3 posts tagged “paulo freire”

So with about ten days left in India, I'm beginning to reflect a little more on my experience thus far.  As always, my conclusions tie back to the value of education-- of cultivating a critical spirit, of introspection, and that in order to make change I have to be the change.  Everyone loves that quote by Gandhi (just look under 9/10 of your friends' Favorite Quotes on Facebook!)--"Be the change you wish to see in the world."  I think I may have misinterpreted it a bit in the past-- instead of just being the agent of change, I've found that I really have to be the subject of change.  Prescriptions for improvement of another society, system, community, or person-- they're all useless if you don't apply the same standards to your own life.  If you believe in equality, does equality mean that everyone in impoverished India, in the Third World should be living as we do in the First?  That, in fact, would be scary.  Imagine the effect if we all, as equals, were all guzzling through life with the same disregard for the environment.  We simply wouldn't have enough resources to begin talking about equality in American terms.  So maybe it's time to look a little more deeply on how my lifestyle, my choices, my vote affects others in our increasingly interconnected, globalized world.

I've had a few debates now in India over this whole concept of youth voluntarism, of global engagement.  Paolo Freire outlines in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed that in engaging with the oppressed, humanitarianism is useless--it's just another form of good intentions based on the "egotistic interests of the oppressors," based on the notion that we know best, as educated, middle-class Westerners.  Through our upbringings, we understand the world and can come and offer skills and ideas to bequeath upon the hapless.  I think many of my peers have definitely moved beyond this level of thought, and are posing more complex questions about capacity building, of "engaging" with communities, of enhancing the capabilities of stakeholders based on cultural sensitivity, etc.  But Freire keeps emphasizing that to help the oppressed, it has to come from within, that you have to become them.  Are we becoming "them" by coming to third world countries for two month stints, for eating local foods and living in homestays, for trudging through challenging environments and coming back to the comforts of our homes in the US and pat on the back for "saving the world"?  We may be learning a lot, we may carry these experiences with us for a lifetime, we may, ideally, apply what we have learned to actually change our own lifestyles at home afterwards, but are we really enabling the oppressed in a sustainable way?  What does sustainability really mean anyways?  I'd argue that sustainability comes from within, it means a lifelong commitment, it means critical dedication without expectations.  

But honestly, I can't really say one way or another what is "best."  I can definitely say that I get really irritated by all of these short-term volunteering stints-- a week in the Third World and coming back "changed."  Tell me what you really learn in a week.  Do such experiences really provoke you to think longer and harder about the politics, education, culture, and economics of these places?  Do they provoke you to look into how US foreign policy contributes to what you've seen?  Hopefully.  I recently read about a high-school girl in my hometown of Columbia, MO, and how she was applauded by the entire community, after visiting some impoverished country, for starting a shoe drive. Basically, she saw so many shoe-less people suffering in that country and her heart went out to them.  In an act of charity, she decided to collect shoes instead of presents for her 18th birthday.  Such philanthropy does not interest me, nor do I we should be applauding such people as if they are creating actual solutions for the world's problem of shoelessness.  Many NGOs here also apply similar band-aids to the cancers of this country, donating shoes and a yearly supply of bananas to primary schools.  Such quick fixes are based on good intentions and feel-good philanthropy, not thought.  And if you acknowledge it for what it is, that's completely fine.  But let's not get mixed up in thinking that good intentions are sustainable.  The road to hell, as we all say, is paved by good intentions.

Sometimes I wonder what we are actually doing at the government school level anyways.  I don't particularly think that my presence in these places is actually creating solutions tangible to them.  I'm definitely learning a lot about education, about the education system and about the nature of thoughtful interventions.  But I'm no radical, and I'm not organizing sit-ins or agitating for more teachers to the government bureaucrats.  And why should I?  I am not a direct stakeholder in this school--these are not my children.  But do I really have a stake in their success, in their development as thoughtful and productive human beings? 

In an ideal world, I wish I could find a way to radically alter the government primary schools into free institutions that create our world's problem-solvers, kids that see things they want to change in their own communities and become the agents for transforming their realities.  They wouldn't bat an eye at Americans or wealthy Indians coming in to volunteer at their school.  Through education, "capacity building" would take place at the roots.  But that's an ideal world, where there would be no complex hierarchies of oppressed and oppressors, no corrupt managers, and where the teaching profession would be valued so much throughout society that the smartest, most motivated, most dedicated people of the world would be teaching in primary schools.  

Can outsiders build this ideal world?  We may not be direct stakeholders, but indirectly, we want to see everyone--including the poorest and most exploited people in society--actively work to change the world in a positive way.  Whether its right or not, effective or not, who knows.  But we can choose to work in these environments, as outsiders, simply because we want to.  There can be no other 100% justifiable reason.  And I'm okay with that.  Youth engagement doesn't  "save the world," and if you are thinking in terms of "saving", we have more serious issues to address.  But we engage with the world because we want to, maybe not because we've found the best way, or because it may be a more "moral" choice.  It may be smarter to cut down on our lifestyles and advocate for a third party government in the US or protest every day outside of the White House for changing our farming and trade policies.  But maybe understanding life in the third world will lead us to question more about our own lives, and I've definitely found my experiences to be true to that.  And for that reason, it has all been worth it.  I've learned so much.  

So this week I've been spending some time in another government primary school--Kumaraswamy Layout School--in the same area as Chandranagar School.  It's been interesting hanging around a new school and facing some of the same obstacles I faced when I initially began to work in Chandranagar School last summer-- distrust, curiosity, excess hospitality, etc.  The older teachers of course were very shocked when I wanted to carry my own chair around, or when I insisted on being ignored in the classrooms.  The headmistress actually speaks no English, which is a change for me, but she kept insisting that I have some yogurt mixed with salt and water, and before I realized it, I had accepted a drink made with unboiled water.  I had like four sips and then my mind started playing tricks on me, my hypochondria settled in and I started feeling a stomachache.

