Children and Their Education
By: Hannah Denis
Tags: Equity, Quality Education, Education

In the traditional sense, education has been around since the 19th century and continues to change according according to current values. There are many goals of education, but how these are best achieved is highly debated. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Chapter 2 looks at two concepts of education, as well as the relationship between the teacher and student. The first concept, banking education, “treats students as objects of assistance” while the second concept, problem posing education, creates students as critical thinkers. While in Peru, our two courses were outlined by three leading questions: What is a just education? What is a high quality education? And what is equity in education?. The answers to these questions are subjective and their definitions can overlap at times. I view a just education is one where all students have the right to go to school and learn; where education is not a commodity to be bought. A high quality education promotes critical thinking skills, autonomy of students and collaboration, while supporting the community and society. Equity in education is not the same as equality in education. Equality would be giving every student the same thing, while equity in education is when there is no bias against gender, ethnicity or social class in obtaining an education. The experiences I had while in both Cusco and Lima along with our seminar readings and discussions has shaped my opinions on these critical questions. I believe that the answers to a just, high quality and equitable education are all intertwined with each other. The following crossword puzzle will display what I believe are the key building blocks of a just, high quality and equitable education.

Answers to Crossword Puzzle:

Humility: To believe in the equality of all people. This concept is fostered in Colegio de La Inmaculada pastoral program where children from both sides of “The Wall of Shame” all are paired together to form a friendship. Holistic: Being able to create a holistic education is a crucial step in trying to obtain a just, high quality and equitable education. A holistic education means caring for the body, mind and spirit. It places the emphasis on the teachers role in education and how they need to be committed to themselves first. Hooks, “Engaged Pedagogy” discusses the idea of a holistic education. She states that “the learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students.” This type of holistic approach to education values the relationship between teaching and learning. Hooks states that teaching in a way that “respects and cares for the souls of our students” is crucial if we want to create spaces “where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” It is important for teachers to build trust and provide a safe learning environment within the classroom in order to cultivate learning. Humanistic: Humanistic education includes teaching and learning skills such as decision making and problem solving in addition to the basics of reading, writing and math. It cultivates respect and citizenship. Reflection: Reflection allows time for students to think past the boundaries of everyday thought allowing for deeper learning and synthesis. According to the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm reflection is when “memory, understanding, imagination, and feelings are used to grasp the essential meaning and value of what is being studied, to discover its relationships to other facets of human knowledge and activity, and to appreciate its implications in the continuing search for truth.” During our time in Peru, Dr. Gibson carved out time in our seminars to pause and reflect on how we were feeling and our purpose in Peru. Through reflection, I was able to take a step back and look at things through a different perspective, one I wouldn’t have been able to do without time designed solely for reflection. Experience: In Ignatian Pedagogy experience is more than memorization and includes critical thinking and analysis. Dewey proposes another type of experience based on context where education’s role is to help the student eventually contribute to become responsible citizens. This type of experience and education is attending to a child’s impulses. Dewey argues for the relationship between education and experience, “continuity and integration in their active union with each other provide the measure of the educative significance and value of an experience”. No matter which way students get their experience, it is a crucial part to education that doesn’t revolve around today’s standardized testing. Community: The importance of involving the community in their students education cannot be minimized. During our last week in Lima, we visited Lombriz Feliz, a community organization started in 1991 for the purpose of creating a solution to the enormous garbage problem residents were facing. Within Lombriz Feliz, there are three aspects to their work: social, productive and educational. One of the workers at Lombriz Feliz called themselves a “factory of the biological cycle”, where they collect things for composting, gardening and make organic soil along with woven baskets out of old newspaper. They also have a competition to see which family can bring in the most compost. This organization is not only integral to their community and resolving their garbage problem, but to Peru as a whole. They have gained national attention for their work. This community organization is an example of how non traditional education can have a significant impact. Lombriz Feliz is an example of how community organizations can create change in their community. Change can also occur within the school. For example, Colegio de La Inmaculada has a pastoral program to help students see the equality in humanity and to ultimately walk with others. Starting in kindergarten through secondary school, students are paired with another student from the community and they play and spend time with each other. Along with this, as students get older they travel to other parts of Peru in order to broaden their horizons. Both Lombriz Feliz and the pastoral program at Colegio de La Inmaculada, are examples of how a school or local organization can get involved within their own community. Family: The importance of family in ones education cannot be understated. A student is only in school for a limited number of hours and when a student is not in school they are normally surrounded by family and relatives. The learning doesn’t need to stop when kids aren’t in school. Lareau, “Invisible Inequality” states that there two two kinds of child rearing styles: concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. The way in which parents raise their children will have a huge impact on the child’s development. Family life and going to school are two of the most important aspects in the development of children.

