Everyday for thirteen years you set an alarm for 6:30am. You took a shower, threw on an outfit, and left the house for school. You sat through endless english classes, took many science quizzes, and had your brain shook by math more times than you can count. Every day is the very same. You get up, you learn, you go home, do homework, go to bed, and repeat. But at any point during this cycle did you take the time to stop and think about how lucky you are to be able to take part in this routine?
It's common knowledge that there are places in this world where the standard of education is extremely low. According to UNICEF's website, just Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than half of the 59 million children of primary school age that are denied their right to education. In many foreign countries with low socioeconomic statuses, school is one hundred percent a privilege and is something to be cherished. Children and teenagers in the United States live day to day with this mentality as well.
For many parents that raise their children in areas with a low socioeconomic status, the education of their kids is not high on their todo lists. Their low economic status means a long hours working to put food onto the table. With the long, tiring hours, who has time to check in on how their child is doing developmentally and academically? Although these parents want more than anything for their child to grow up and be able to be successful, it is hard to be as involved as they want to be. This leaves all of the responsibility to the schools. But because these children are only utilizing and actively practicing their school work at school, they tend to score low on testing. Low test scores mean less funding. And less funding means lower quality education. Because of where they come from, these kids don't get a fair chance.
Once a child is told time and time again that they are not doing well in school, the initiative to continually try harder is lost. Once they are told that success is not attainable, they accept their fate. They settle for the life they believe in ahead of them. Many do not realize that the quality of the education you are given, and what you chose to do with it, set up your future. Because these kids aren't getting the same kind of education most have gotten, they have more hurdles to jump over before achieving success.
There are a copious amounts of organizations that focus on ensuring every child has access to a quality education. They set up programs in these impoverished areas that focus on childhood education. Children that go through these programs on average do much better academically through the rest of their education than children who don't. So why doesn't everyone get their kids into these programs? Each center has long waiting lists that may have hundreds of names on it. Because of lack of consistent funding, building more centers is not always the realistic option.
Education is the key to a good life. Not being able to get the schooling one deserves traps them into the cycle poverty. While most complain about going to school, there are kids who would love to be our places. Take pride in the education you are given. Utilize the resources you are given. And take time to remember that you were given something worthwhile.
Although overseas may be hard, I encourage you all to look more into education access in the United States. There are many organizations that are open to donations as well as volunteers! I spent a week in Immokalee, FL with The Guadalupe Center for Childhood Education and it was an eye opening volunteer experience. See what you can do to help a child prosper!
