Maasai school in Tanzania. Photo by Noel Feans, “We rule the school.” September 2009; Creative Commons copyright, Wikimedia image; also on Flickr
Another photo illustrating classroom technology in different cultures.
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No air conditioning in your classroom? Maasai school in Tanzania
I meant that we should not hesitate to improve OUR classrooms on the basis that Massai kids have it worse. Improve them both, if possible, or only one, if that’s all we can manage.
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One thing that I would wager is that these kids and their parents do not feel a sense of entitlement in education but feel thankful to be able to learn. Many in our nation do not see the value of working your tail off in order to be educated. I would also wager that these Tanzania kids will work much harder to learn than their American counterparts because they see how precious learning really is.
Entitlement mentality vs. thankfulness has consequences. It shows up in our classrooms.
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So how would you improve the Maasai classroom?
Can’t make the windows larger. I’ll wager they have ample recess on a very large playground. They have no state test to see how good they are at bubbleguessing for which Pearson will bill Tanzania $100/student. The teacher doesn’t need to worry about 5 minute “walk throughs” that mean he will be fired at the end of the semester for that one kid who put his head down on his desk. The principal can’t sneak in through the back door to see if one student might be checking Facebook — looks like few of these students really care about Facebook.
Parents aren’t going to complain about having to read “Huck Finn.”
This classroom has myriad advantages over any US classroom. But you’re right, we shouldn’t think it’s perfect. How would you improve it?
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The fact that other people are worse off has never been a good argument for not having a readily available improvement.
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