Monday 24 July 2017

Meaningful conversations

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Community engagement is definitely an important way of changing the way we change thoughts towards education. According to Albert Einstein, the world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.  Meaningful conversations must change the way we think. They must push people to action.  Too often, conversations results in wasted time - and nothing, productive to show for it. However today was different. 

I was wondering within myself, how does one begin a conversation? where do you start asking the questions from? But a conversation is about creating opportunities and thus i created mine. I am headed to Waihara area of Othaya. Its coooold. However, i am doing this. I am going to do this. The moment the Matatu stops, i board a motorbike. I don't know how i picked this young man but i don't regret that i did.

The conversation starts immediately, after all we are born curious spirits on the inside. " How do you tell the difference between an educated man and an uneducated one? " I ask him. I can feel the smile and really i am seated behind him slowly turning into an icicle. He moves from the basics to the highest level quite quickly. You see this our politicians he says, there is one who is a standard 7 drop out and one who has his degrees and diplomas. But i like and we like our standard 7 drop out. My mouth drops open. Why i muse? one answer....INTEGRITY and leadership.

Okay so is education just about integrity and leadership? i wonder out loud. Surprisingly he says yes. Yes!!!! and goes on to explain that education is about the whole child. Producing a child who can change the world despite their handicap. And with that my iced self arrives at destination (gosh its cold). That was a beautiful insight. It reminded me of a quote from Margaret Mead...“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  This young man is a thoughtful citizen. Maybe he hasnt seen it yet but his thought may have just changed his world.

Since i must thaw out as i await my appointment, i enter into a cafe my focus is the tea and mandazi (they make this bigger than elephant ears...guaranteed to stay in your stomach the whole day). In Kenya and especially the village you must understand that a village cafe is  more of a meeting point. More interesting spaces to have meaningful conversations. So i take out my chosen weapon of war...the 2015 NYERI COUNTY UWEZO report and place it on the table. It has quite a catchy title. Again the people are curious and so naturally i ask them, Do you believe that your children are really learning?

I must have hit a soft spot. One gentleman volunteers....children are the work of the teacher.. the teacher should know what is the problem with the child.....i dont believe that reading helps because its a thing we do to kill time after form four...........WHAAAT!!!!, do you actually know that parents give 70% of what makes a good student? They all pose briefly, cups in the air, half bitten mandazis and then the conversation continues...DID you know that exposing your children to story books and written work improves their English?.... Did you know that our curriculum apart from one subject are all written in English? As a parent what are you doing about it? Maybe this is getting into their system. There is too much debate going on so i take my leave, but today a seed has been planted. My conversations are not empty. They are something. And as i leave......they are talking about the fact that 6 out of 100 children in standard eight cannot do class 2 level work.



What do you think is affecting the education of your children and What would you do to help improve the school or the education of your children? 

I posed this question to about 40 village elders a little later... the room was instantly on fire ....the highlights were very interesting
What affects them
- There is a real drug problem around here. (i actually found drunk men at 9am in the morning)
- The rate of HIV is so high and people are in denial so they are dying real fast
- Parents have alot of assumptions. Assumptions that education is really free , assumptions that they should really not play a part in any part called education
- Parents are negligent (very interesting)
- The issue of teachers being in one place for ever. They taught your grandparent, then your parent then you....their insults tend to be personal
(my ears are all up)
- There are generally no new ideas. The lessons we learnt are those which our children are learning even now. its like its stuck in the mind of the teacher.Lessons become too boring for students. There is no variety, no new thing. The people in town are better of because they have technology....but really is this true?
- And finally there is corruption. Corruption? how does this fit into children not performing?

Because time was running out , i promised to come back. This time we are going to be finding solutions to educational problems in the area. Bill Clinton put it very well when he stated that the price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. 

The people here are leaders from the entire sub-location. The message is out there that meaningful conversations must happen. We have set the ball rolling. We must challenge the current wisdom, challenge our way of doing things because if we don't we will have the same old results. 

SOLUTIONS ARE NOT OUT THERE THEY ARE HERE WITHIN US. 

written by EMILY MWANGI

#uwezo learning assessments
# American friends of Kenya

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