Ending Poverty Through The Foundations of Learning
I work and live in Thailand, where I setup a not for profit school using an international curriculum. The majority of our students are migrants from Myanmar who live in small villages in tiny shacks they have made themselves out of scrap wood and metal. The children grow up watching parents work long hours 6 days a week for very little money. The children are often at work with parents sitting in the back of shops watching a phone. Small babies are left on their backs in makeshift cots or bouncers only being lifted for milk and necessities as parents work.
When education has become part of your culture and upbringing, concepts as simple as stimulating the mind of a baby with things to look at, talking to and engaging with their little faces come naturally to you. There is so much an educated society takes for granted that is second nature to them. We educate our children from the moment they are born by mimicking the ways we were raised, using our instincts to access the knowledge we learnt growing up. This knowledge is passed on through behaviours, through books, through learning to make conclusions of our own. We are good learners and that is what education is really all about.
Does this mean that children raised in less educated societies are not good learners? No, it means they lack the exposure to opportunities that allow them to become good learners and think for themselves. I know this because I have a school full of children who will be the first in their families to have an education. I have watched them transform from children that questioned very little and were developmentally behind, to little philosophers coming up with their own ideas about why little red ridding hood didn’t notice her grandma was a wolf!
The key areas of education that help to create good learners in children lacking educational life experiences include;
- Problem solving
- General comprehension
- Emotional intelligence
- Independent thought
The answer to breaking the poverty cycle is to focus on the foundations of learning to create strong life long learners. These children will unconsciously pass on their own learning experiences as they grow. We have seen this even in younger siblings yet to start school. Older children naturally love to pass on their knowledge and role play leadership roles. The added bonus is that children mimicking like this are cementing what they have learnt by applying it to real life situations, even if it is being done in a make believe world. As we become adults and have our own children, the positive experiences are often expressed through our behaviours and habits too. We organically pass on these educational experiences in the way we engage with our children or the children around us.
It is no surprise that educated children have a better chance of getting good jobs and earning better money than their uneducated parents. However if the curriculum is not focused on creating good life learners, who can continue learning outside of school, we are limiting the impact a good education can have. We must consider the power of building a culture of education within these communities. Is it enough to simply send children to school to learn to read and write? In my strong opinion, it is not enough. The realities of living in poverty comes with obstacles- Hunger, late nights, crowded housing, sickness, travel distances, transport limits and general daily survival. These kids do not have the luxury of a bedroom and desk with a door to close.
The answer really is in the quality of a child’s educational foundation. In my opinion this is also an equality issue, but that is a subject for another day! For now I will continue to school the gorgeous migrant children of Myanmar and allow you to follow their stories and see the transformation for yourselves.
Claire Wyndham
FOUNDER/MANAGER
Koh Tao International Primary
