather if their poor or rich. The governments or someone can help the poor people maybe. The poor people should also get the chance to study to become something in their lives, they are also humans as everyone the problem is just that they are poor. Why can't they study? Do they have to pay? Can't they study even though? Everyone knows that education is important why don't we give everyone the opportunities to study, actually it should be free I don't think they have to pay for it.

cami said:

HI
I think that children in poor countries should also have the right to get in school. Mostly it's like people who have money their children can go in school but children who can't afford it because their parents don't have money they can't study. Why is it like that? Why don't they get the Chance to study even though. If you have money it's cool you can study but if you don't have, sorry! I think everyone should have the opportunity to study and get education rather if their poor or rich. The governments or someone can help the poor people maybe. The poor people should also get the chance to study to become something in their lives, they are also humans as everyone the problem is just that they are poor. Why can't they study? Do they have to pay? Can't they study even though? Everyone knows that education is important why don't we give everyone the opportunities to study, actually it should be free I don't think they have to pay for it.

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And that, in a nutshell, is why we have public education in the United States, and also why eliminating the public school system in favor of vouchers for privatized education would be a bad idea.

I think you're right; everyone should have the right to study, and they shouldn't have to pay for it. I wish that could be the case in every country, but education is an investment in the future, from a government's point of view; it gives no real benefit in the immediate circumstances. So when a country is dealing with starvation, disease, war, unemployment, lack of infrastructure and similar issues, the idea that some poor kids can't read doesn't seem that big a deal. The other things have to be worked out first, in a lot of people's eyes. And I can't say they're wrong; what I would hope for is that people would try to educate children as much as they can, without the government's help -- adults should hold classes for their local kids, and teach them to read. It would not work as well as a good schooling, but it would be far better than nothing -- and in some cases, it may be all the education some children ever need.

"Everyone knows that education is important why don't we give everyone the opportunities to study, actually it should be free I don't think they have to pay for it."

First, I'm not sure there is anything that "everyone knows." There are people in the U.S., a rich country, who do not feel education is important. When I was working I sometimes talked to parents when their child was quitting school at the age of fifteen. I begged, pleaded, threatened, promised, and did everything else I could think of, all to no avail.

When you move from that country to others where people are actually poor you have a whole different set of problems.

Where I live now, in Mexico, we have villages where many people don't speak Spanish. In some of the villages, the culture dictates that girls don't go to school at all and boys don't go long. Not only is it viewed as unnecessary but it threatens the culture of the village that has been intact for hundreds of years.

To give a little perspective, a friend of mine is from a Triqui village. Government workers showed up with free concrete, lumber, plans, and medical personnel. They spent a day giving lectures and talking to people about why outhouses are a good thing. They talked about intestinal parasites and cholera. That night, the village elders had a meeting and the culmination was, "Our parents didn't have outhouses, our grandparents didn't have outhouses, and we're not going to have outhouses."

So, does the government go in and say, "Your indigenous culture is toast. You will have outhouses, you will send your daughters to school, and you will learn to speak Spanish."? Does the government load the villagers into trucks and say, "You're moving out of the mountains to a place where there is work and a better way of living."?

Spending more money is the snake oil cure-all today. It's much better to start with problems than it is to start with solutions. When I first moved to Mexico I started helping a family send their kids to school. Six months later, none of the kids had started school. I found another family and we now have two kids in college. It takes more than money.

Money is the snake oil cure-all today.

Patrickt said:

When I first moved to Mexico I started helping a family send their kids to school. Six months later, none of the kids had started school. I found another family and we now have two kids in college. It takes more than money.

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I can finally agree with something you said! :2wave:

Valuing education is the most important ingredient to getting an education! Money only helps when the desire is already there! That's what is missing in so many American kids whose parents feel the public school system is failing them. There are millions of poor children in underdeveloped countries around the world that wish they could go to our "failing schools" and you can bet they would get an excellent education there if given that chance!

