Integrating Education and Development

Northern Morazán is a remote border region in El Salvador. It is an area where the dimensional divide between education and development is very clearly demonstrated. Hundreds of local young people graduate from “vocational school” each year and enter “the real world” without the basic skills needed to face daily obstacles and to seize the occasional opportunities when presented.

High school in El Salvador has both a two-year general program as the route to university studies and a three year vocational option. Most rural students opt for vocational studies, as they lack the financial resources involved not only for tuition but for travel, lodging and living expenses to go to university. The problem is that most rural high schools have only one, and at the most two, vocational options. The high school in Perquín, Morazán provides Accounting and Secretary as the two vocational options, from which over one hundred students graduate each year. The obvious contradiction is that northern Morazán, statically the poorest area in El Salvador has little to no openings for these positions. The other difficulty is that the educational curriculum for these specialties is outdated, requiring the graduate who does find employment to relearn their skills once again.

Actually, a vanguard educational system should be the most significant means available to lead development and fight poverty in remote areas of developing countries. However, the traditional separation of formal education from socioeconomic developmental programs results with both falling far short of essential expectations and having little impact on real living conditions. It is indeed a sad truth that expectations regarding both program areas have plummeted, as the status quo of helplessness reigns supreme.

Attempts to effect change are often viewed as unrealistic and discarded as impractical theories. Programs too often are funded only because tradition and political correctness mandates tolerating this social burden, even though the probability of failure can easily be assumed.

Both, may we say, industries, have become institutionalized and increasingly specialized, conceivably to their own detriment. There is an obvious flaw in educational programs that are focused on forming excellent employees but work within a reality of very few job opportunities. Equally, developmental programs often mistakenly assume that the beneficiary population has sufficient knowledge or has the capacity to assimilate new techniques and productive innovations, creating frustration and inefficiency during program implementation and operation.

Very often these educational and developmental programs operate side by side without ever coming into contact with each other. Ostensibly they are all inclusive and mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, neither has managed to solve the social or economic woes in rural areas of developing countries. Both focus on content, knowledge, tools, resources and projected outcome. It is striking that neither consider attitude, self-motivation and self-realization to be basic components in their strategic planning and methodology.

A credible study of the long history of charity programs, reconstruction projects and readily available technical training courses will reveal a high degree of passivity and dependence on outside intervention as a direct result of their implementation. Development projects actually become a means of subsistence in and of themselves without hope of actually originating self-perpetuating productiveness and sustainability. The projects themselves become the employer and the organizations are often converted into a type of family business. Within this setting, traditional education has no clear purpose and therefore offers very little beyond simply keeping the children occupied while parents are working. It could essentially be said that these areas are primary components (purposely or not) of the Poverty Industry, in that “Education” provides the beneficiaries for continuous “Development” which maintains the demand for perpetual assistance and expert intervention.

Constructive socioeconomic change requires integrating the technical capacity focus of development with motivation or positive change in attitudes which are developed through appropriate educational methodology. This implies bringing the two programs together in a way that will enhance both. It requires providing education with a purpose for its existence. It means channeling development through those with interest, willingness and the capacity to assimilate innovative programs. It will provide a support structure to development and coverts education into a relevant, meaningful activity.

Amún Shéa, Center for Integrated Development in Perquín, Morazán is an example of the needed integration, with a curriculum that strives to bridge the dimensional split between academics and development. This is done with hands-on participation by the students in building solutions to local developmental hurdles. Beginning in 2008 with kindergarten through third grade, the program has expanded one grade per year, reaching ninth grade this year (2014.) Accreditation for High School next year is in process with the Salvadoran Educational Ministry.

Amún Shéa stands out from the Salvadoran norm in several concrete ways. The Amún Shéa program runs from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm, practically doubling the half-day public education system. Whereas the methodology in the public system is limited to the teacher copying material from a textbook to the chalkboard (whiteboard now, in some cases) and the student copying that same information into their notebook, our problem-based methodology integrates current and developmental concerns into the subject matter.

As the school runs a full day and nutritional-related health deficiencies within the area are alarming, Amún Shéa incorporates a complete nutrition program which provides nourishing meals, nutrition training, cooking lessons, vegetable farming, fishing farming and hygiene training. Coordinated with the USA-based organization GlobeMed, the objective of the program is to go beyond providing the daily snack and lunch to each student to actually modifying eating habits and diet within the community, beginning with the families of the students. As well, this activity opens the opportunity for families to learn from the program and implement vegetable gardening and fish farming as a business enterprise, which helps broaden the local production base from subsistence basic grains.