Students work on genocide and Venezuela at Colegio de La Inmaculada.

Students work in Maia’s secondary English class at Colegio de La Inmaculada on how environmentally friendly their school is.

8. Activism: Different people have varying beliefs on what the purpose of education is. Wheeler-Bell argues that the purpose of education is to instill “a spirit of activism” within students. Social movements happen when people gather together, not when one individual wants to change something. At Colegio de La Inmaculada, I witnessed the “spirit of activism” in Maia’s secondary class. Groups of students were supposed to answer the question: What has the school done so far to save/preserve the environment?” and, “What else can be done/improved?. After brainstorming, students wrote their ideas on a whiteboard and then presented them to the class. Activities like these, help students become more conscious of their environment. These students also had done projects on genocide, Venezula and Ayacucho which were displayed on the wall.

9. Individuality: Every person has their own unique qualities that makes them different from the person next to them. In today’s society individuality is something that is valued in our society over conformity. Allowing students to have some individuality in their education acknowledges and shows students that they aren’t just a number in the educational system.

10. Flourish: To flourish. What does that mean? To each person it means something different. According to Brighouse in Moral & Political Aims of Education” flourishing is at the core of child development. “At the foundation of the arguments for preparing children to be autonomous and preparing them for the labor market is the idea that these are extremely valuable for them to be able to live flourishing lives. The school should see itself as having an obligation to facilitate the long-term flourishing of children.” In my opinion, students cannot flourish to their fullest potential in schools that are rigid and only teach one way. Today, I believe standardized testing has made students conform to a box that minimizes their ability to grow plus thrive and thus flourish. That is why in a just, high quality and equitable education there will be many different ways to learn allowing each student to flourish.

11. Child-centered: In traditional education, the child is not normally the main focus of education. Dewey in School and Society, states there are certain elements that make up a traditional or “old” education: “its passivity of attitude, its mechanical massing of children, its uniformity of curriculum and method. It may be summed up by stating that the center of gravity is outside the student”. He proposes a new type of education that is child-centered rather than revolving around a textbook or teacher. In a child-centered education, “the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the center about which they are organized”. I believe that the main purpose of schools is to educate children and make them prepared to enter society. In the child-centered approach, there are four components in promoting development in children. These components are: “the interest in conversation, or communication; inquiry, or finding out things; making things, or construction; and artistic expression”. In “School and Society” Dewey uses the example of boiling an egg. He states that you can’t just know how to boil an egg, but you need to know the chemical breakdown and how the egg becomes cooked. When using the child-centered approach, the educational system no longer views students as innate objects but rather has a deep understanding of children and their learning.

Our soccer team in El Agustino on Saturday!

12. Relationships: The relationship between the teacher and student is crucial for both parties. By creating relationships with their students, teachers are recognizing the humanity within their students. Maia, a secondary school English teacher at Colegio de La Inmaculada, had an honest relationship with her students. She told her students that she would tell them whether or not they could pass the advanced English exam and what they needed to do to improve. Maia asked her students what they thought of the school trip they had just been on. The students were even able to talk to Maia regarding an assignment due and how they didn’t think they had enough time to complete it which resulted in her moving the deadline back. On Saturdays we went to play soccer in El Agustino. The role of the coach included more than just coaching a sport, but to be a mentor to these young children teaching them about respect and teamwork, lessons they normally wouldn’t otherwise get.

13. Autonomy: Autonomy or self choice gives students decision making power within their own education. When someone is autonomous, they are able to develop characteristics they normally wouldn’t be able to develop. Brighouse in “Moral & Political Aims of Education” states that “the autonomous person is reflective, and responds to reasons, whether those reasons concern his own well-being or that of others; his is not merely calculating and rationally self interested.” Being autonomous allows people to be independent in making their choices.

Two girls at Ludoteca taking a selfie on my phone.