CoffeeSaint said:

And that, in a nutshell, is why we have public education in the United States, and also why eliminating the public school system in favor of vouchers for privatized education would be a bad idea.

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Disagreed on the last point. The vouchers solve the problem of those who don't otherwise have the money for a private school, and private schools solve the problem of the politically correct straitjacket in the failing public schools.

another thing about education.. you have to want it. of course for a while you have to go but you have to have the dedication and the desire to want to learn. not every has that or understand that.. or wants that.

Can we really say education is a "right"? It may be a positive thing to have in a society but it cannot be said to be a "right".

cami said:

HI
I think that children in poor countries should also have the right to get in school. Mostly it's like people who have money their children can go in school but children who can't afford it because their parents don't have money they can't study. Why is it like that? Why don't they get the Chance to study even though. If you have money it's cool you can study but if you don't have, sorry! I think everyone should have the opportunity to study and get education rather if their poor or rich. The governments or someone can help the poor people maybe. The poor people should also get the chance to study to become something in their lives, they are also humans as everyone the problem is just that they are poor. Why can't they study? Do they have to pay? Can't they study even though? Everyone knows that education is important why don't we give everyone the opportunities to study, actually it should be free I don't think they have to pay for it.

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Well, I agree with you partly. Of corse everybody should be able to get an education, whether you're rich or poor. The problem is though How to carry out this. How and what should we do? Because it's kind of hard to fix this problem, to do something so all children in the world can get an education. But it's a beautiful thought, of corse!

Education for everyone is the essence of democracy. Only when people has been educated in language, civics, natural science and mathematics is it possible to truthfully say that everyone has the possibility to, with democratic methods, participate in the development of society.
In the long term, education also contributes to the development towards reduced social and economical injustices.
In addition, two democratic countries have never been in war with each other. Therefore, education for everyone is advantageous for everyone. Just imagine the possibilities if every country’s military budget were invested in education instead!

Diogenes said:

Disagreed on the last point. The vouchers solve the problem of those who don't otherwise have the money for a private school, and private schools solve the problem of the politically correct straitjacket in the failing public schools.

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They do neither. Vouchers would inevitably lead to a new price structure amongst the private schools, with minimally effective catch-all schools setting their prices at or just above voucher level; families who couldn't supplement the voucher money would have to palce their children in these schools. These schools would, of course, make a profit through economies of scale, and would be placed in large urban areas. Rural children not in these large urban areas would be SOL.

In addition, with the free market as the only method of control over what was being taught, the chances of a student being placed in a political straitjacket of any stripe is far greater; all it would take would be the one school in a specific area, or even the few schools in an area, or -- as has increasingly become the case in other industries -- the merger of several smaller schools into one educational conglomerate to ensure that students would be forced to swallow whatever tripe the board of directors mandated. If all of the schools in the area mandated the same nonsense, parents would have no choice but to send their kids there to learn it, or to homeschool -- because they certainly could not sue, not when the only check the consumer has is to take his business elsewhere. With a public education system controlled by the government and mandated as a basic right, the parents have an alternative; they can sue, they can demand their child be transported to another school, or they can homeschool or enroll the child in a private school. More options, more freedom.

Besides, that politically correct straitjacket? Enforced by parents, not by administration.

Revolutionary said:

Can we really say education is a "right"? It may be a positive thing to have in a society but it cannot be said to be a "right".

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Not if we can say health care isn't.
Personally, if I had an opportunity to reform society and to choose between socialized medicine and public education, I'd choose the former.
I can teach my kids to be as smart as I am (I myself am largely self-educated, not having gone beyond the ninth grade in school).
I cannot, however, perform surgery on them or prescribe medication when they are ill.
Public school teachers provide a service that I myself would be capable of approximating a reasonable facsimile of, if forced to.
Doctors provide a service that I (and the vast majority of others) am not capable of pulling off, under any circumstances.
There's a reason it takes twelve years to become a doctor.