Amún Shéa students take on real-world problems for their scientific investigation projects. In one case, the sixth grade investigated the local municipal water supply after experiencing firsthand in their homes the indication of contamination within the distribution system. They traveled to the water source of the system, high in the neighboring Honduran mountains, interviewed the inhabitants living around the source and inspected the source. They then inspected the filtration plant, tanks and distribution system. They uncovered lapses and gaps of responsibility between the municipality and local health authorities. In the end, their investigation forced improvements in the water system for over 3,000 people.

Creation of business plans is another exercise for the integration of real-world situations into the subject material. Several small enterprises have germinated from this process, as parents are convinced of the viability by their child´s work.

Cultural research and investigation as a means of building community and personal identity is an elemental part of the program. Collecting testimony from senior citizens regarding past events, practices and local history, researching local legends and lore, and searching out traces of indigenous roots all assist in personal orientation. In this aspect, not only the past is covered, but current tendencies as well, including immigration, economic activities and opinion polls.

Each student is equipped with a Personal Learning Environment, basically the digital tool-kit and portfolio they will use and further develop throughout their lives. This emphasis on digital tools and resources actually levels the playing field for our students, giving them access to the same information and processes as students in more favorable conditions. It also compensates for the lack of locally available information in needed areas of technical study.

Integration of education and development is the key to initiating positive socioeconomic changes. Its success will depend on the extent that real-world application is implemented throughout the process.

Worthwhile to Stay, or Just Harder to Get Out?

New government regulations typically mean additional costs to whoever they affect .These additional costs get passed along to the customers who may fuss and protest, but in the end pay for the services anyway. Illegal immigration is no exception to the rule.

Thus, the  Obama administration’s offer to help Central American countries with security, in order to stem the flow of illegal immigration, will likely result in higher tariffs to make the trip north, but without a significant reduction in the actual numbers of travelers. It will also probably be a boom for security contractors and consultants as funding for training, equipping and supervising “counterparts” gets fast-tracked.

To be fair, we should take into account that the offer is broader. The White House Release of July 25 quotes President Obama´s remarks, “And we are committed to working together in partnership with each of these countries to find ways in which we can come up with more aggressive action plans to improve security and development and governance in these countries.” These countries, of course are Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The fact that the next paragraph compares the effort to current border security programs to halt drugs running north and guns running south is rather disheartening. See the entire press release here.

“Improving security and development and governance” sounds reasonable at first glance, but seen under the shadow of experience, the offer begins with control and ends with more control. Development and other comments on opportunity are more refreshing, although the top-down transplanted system has yet to be proven fruitful.

We always come back to the solution being a long-term investment in an educational program that builds opportunity and eliminates barriers. While actually the most reasonable and simple option, the fact that it offers no short-term financial gain for vested interests, seems to make it too idealistic. Someday, not too far off, we will need to make a decision between actually following up on what we preach or continuing to serve as flag-wavers for corporate interests. A case in point is the current conditioning of aid in El Salvador to the purchase of Monsanto seeds. Just how is governance strengthened with that level of interference? Is this how we promote transparency?

The immigration issue provides the opportunity, even the motivation, to do it right this time around. The opportunity is there, ripe for picking; this is where we demonstrate our values, our principals. Are we going to help make it worthwhile staying in Central America or just harder to leave?

We have been working towards making it worthwhile at the Amún Shéa, Center for Integrated Development in El Salvador. Please consider joining in with support. Let´s do it right this time around.

The Brightest and the Best

Perquín Musings, a book I penned in 2009 contains commentary regarding immigration. Given the current focus on the subject, and the fact that we have not seen much progress on the subject during the past five years, I present the short chapter “The Brightest and the Best.”

That is a very innovative selection process up North to get the type of foreign workers needed.

First, set up the prize. Earn as much in one hour as for a whole day in El Salvador. Second, set up the obstacle course. Practically no visas, dangerous route through Guatemala and Mexico, jump the fence and a high-risk desert run at the end. Once there, faced with illegal status and immigration roundups as the order of the day.

Maybe there ought to be a new Statue of Liberty on the Rio Grande, dividing Texas from Mexico. It would have to be updated, of course, modeled after Britney Spears or the latest iconic talent, with her belly showing. The inscription reading “give me your tired, your poor…” would also need a little updating. It should read “Give me your most daring, your fittest, those willing to take chances. Give me your initiative, your future, your brightest and best.”

With around two million Salvadorans in the States, the largest national product is the remittances they send home. In sheer numbers, that workforce probably compares pretty much with the workforce left in El Salvador.

