Education

On Monday, October 31, 2005, I’ll start attending a medical class at the Universidad. One of the doctors at the clinic where I work is teaching the class, and he has invited me to attend. I’m excited! Of course I probably won’t understand most of the lectures at first, but this is another great opportunity to become more fluent in Spanish. It’s also a great opportunity for me to get a first-hand look at the higher education system here…

The education system as a whole is quite terrible. It’s normal for teachers to go on strikes, forcing students to miss school for many days each month. For instance, one of the little girls (10 years-old) who lives with me went to school on only one day last week. On Monday, she went to school but was told to go back home and not come back until Thursday. She had classes as usual on Thursday, but then Friday was another day off because it was a national holiday (there are many of these national holidays, by the way… another excuse to miss school…) Many people, especially in the more rural areas of Honduras, are educated only up until the 6th grade because there just are not enough schools and teachers in this country to teach beyond that level. For the people who do make it to colegio (= high school), they can choose a “major” and graduate with some concrete skillset, like basic accounting. For the fewer people who make it to universidad (= college), it can take many, many years to obtain whatever degree they are working towards because most courses are not offered regularly. People have to wait many semesters for the desired course to finally be offered, resulting in a shortage of space and resources to accommodate all the interested students. Many students are turned away from the course. Or, on many occasions, students are allowed to enroll in a full class only if they can offer something in return. For example, a national current event story tells of a female student who called-out her professor who had told her that he would allow her to enroll if she gave him a picture of her in a bikini. When she publicized this sexual harassment, many of the professor’s previous female students who had been subjected to the same harassment came out, too. Unfortunately, this sort of corruption is not uncommon.

The private schools are a bit more reliable. The teacher’s don’t go on strike as often, and the private universities offer their courses more frequently. But very few Hondurans can afford private schools, and even a private school education is not necessarily a GOOD education.

Education, along with healthcare, is a huge concern to me. To quote Nelson Mandela again (I highly recommend his autobiography):
"Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation" (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 166).

My parents sacrificed everything they were comfortable with in Korea, leaving everything and everyone behind and moving to a completely foreign country where they could not even speak the language, to give my brother and me the opportunities they never had. They pushed us hard so that through our education (and by “education” I’d like to emphasize that it includes not only the academics, but also the arts and other extracurricular activities and LIFE experiences that help us develop into more complete individuals), we could go after and achieve greater dreams than they could. Because I have this personal testimony of the role of education in my life, it is something I value deeply. It saddens me to see so many people without the opportunity to achieve what they are capable of. Everyone deserves a chance.

I often envision myself becoming involved with international politics and policy later on in life. If this does happen, healthcare and education will be among my top priorities. But then I wonder exactly how to approach these issues? Even a great nation such as the U.S. has an overwhelmingly many problems when it comes to healthcare and education. About 45 million Americans don’t have health insurance and thus don’t have access to the services they need. The healthcare system in Cuba is arguably better because EVERYONE has the necessary health services available to them. Of course I’d rather live in the U.S. than in Cuba because of freedom and all that other important stuff, but couldn’t the U.S. learn from Cuba just as Cuba could learn from the U.S.? And what about the U.S. education system? Yes, there are countless schools that are applauded for providing outstanding education. But, there are even more schools that don’t/can’t provide adequate education to their students. Even in my high school (public), where the Honors/AP students received an excellent education and went on to prestigious universities, the majority of the students was in “regular” or “remedial” classes and didn’t even go to college or ended up not finishing even if they enrolled. I remember being on the “fast math” track and finishing AP Calculus BC as a junior, while at the same time tutoring a peer in basic Algebra. I, for one, am a strong proponent of public schools. While private schools are good for those who can afford it, we must strengthen the public schools and narrow the gap between public and private education. All this is so complicated because both issues of healthcare and education are tangled up with socio-economic issues and race issues... I think just the sheer amount of research that needs to be done to become thoroughly versed in these issues scare some people/politicians from attacking them. Well, at least I am young and have time to prepare! [To be continued…]