14. Curiosity: “I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity” Eleanor Roosevelt. Many of the kids I had interactions with were very curious. For example, I was spending time with an eleven year old girl named Alejandra from Venezuela. She had recently come to Peru and was wondering what I thought of Peru and if I liked the weather and food. She also wanted to know what it was like in the United States and where my family was from. She wanted to hear what others thought of Peru and if what she saw in the movies about the United States was correct. Two girls, one age four and the other age five, pulled my phone out of my pocket at Ludoteca, an after school program in Andahuaylillas. They wanted to see what my background of my phone was and eventually took selfies of themselves.

15. Collaboration: More recently, collaboration has become a highly sought after skill not only in schools but especially in the workforce. In order for prospective workers to have the skill of collaboration, schools need to make group collaboration an emphasis in learning. Wagner, in The Global Achievement Gap, Intro & Chapter 1 believes that there are seven skills that are needed to thrive in the 21st century. Included in these skills is collaboration. In order to promote collaboration in schools, I would argue that teachers can’t be teaching to a test promoting rote memorization. In rote memorization, students aren’t learning to understand, they are memorizing information to pass a test. This doesn’t help develop one’s collaboration skills. I would argue for the need of group activities and critical thinking to develop collaboration skills. When talking with Jeff Rosen, Director of Teaching and Innovation at Colegio Roosevelt, he stated that there were two main attributes he looks for in prospective teachers: someone who is a good team worker, collaboration and has a genuine love for children. Teachers have to be able to work together, and ultimately if the school wants to promote collaboration, the teacher has to know how to foster it.

Clara and her friend making origami

16. Creativity: The ability for students to think outside the box. This was demonstrated throughout our time in Peru. At Fe y Alegría, students around the ages of 10 or 11 were making origami with each other. One student at the table was making a fortune teller, while the others were making boats or even dragons. At the Casitas programs in Lima, children were given pieces of paper and crayons, each drawing something different. Lima is a city that doesn’t get much rain. However, when it did rain at the El Agustino Casitas at the top of the mountain, the children had to figure out a way to clear away the water in front of the entrance. They ended up using a makeshift broom.

Play space at Ludoteca in Andahuaylillas.

17. Play: Play lets children interact with peers their own age while developing important life skills such as working together. The importance of play was witnessed multiple times throughout my time in Peru, whether at Casitas in Lima or Ludoteca in Andahuaylillas. For example, at Casitas children would start their own game of jump rope, rotating who was jumping, who was flipping the rope and who was waiting patiently for their turn on the bench. Another example of the importance of play occured at Ludoteca while I was in the children’s “kitchen”. One girl was making the coffee, the other was picking out produce for the soup and third girl was setting the table. At the end of the day, kids need to be kids and these examples illustrate how play can teach patience and teamwork which are crucial in a quality education.

All of these keywords, I believe are the core building blocks of a just, high quality and equitable education based on academic knowledge and experiences. In this type of education, not only are students thought of as individuals, but they are able to build relationships, play, have a sense of activism and ultimately flourish which better prepares them for a future in their desired field of work. In 2015, the United Nations released Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which included the notion of quality education within their 17 sustainable development goals. Under this goal of a quality education their aim is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning.” Along with the United Nations pushing for quality education around the world, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) mapped ten urgent steps to equity in education that include educational design, practices, and resourcing and released an in depth report titled “Equity and Quality in Education”. Both of these organizations outline how education is a key for a better and more prosperous life and the importance of education is not to be underestimated.

In order for us to aim towards a more just, high quality and equitable education, we first need to look at the immense inequality that lies within the education system. No matter whether in the United States or Peru, there is both visible and invisible inequality. Based on readings and our experiences in Peru, I was able to see the immense inequality that is happening within Peru’s educational system. In our four weeks in Peru, we spent time in both formal and informal school setting. We went to Colegio de La Inmaculada, a private Jesuit school serving the middle to upper class of Lima; Colegio Roosevelt, an American school serving the elite of Lima; a Fe y Alegría school in Andahuaylillas; an alternative night school in El Agustino for those wanting to obtain something similar to the GED in the United States. Along with visiting these schools, we visited different community organizations in Lima, such as Casitas, where children are given a safe place to learn along with learning important life skills and Lombriz Feliz, an organization fighting the garbage problem in the community with composting. In Andahuaylillas we were able to play with kids at Ludoteca, an after school program.