The Darwinist selection of those who go north, however, results in a quality unbalance within the two groups, at least at the gumption level.

It is probably too early to speculate on changes to the gene pool, but we are left working with those left behind.

We are working to slow that talent drain. El Salvador needs a few of the brighest and best to stay here at home; to change the conditions that leave migration as the only option for providing a decent living.

We do not believe in quick fixes, but that with a focused effort, change will start happening before we know it.

We are Amún Shéa and we are out to change our world. Join with us! It will change, only if we work together on this.

Politically Competent

Were political posturing and other hidden interests put aside, I wager the current immigration crisis would to a great extent just fade away. A transparent objective look at the subject also requires losing the emotional baggage instigated by the flood of Central American children to the US border.

The plight of the children is serious and cause of great concern. However, we far too often see children pushed into the spotlight as adults lose the capacity for dialogue. Indeed, throughout the world, we are increasingly resorting to using victims as a substitute for debate. Should this tendency reach the point of actually provoking victimization in order to make a point, we will have arrived at a new depth of inhumanity. Some would affirm we are already there. Aspects of the current US border crisis do suggest we have reached a threshold in that respect.

I was told by a friend a few days ago that parts of his family immigrated back during the Second World War. Apparently the shortage of industrial labor force in US factories actually provoked the need to recruit workers from south of the border.

No expert on immigration, I am not clear of how the situation evolved over the years. What is perfectly clear is that, in spite of current legality issues and physical obstacles, everyone who gets through gets a job. One can only assume the existence of a real job market.

As to the reason behind not recognizing that demand or need, we would need to enter into the shadowland of interests, greed and political maneuvering. The “illegality status” creates an underworld of parallel, unregulated and highly profitable financial and commercial structures.

It also creates family rupture as parents cannot freely travel back home and periodically see their children. This is one of the main contributing factors to the current child immigration situation, in my opinion. I know people in this situation. They went to the USA for the employment opportunity and as the means of providing for their families. They had no intention of staying on, but the economy got tough so it is taking longer than originally planned. They are worried about their children, with all the bad news coming out and they are being forced to make the decision to stay or leave. Staying means bringing in the family.

Canada takes a different approach. Employment opportunities, complete with strict requirements, are published by the embassy. Recruitment, selection and work visas are coordinated through diplomatic channels. Employees travel by air, just like the rest of us. They enjoy vacation periods and are able to visit home periodically. Quite the contrast…

So, why is it that we cannot publically acknowledge what we actually are doing; what we actually need? Cannot we understand that the “out of sight, out of mind” attitude comes with a pricetag; we only favor dark interests when we refuse to see reality. It also opens us up to be manipulated and that generally is brought to bear on our emotions. The “plight of the children” is in fact very real. But have we had a part in creating the crisis because we refuse to respond to any other stimulus?

How much control have we given away, in exchange for not being bothered? Have we noticed how Politically Correct gets twisted into Politically Convenient? Perhaps we need to ask ourselves whether we are actually Politically Competent. Perhaps all of us, on both sides of the border, need to take back some control and responsibility… and leave the kids alone.

Mixed Messages

Obama asks Central American parents to not put their children at risk.

The local paper reported earlier this week that the trip to the US border is now done in an express five days, as opposed to the normal two weeks of peril and danger. An official and very stern message came out from the US just days ago, that children with at least one parent in their home country would be deported. News filters back each day of the ease the crossing has become.

The child immigration issue remains highly volatile and extremely politically charged. As such, the messages are quite the mix; the sternest warning always allowing exceptions. The message received and understood here is the exception part; we are after all Masters of Exception.

While true that there is too little information to call it conspiracy, there are too many coincidences to call it chance. Let us take a look at the perception here on the ground, in small communities off the beaten path.

Migration is restricted from deporting children detained at the US border.

Several weeks ago, the news spread through the grapevine that the USA was opening the border for children. Some sources actually put the number at 70,000. The beginning source of the news seems to be the “coyotes” who earn their livelihood by guiding immigrates north. It must be understood that the local perception of a “coyote” is not that of the negative “human trafficker” that is generally portrayed by official sources. Coyotes are often members of the community who have built up their reputation by providing this transportation service to their neighbors for generations.

The recent flood to the border did in effect open the gates. Normal procedures were set aside and new arrivals were just deposited at bus stations. Word got back very quickly and the flood north gained strength.

It is believed that the wave of young immigrants is due gang violence

The trip north normally takes several weeks, as the coyote times segments of the journey with work shifts of collaborators and with negotiation for passage through territories held by differing, often conflicting organizations. The word is out now that the obstacles have been removed; coyotes are able to double the number of trips per month as it is now possible to arrive in just 5 days.

