By: Daniel Nardini
A good friend of mine, who is also a teacher, told me that he is looking for information on Uruguay to help in his class work. Surprisingly, there was only one book on Uruguay in the school library where he works, and that book was 40 to 50 years out-of-date. Asked if he could use the computers or Internet at school, he told me that his school, which is an inner city school located in a poor area, did not have for the most part computers. He works in a school somewhere in the State of Connecticut. Now this in a way surprised me—I thought that schools on the east coast had far better funding and far better resources than here in the U.S. midwest. Apparently not. I cannot answer for rural schools in the northeast states, but the fact that my friend works for a school that is under-funded and does not have much in the way of books on Uruguay in particular or South America in general is very sad.
But it tells me something about the state of things for America’s education system as a whole. If a number of America’s east state schools are suffering from under-funding and lack of resources then I have to wonder how badly this is affecting the level of education in states like Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho and Iowa? I know one thing, and that is my friend’s school has many Latino students. I am not saying that Uruguay is a high priority country compared to many in the rest of South America, but even I believe that there should be better up-to-date books and information sources on that country. Again there are Latino students in the Connecticut school system, and I am sure a number of them and their families came from South America. South America, like Asia and Europe, have a great deal of economic importance for the United States. Not only do many immigrants come countries in South America but this country has considerable trade with those countries there.
Of course, the lack of enough computers for teachers as well as students does not help the situation either. It tells me a lot of our students, our future generation, has little or no idea of countries within this hemisphere and even less resources to try and find the information. Can we really afford for American students, even in our poorer inner city schools, to be South America illiterate? I feel sorry for my friend who has to try and limp with what he has to help his students in a day of age where such information should be at our finger-tips.
South America Illiterate
By: Daniel Nardini
But it tells me something about the state of things for America’s education system as a whole. If a number of America’s east state schools are suffering from under-funding and lack of resources then I have to wonder how badly this is affecting the level of education in states like Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho and Iowa? I know one thing, and that is my friend’s school has many Latino students. I am not saying that Uruguay is a high priority country compared to many in the rest of South America, but even I believe that there should be better up-to-date books and information sources on that country. Again there are Latino students in the Connecticut school system, and I am sure a number of them and their families came from South America. South America, like Asia and Europe, have a great deal of economic importance for the United States. Not only do many immigrants come countries in South America but this country has considerable trade with those countries there.
Of course, the lack of enough computers for teachers as well as students does not help the situation either. It tells me a lot of our students, our future generation, has little or no idea of countries within this hemisphere and even less resources to try and find the information. Can we really afford for American students, even in our poorer inner city schools, to be South America illiterate? I feel sorry for my friend who has to try and limp with what he has to help his students in a day of age where such information should be at our finger-tips.