What really is best?

So I've said a million times that i was going to try to update more often and so I'm going to follow up this time (at least for today). A lot goes on each day, some things that are very interesting and others...well...are just plain boring. As I mentioned in my last post I've started my second class on Politics, Society, and Economics of Peru. The class has been very informative and although I would love to share everything I have already learned I'm going to stick to one topic at a time.

Today in our class on Peruvian Society we watched a short film on schools in Peru. First i need to start off by explaining that in Peru there are many different indigenous languages with the predominant one being Quechua which over 4.4 million people (19% of the population) speak. Indigenous languages, however, are often looked down upon and people who speak Quechua are considered lower class. Because of this, many schools (and even parents) are trying to phase out Quechua by only teaching and speaking Spanish in their schools. Imagine for a second if you were raised speaking English and then when you when you made it to Kindergarden you walked in to only hear Spanish. It would be a little difficult wouldn't it? Like most countries there are certain goals that kids are supposed to achieve before they can move on to the next grade. In second grade Peruvian children are expected to read a 60 word story in under 60 seconds and comprehend what it is they read.

The video showed 3 different schools, a private school in Lima, a public school in Lima and a bilingual school in Cusco. The children in the Private school read the story in well under a minute and were able to answer all of the corresponding questions to the reading. The movie then transitioned into the second school where many of the children struggled to read and obviously were not comprehending what they were reading, in fact, a statistic was even shown that 19% of the school could not even read a single word. This was due in part to poor education but also due to the fact that many of these children had been raised speaking Quechua and so they had much difficulty transitioning into Spanish speaking schools. The final school that was shown was the bilingual school in Cusco in which, instead of Spanish, the kids were given a story in Quechua and all were able to read it within the time limit and answer all the questions. The next part was the most surprising. The kids were then given a story in Spanish and again all were able to read it in the designated time limit and answer the corresponding questions. When interviewed, the teacher explained that it is important to first teach the kids in there primary language, and once the kids have developed a capacity to learn they can then be taught Spanish. So while the rest of the schools are trying to cleanse the country of Quechua they are in the process hindering these childrens ability to learn while the schools such as the one in Cusco are raising children to be bilingual and developing a capacity to learn that is even greater than that of the private schools in Lima.

That's great but that's Peru, it doesn't affect us right? We know what's best. Our way really is always the right way, we never surpress someone who could develop better if they did things their own way. There isn't a better way to do things than the way we've always done it. We don't need to be open to other peoples ways of thinking, to other people's cultures, or to other peoples languages.

Maybe every now and then we should take a step back from the way we've been doing things. If we're not getting the results that we want then maybe we've been going about business the wrong way. Maybe we should look at what other people are doing and see if their way really is better. Maybe we should be open to other peoples ideas. Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid of change. Maybe we should give the other guy a chance every now and then. We have a choice, we can go about life the way we always have, we can stick to what we know or we can open our eyes, open our minds, and see what's going on in the world around us. I bet we'd be surprised to see how little we really know.


Brandon


P.S. If you haven't seen my video of the kids in Peru check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5r7w5x-MI