The “do not send your children or they will be deported” message, conditioned by “if they have a parent in the home country” is an invitation to keep coming. Most of the younger ones are going to be with their one parent or parents who are already in the USA. They are leaving grandmothers and aunts, very few are leaving parents.

“If they arrive, we will send them back…”

 

Today´s paper, El Diario de Hoy, is a perfect example.
The headline reads “Obama asks parents in Central America to not put their children at risk.” Pages 2 and 3 detail the fact that children from Central America cannot be deported without a long process. Page 3 cites a study concluding that the immigration is due gang violence. Page 4 is the article from the headline citing President Obama´s message to Central American parents. Page 8 uses red ink to showcase the 307 violent deaths in June for El Salvador, 167 more than last year.

Violence leaves 307 deaths in June: 167 more than the sme period last year.

 

 

Put yourself in the place of a Central American parent, for a moment. You have been in, let´s say, Houston for six years and have a decent job which allows you to send support back to your family. You left your daughter behind, with your mother, when she was just four years old. Now she is ten, you haven´t seen her or watched her grow and you are starting to worry for her wellbeing. You´ve heard the rumors, seen the news and know of friends who now have their children safely with them.

What would you do, right now?

Pawns

“Is that our cousin trapped at the border, Dad?” was the question from my five year old on the way to school today. My seven year old pitched in with, “yep, that´s her”, before I had the chance to try to divert the conversation, “she´s in trouble, now.”

Karen (fictitious name as I do not want to inadvertently make matters worse) is in effect detained at the US/Mexican border. She did not go unaccompanied, as reports claim regarding these children, but was abandoned at the border by the distant family member who traveled with her. The plan was for Karen´s mother to recover her daughter without trouble, as was promised in the news that went out through the grapevine. That plan was frustrated and the rules were changed as the border became overwhelmed by the sheer number of children crossing. The fact that Karen´s mother is in the USA illegally now prevents her access to her daughter.

Karen is alone. She is ten years old. She is a pawn in a political quagmire and obviously is of no importance in the big picture. She is a cousin to my children, and there she does have importance. Karen is also a student at Amún Shéa where she is very important. She did not want to go and resisted for quite a while. But her mother insisted and as it is she who supports the entire family in El Salvador, no one could really oppose.

Some thirty years ago, my wife and Karen´s mother, at about the age of my youngest ones, fled the Salvadoran Civil War as refugees to Honduras. Now this current generation of children, under different circumstances and for completely different motives, is repeating the same history. To what purpose…?

We began the Amún Shéa educational program precisely to break this type of continuation. Obviously we are not there yet, but are making headway and are committed to being an important part of the opportunities here in El Salvador which will lessen the need to migrate north in search of livelihood and substance for our families.

The Mandate of Education in Development

Education has a mandate in socioeconomic development! Especially in economically unstable regions, the implementation of new productive endeavors or innovative methods requires a time consuming learning process. In underdeveloped regions of the world, much of the effort of outside experts is consumed in teaching basic concepts and simple mathematic operations instead of implementing the necessary modernization.

Typically, these development projects are implemented in close proximity to a local school. These schools, as part of the “formal educational system” use standardized lessons which are often completely divorced from community needs and employment opportunities. This void easily reaches a point where the focus on the hypothetical leaves students unprepared for real-world situations. This situation actually disempowers people and generates passivity in the face of personal and shared challenges.

The mandate is to bridge this gap between education given and the knowledge needed, if we are to see positive change in socioeconomic statistics. A first step is to merge the activities of education and development so that obstacles to growth become areas of study in the school. Next, outside technical assistance must be made available through the school, which amplifies coverage, lessens time spent on basic concepts and takes advantage of potent youthful energy. This merging of activities enhances the quality of each by providing purpose and motivation for each.

Unfortunately, the intent of creating equal opportunity through the standardization process, while claiming different degrees of success in different places, in general failed completely throughout economically stagnant regions of the world. The wholesale training of an employee class, and then sending them out into a jobless situation, is counterproductive. Opportunity lies in entrepreneurship and the application of creativity to specific local circumstances.

Amún Shéa, a school in the Morazán province of El Salvador, has accepted this mandate and has taken on the challenge of merging education and development. It is a unique but proven educational project, designed to combat the self-perpetuating underdevelopment that is endemic to the region. It is working to stop this repetitive cycle through human development which focuses on changing attitudes, building real-world skills and creating opportunity for realization of hopes, dreams and goals.