I kind of sensed that some of the younger teachers were more suspicious of me than anything.  I explained that I was doing research on government schools, and one asked "What's the use?"  Totally valid question.  I tried my best to explain that I wanted to understand schools to find out how NGOs could do a better job of helping, but I'm not sure if I was making sense to her.  It seemed to be quite odd to her that an outsider, let alone a girl from the US, would want to hang around a poor government primary school.  It makes sense though, I would be curious too.  But beyond trying to do anything of use for NGOs or whoever (which in and of itself is a lofty goal, and honestly presumptuous in a lot of ways), I'm here to learn.  At that level, I don't think this teacher would have seen the "use" in what I was doing at all.

Being in KS Layout school reminded me of what it's like to be a true outsider again.  In Chandranagar School I can enjoy the luxury of hanging out with the kids, talking easily with the headmistress, poking around and asking questions.  But even there, I think I am still somewhat of an outsider to them.  

But if there is something I've really learned so far through my experiences in India and with Indian education, it is that to try to make change as an outsider, delivering yet another interpretation of a valuable input to reform schooling that is just as invaluable as some of these government inputs, or lack thereof, is to misunderstand the nature of the challenges of working in government education.  We are constantly inundated with statistics on government education--but we have to move beyond the stats and recognize that wait a minute, we're actually talking about people.   To make change in government education, I think that you really have to understand each of its challenges in depth, and also understand the role that you, or an organization, are playing in addressing those challenges.

Paulo Friere puts it well, as always:

We simply cannot go to the laborers--urban or peasant--in the banking style, to give them "knowledge" or impose on them the model of the "good man" contained in a program whose content we have ourselves organized.  Many political and educational plans have failed because their authors designed them according to their own personal views of reality, never once taking into account (except as mere objects of their actions) the men-in-a-situation to whole their program was ostensibly directed.

The task implies that revolutionary leaders do not go to the people in order to bring them a message of "salvation," but in order to come to know through dialogue with them both their objective situation and their awareness of that situation--the various levels of perception of themselves and the world in which and with which they exist.  One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people.  Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions nonwithstanding (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 94-95).

I learned a lot today.

I went to school today after meeting with a representative from another NGO working in government schools, Sikshana Foundation.  When I got to school, the usual chaos was in place.  The fourth and fifth standard classrooms were left without a teacher for most of the day.  The kids were running amok and fighting with each other.  One kid who already had a cut on his head had been pushed around by another girl, and the wound started bleeding again.   I took a look at his head, and it was scraped up pretty badly, and it looked as if it was an open wound.  The teachers remedied the problem by pouring water on his head, and then asking the SDMC (School Development and Monitoring Committee) president for some help.  She sent some ointment for the kid's head smeared on a leaf.  A leaf.  The HM stuck the leaf on his head, and the kid went on his way.  Such is the nature of first aid in Chandranagar Government Primary School.  I asked if the kid's mother would take him to the doctor, because that wound really needed to be checked out.  The HM shook her head doubtfully.

Later, I yelled at an SUV full of idiot guys that was parked in the schoolyard.  They were blasting loud music and disrupting the classrooms and learning that was not really taking place anyways.  They were all male teenagers, with nothing better to do, so I screamed at them for a while and they turned the music down, but didn't leave.  Ram said later that we all should have gone to the police station to have them removed.  Tomorrow.

There are more events from my half-day at the school that made my stomach turn, but I don't feel like getting into it.  After an hour at the school today, I wanted to run.  The kids weren't listening to anyone, none of the teachers were really teaching much, and I was overwhelmed.  But I forced myself to stick it out until the end of the day, and do some English with the 4th and 5th Standards.  As I was taking an auto back, all I could think was that I really needed my coffee, and a shower.

After I got myself together again, and after a long conversation with Ram, was I really able to wrap my mind around just how severe a challenge it is to teach in government schools here.  The number of teachers, no matter how capable they are or not, cannot withstand the capacity of the school.  No teacher could possibly teach for five hours straight at this school, under these conditions.  There is no where near enough momentum behind just seven teachers to withstand the assault of dealing with 330 students and eight grades.  You don't solve the problem of lack of teachers by supplying untrained or apathetic teachers paid a meagre 1000-2000 Rs/month ($25-50).  But then again, if the government isn't supplying teachers, NGOs go on putting these 'temporary' teachers into posts, perpetuating lack of government agency but fulfilling an immediate need.

It's funny, because I keep telling Ram that every time we have discussions about the nature of government schooling here, and its larger reflection on Indian society, he is slowly chipping away at my idealism.  But I suppose idealism steeped in about 25% cynicism is what makes you go on in the world today, beyond misguided notions of altruism and philanthropy, to a deeper understanding of our self-interested ways.  I haven't yet given up my idealism and I'm going on my merry way working and doing research on NGO work in government schools, instead of taking up arms au Che Guevera and joining the Naxalites and starting a real revolution or people's movement for radical change in schooling.  Maybe that is what it takes.  But until then, I might as well be fully aware about how I, and how NGOs as well, exist for our own self-interests. Through learning more in depth about the nature of education work and the realities of government schooling, and about the way our societies work and develop, we can have a better understanding, and "introspect" on our place within it all.  Through such introspection can we figure out how to make change in the world.  I may not be able to empower communities without becoming one of them, and I can't really become one of them if I'm living in America, or in Mantri Elegance for that matter, with my iPod and my copy of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  But maybe I can have a better understanding of how my personal choices contribute to the nature of the beast, and how through continuous learning I can find appropriate ways in which to act.