The Wall of Shame as seen from Colegio de La Inmaculada’s campus

There are a couple of experiences that have shown me the inequality in Peruvian schools. At the end of the first week, we visited Pamplona Alta, one of the poorest sections in Lima called a “pueblo joven” or young town. In these young towns, people lack basic necessities such as running water and electricity. It is located on one side of the Wall of Shame, which is discussed by DesMaisons, in “Lima’s Wall of Shame”.

Pamplona Alta

Children who live in Pamplona Alta don’t have access to a steady education due to shortages of teachers. On the other side of the wall lies Colegio de La Inmaculada, a private Jesuit school from kindergarten to secondary school. The resources that existed at Colegio de La Inmaculada were nothing like I had ever seen before. They had a zoo, a soccer stadium along with at least 10 soccer courts throughout campus, basketball and volleyball courts, a place to practice gymnastics, and classroom laptops. The differences between these two cities and schools, just separated by a wall couldn’t be any more stark. This is a perfect example of the inequality in Peru, two cities right next to each other, one with an abundance of resources and wealth and the other struggling and lacking basic rights. The only public school that we visited in Lima was Tupac Amaru, a secondary school. The funding at this school was severely lacking and not all buildings were safe for earthquakes. Students don’t attend school for the full day but are broken up into three sections: morning, afternoon and night. The school’s technology consists of one room with about twenty computers.

The technology room at Tupac Amaru.

The school has a strong focus in the technical works such as woodworking and mechanic, in order to try and get students ready for jobs once they graduate secondary school. On the other end of the spectrum is Colegio Roosevelt, a school with all of the wealth that you could imagine. Those who go to Colegio Roosevelt are the elite of Peru and foreigners children such as government ambassadors.

Outside the performing arts center at Colegio Roosevelt.

The theater at Colegio Roosevelt.

At Colegio Roosevelt there is a performing arts center, a swimming pool, a rock climbing wall, makerspaces, innovation spaces and pristine libraries. When we were walking through Colegio Roosevelt, there was a board that had the pictures of the graduating seniors and where they were going to college.

The graduating class of 2019 at Colegio Roosevelt and what universities they will be attending.

Most will be heading to the United States for college in the fall, while for most Peruvians going to college in the United States isn’t even in their vocabulary. Jeff Rosen, the Director of Teaching and Innovation at Colegio Roosevelt, told us of a story that I believe represents the mass inequality, not just in the education system but in all of Peru. He said one night the school was hosting a banquet, people were dancing on the dance floor and on that dance floor was 90% of Peru’s wealth. This story shows that most of the wealth in Peru is held by a select few, just like in the United States.

While in Peru on a daily basis I was confronted with the reality of inequality in education. However, Peru is not the only country dealing with this problem. The United States suffers from the same inequality. Brown vs Board of Education was designed to end legalized school segregation, even if the schools were equal. Ladson-Billings, in “Landing on the Wrong Note” argues that while the Brown vs Board of Education outcome was crucial, the way it was enacted had draw backs that weren’t previously thought about, for example the concept of race. While Brown vs Board of Education ended physical segregation in schools, many schools in the United States remain segregated. In 2014, Frontline looked at how schools are still segregated based on eight different charts. They also released a film titled “Separate and Unequal” looking at school segregation in America following Brown vs Board of Education. A 2019 NowThis video titled “How Black High School Students Are Hurt by Modern-Day Segregation” looks at two different schools in the same school district 13 miles apart in Louisiana. The differences couldn’t be more staggering. The school that is majority African American has buildings infested with mold and textbooks that are in terrible shape with mold. A physical education teacher is teaching history due to a shortage in teachers. The film crew wasn’t allowed in the majority white school. Along with this, when comparing the performance rates of each school, the white school does significantly better and more students go on to attend college.

The contrasts in educational opportunities between rich and poor Peruvian children has deepened my view on the importance of a just, high quality and equitable education. Seeing the Wall of Shame throughout Colegio de La Inmaculada’s campus was a constant harsh reminder of the existing inequities. Some children don’t have access to running water and electricity in Pamplona Alta while those in Surco have a zoo and volleyball, basketball and soccer courts on school grounds. Unfortunately, there seem to be many similarities between the rich and poor in the United States and Peru. Some children in the Milwaukee Public Schools do not have enough food to eat, lack stable housing and live and learn in unsafe environments. No matter the race, ethnicity, gender or social class of a child, all children need to play, have their basic needs met, are unique individuals who have the right to a just, high quality and equitable education. This way, all citizens can contribute to society in the future.