It is gratifying and provides hope to see endeavors similar to Amún Shéa developing quietly throughout the world. It makes the future brighter. Be a part of it!

De la Realidad hacía lo Ideal

Es muy fácil clavarnos en un debate sin fin sobre la educación, si no nos ubicamos primero referente al ángulo o punto de vista representado. La brecha entre la realidad, más bien entre las variadas realidades según circunstancias y ubicación, y lo ideal se duplica muchas veces en la discusión.

Como me dijo un amigo, Menno, hace ya unos veinticinco años atrás, “todo plan es perfecto sobre papel; el problema es que depende del hombre para implementarlo.” Coincido totalmente con Menno, en que todos los proyectos y reformas educativos son perfectos, hasta son ideales, pero hasta el momento de su aplicación. He aquí la razón del enfoque e importancia que da el PNUD y otras instancias sobre el desarrollo humano, ya que es el elemento que determina el éxito o fracaso operativo de todo plan.

Si aceptamos la realidad de una brecha entre el programa educativo nacional y su aplicación, y si evaluamos que, lejos de mejorar, tiene una tendencia marcada de espiral descendente, entonces el debate debería centrar en las medidas a tomar para revertir el proceso hacia lo positivo.

Tenemos que aceptar además que todo programa nacional es centro-céntrico, valga la redundancia, y que las condiciones del centro difieren mucho del periférico. Así “las medidas a tomar” en toda probabilidad son reflejo de cada realidad actual, aunque tengamos un ideal o norte en común para guiarnos.

La ley de desarrollo desigual nos indica que entre más atrasada, más posibilidad de un salto de calidad, ya que difícilmente se abandona inversión de infraestructura y procesos que están todavía funcionando aún a medias. Donde tal inversión no existe y no hay necesidad de deshacer para construir, la acción de cambio tiene mayor libertad y menos ataduras.

Propongo que el norte de Morazán se encuentra en una posición de ventaja para poder realizar cambios radicales y tomar las medidas de corrección necesarias en materia educativa, ya que se encuentra firmemente en el último lugar de rendimiento académico y el primer lugar en la pobreza de la nación. Continuidad solo garantiza continuidad.

La opción de esperar que las reformas nuevas y los directrices operacionales filtran del centro hacía la periferia no es viable. Así como está la situación, cada región o realidad tendrá que proponerse a realizar los cambios necesarios para sacudir al fondo la inercia de un sistema estancado.

Mas sin embargo, estando en el piso sin más salida que para arriba, fácilmente se puede caer en un nivel de activismo o maquearismo que aparenta mejora en el corto plazo pero que carece de bases fundamentales sobre lo cual se puede continuar construyendo. Eso es el gran reto actual; hacer los cambios necesarios, radicales incluso, sin despegar de los cimientos fundamentales de la educación. Pues, es fácil hacer olas en un charco pacho.

Previo al debate de fondo sobre la educación viene el estire y coge de quien o que instancia es la que puede determinar cuáles son los fundamentos intocables académicos. ¿Quién es el dueño del circo? …..y ¿por qué?

Algunas preguntas para la discusión:

1. ¿Es un docente con escalafón la mejor opción para las responsabilidades de director, o estos se resuelvan mejor otro profesional?

2. ¿Con un profesional no-docente como director, podría haber otro nivel de aplicación de las reformas educativas?

3. ¿Se obtiene conocimiento con teoría o es necesario aplicación? ¿y si es posible enseñar un conocimiento no aplicado?

4. ¿Es el docente la única vía y realmente insustituible en la obtención de la educación?

5. ¿Podríamos diversificar el “programa” educativo, creando opciones de vías de aprendizaje en concordancia con los intereses, capacidades y expectativas de los “clientes?” ¿No llevan todos los caminos a Roma?

6. ¿Cómo se organice un programa “nacional” que no es marcado por centro y periférica?

7. ¿Cuál es el producto que buscamos con la educación, el tigre o el perico?

Learning sans Barriers

Our belief is that it is high time we level the playing field for young people no matter where they happen to live and that information technology is one of the primary tools to make that happen.

Our project is Amun Shea, Center for Integrated Development, in El Salvador, a Problem-Based Learning program with the objective of doing away with the barriers that entrap and perpetuate traditional cycles of poverty.

Our students have tossed the textbooks aside to work with real-world issues, learn “basic subjects” as only as tools for problem-solving and are overcoming “being poor.” Connecting ideas and sharing solutions with peers around the globe is breaking the ever-repeating dynamic of marginalization and isolation.

Amún Shéa is about Positive Attitude, Capacity Building and the Creation of Opportunity. Join with us in changing the world.