Education as a means of charity (1 Viewer)

[Lolsmith]

Over the last few years, I've seen a lot of charitable organisations putting forward that they are educating children in poor countries in order to better serve their standard of living.

Does this actually happen? Is spending money on a child's education in some of the poorest places in the world really doing anything? Are these children merely moving on to being farmers that can read? (like they would have been before, but without being literate) Is educating the poorest of the poor a euro-centric and pointless exercise when you can make the same people healthier or give a community 5km away the ability to drink clean water?

 

[Lentern]

Over the last few years, I've seen a lot of charitable organisations putting forward that they are educating children in poor countries in order to better serve their standard of living.

Does this actually happen? Is spending money on a child's education in some of the poorest places in the world really doing anything? Are these children merely moving on to being farmers that can read? (like they would have been before, but without being literate) Is educating the poorest of the poor a euro-centric and pointless exercise when you can make the same people healthier or give a community 5km away the ability to drink clean water?

I've a fair bit to do with Caritas and it's not teaching them to read Shakespeare and what happened in WWII, it's very targetted, pragmatic education. Building and farming practices etc.

 

[funkshen]

Would you rather be a farmer who could read and do basic mathematics or one who could not?

 

[Shadowdude]

I think the goal of them being educated is that they can go on to do other pursuits instead of just growing up to be literate farmers. That's the gist I'm feeling when they're trying to get me to donate - at least.

It's like "Educate these children so they can become teachers and lawyers, etc."

 

[kaz1]

Education gives them better opportunities of climbing out of poverty which is better in the long term rather than giving them just food or water which would just be a temporary fix.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish he eats everyday.

 

[Lolsmith]

Would you rather be a farmer who could read and do basic mathematics or one who could not?

I don't really care because they seem to have been going fairly well for the last few thousand years without such things.

But how can someone who is living in a such a poor country do such a thing? So this child can read, what are the new opportunities for them now? In countries that half or more of the population are without electricity, how can simply being able to read or do basic arithmetic impact on their lives that greatly?

Education gives them better opportunities of climbing out of poverty which is better in the long term rather than giving them just food or water which would just be a temporary fix.

With my water example, I meant being able to gather clean water at whatever point necessary in their local surroundings. Not just show up with a couple of litres and drive on to the next village.

 

[zombie omie jay]

building blocks son

kids with the natural ability to do great things may never get the chance without a basic education

idk

 

[Funky Monk]

why the false dichotomy

they seem to have been going fairly well for the last few thousand years without such things.

lol wot

yeah subsistence farming and famines are dooooope

 

[funkshen]

Protip: Mathematical ability and literacy are vital for the successful transition from subsistence farming to market farming, and then using the surplus from market farming to invest in other productive enterprises. It's pretty fucking obvious. Read a book.

 

[Lolsmith]

why the false dichotomy

Engages people more directly

lol wot

yeah subsistence farming and famines are dooooope

They aren't dead yet!

Would literacy have helped in avoiding such things?

Protip: Mathematical ability and literacy are vital for the successful transition from subsistence farming to market farming, and then using the surplus from market farming to invest in other productive enterprises. It's pretty fucking obvious. Read a book.

I know this, but that also implies the obvious necessity of having the available resources to support surplus farming practices (ie: soil, ample water and access to crops/seeds). Take the Sudanese famine atm, afaik that's due to an incredibly bad drought, not because their people aren't educated enough.

 

[funkshen]

African farming practices are incredibly shoddy and subsistence is broadly institutionalised. The fact is that the resources required to support surplus production are in abundance. The problem (or one of them) is that agricultural workers tend not to be educated. The consequences of this are many. Farmers get ripped off by the state, by middle men, and by their landlords, although tenant farming isn't so widespread in Africa. Women are mistreated and cannot be properly productive units. Farmers cannot properly coordinate their finances and investments, and are also far less willing to take calculated and/or profitable risks (probably because they can't calculate).

Every single one of these factors is an obstacle to surplus production.

edit: that education doesn't influence weather patterns is self evident. However, education is surely a component of the woeful preparations for the drought (there was warning over a year ago that this drought would happen).

 

[Funky Monk]

i get the idea of generating discussion but this is entry-level shit

 

[funkshen]

africa

 

[cosmo kramer]

the dark continent

 

[scarybunny]

I think education is usually a second step. You can't educate starving or sick children, so they would need food and water before they attempted to teach them anything.

 

[cosmo kramer]

making them non-african would help too

 

[LonelyWolf]

again, they've survived quite well for hundreds of thousands of years without white control, they don't need the education, its a eurocentric ploy

 

[cosmo kramer]

yeah who cares how they live

just let them be who they are all they've done is havent lived up to your idea of what people should act and live like

 

[Funky Monk]

again, they've survived quite well for hundreds of thousands of years without white control, they don't need the education, its a eurocentric ploy

i suppose though, that you're an autistic creep so who wouldn't expect your definition of "quite well" to be the utmost demonstration of subjectivity?

 

[zombie omie jay]

i hope all the somalis die

all of them

even the children