tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7622036034850508270.post1640998881571822609..comments2024-01-11T03:59:00.228-08:00Comments on Haiti Next Door: EDUCATION: A PRIVILEGE, NOT A RIGHTRandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01223755537636336154noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7622036034850508270.post-5448604548826795222011-04-28T14:07:49.414-07:002011-04-28T14:07:49.414-07:00The uniforms have importance - wearing one, one ha...The uniforms have importance - wearing one, one has status as a "schooled child," as distinct from the unschooled. More importantly, the making of uniforms - sewing and selling - is among the industries that Haiti has and that Haiti supports. It is good to keep that going. Supporting sewing work provides JOS and income for families who can then CHOOSE to spend money on education - or not. Important to create opportunities and CHOICE, rather than impose standards, or anything else. My 2 goudes for today.Randyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01223755537636336154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7622036034850508270.post-37095132315797518502011-02-21T22:46:36.528-08:002011-02-21T22:46:36.528-08:00Very interesting. Though the people in the study d...Very interesting. Though the people in the study didn't list education as a priority, probably because of their present situation, a year after the EQ. But in the back of their minds if they could afford it, and had good jobs, shelter, food, school would be on their list for their children. Basic needs always come first. As for uniforms, mostly private and Catholic schools wear uniforms in the US. Some public school are strict and will send a child home without a uniform. Most public schools that have tried it give up. My youngest grandson attended an elementary school that required uniforms. He and a few others in the class wore them daily. Mostly be cause my daughter had invested in three and she wasn't letting her money go down the drain. Now internationally, uniforms are pretty much a must. The country doesn't care how poor you are. If you can't afford one and you want to go to school, look for a kid who has outgrown theirs. In the book about the 12 yr old Malawi boy who brought electricity to his village, he had to stop school because he had outgrown his uniform. But he went to the library, got a book on electricity, and proceeded for 3 years to make electricity. He was called a fool even by his family. Yet he lit the house one day and the whole village celebrated. He walked all over getting scraps until he made a windmill to give electricity to the whole village. All without a uniform and school. Mark Twain would understand this child. Think of the minds we're wasting because they don't have uniforms. In the US I think uniforms are good because US parents are stupid enough to buy $1-200.00 dollars on a pair of shoes or clothes for a growing child or for a child period. A $35.00 coat will keep you just as warm and Goodwill will sell clothes for meer dollars.Kids even fight about clothes in the US. We were very poor when I was a child going to school. But my mom was a seamstress. So we were the well dressed poor in our classes. My cousins mom was also a seamstress so we hung together looking good all week but standing in the welfare line on Saturdays with everybody else. Leave the uniform for those who can afford them. Every child has a mind that should not be wasted because of material.Michele E Hutchinson https://www.blogger.com/profile/06985881238306860387noreply@blogger.com