Why I am Thankful for my Education...

Over the past year in Mali I have come to appreciate many, many things about my home, America, and American society.  My education is riding very close to the top of that list.  I readily admit that there are many problems with the American education system and many other American policies as there is a lot of hypocrisies built in, but as a whole, the system works really, really well compared to Mali and I imagine many other countries similar to Mali.  After being here, I've found a new pride in our system even though I had nothing to do with its inception, but I can admire things I didn't make, and I do.

Anyways, I've been attending the first level French class in my village's Madras which is an Islamic Koranic school, and it has been a pretty good experience for me.  Koranic schools are one of a few options in Mali.  There is a public system, a Koranic system, and a private school system.  I'm not sure why my village has opted to build a Madras as opposed to a school that would be part of the public system, but I would guess that is cheaper (funded by Islam), and therefore cheaper to send your kids to.  The public school system is not free, and, like many things in Mali, extremely ineffective and inefficient.  Students come from several villages to attend the Madras in my village, and once they reach a certain point in schooling they go to Sikasso through the 12th grade if they are so inclined.  Very few students do this, I only know of one from my village who is currently in Madras in Sikasso.

The school has three rooms probably about half the size of your average school room in the States.  The French class I attend has 45 students in it.  Most classes (not the French class) are taught in Arabic which  means that students have to learn Arabic just to attend the school.  I think Arabic is a very interesting and beautiful language, but a largely useless one in a country where the official language is French.  The university in Bamako is taught in French so in order to go to college the students graduating from a Koranic school, (unless they've mastered French which is rare), have to go to an Arabic country.  The closest and therefore most reasonable option would be Libya or Egypt and given the current state of affairs in those countries going to either is probably not a viable option.

The French class I have been attending is the first level.  The students range in age from I'd say 8 to maybe 16 or 17.  Boys and girls attend in roughly equal numbers, but the girls must have some sort of head covering.  I have a hard time judging age in this country as everyone is mal-nourished and therefore much, much small than their American same-age peers.  The teacher is a graduate of the the 12th grade in the public school system.  She has an extremely imperfect command of the French language.  When I first met her, I thought it would be interesting to have a French-English teaching exchange in our spare time until I realized just how incomplete her knowledge of French is.  I brought a book of French-English verbs over to her house to facilitate some learning on both sides.  She started flipping through it, and stumbled across a list of French Past Participles.  Granted the title of the section was in English, but the words in French are only used for one thing-conjugating in the past.  Anyways, she goes on to tell me that they are synonyms (which is kind-of true), and then points to the verb "to drink" and then the past participle- "boire" and "bu" respectively.  She said if you are drinking a big glass of something you use the word "boire" but if you are drinking a small glass, such as a little glass of tea you use the word "bu."  Oh boy... That is not quite what a past participle is.

Alright.  I now understand just how little the teacher knows French and it is a big bummer that she is the best the school has for a French teacher.  Obviously, she has little to no teacher training, much less any sort of formal degree in teaching which is not surprising in any way.  The teacher is the only one with a textbook and the textbook is not even a French language textbook.  It is a 5th grade level Ethics and Behavior textbook which is at least written in French but certainly not designed to teach French.  So each day she copies a paragraph out of it onto the board and the students copy it down.  These usually have a theme like "work hard" or "clean your house and yard" or "wash your hands" which I think are great for Malian society where things like washing hands with soap is not commonly practiced or understood.  The students then copy the paragraph into notebooks.  Most are just copying the shapes of whatever is on the board, they can't read the letters.  But it is very obvious when the students do understand what they are writing because their writing is so much clearer.  It's not just a penmanship thing, anyone could tell the difference between the two camps.  Lessons vary slightly, but one of her go to lessons is the "simple" (one verb) vs "complex" (more than one verb) sentence.  She asks who can give her an example of each, and some students understand and answer though I'm not sure they know what a verb is since the sentences they give are always examples that the teacher has given previously.  If they come up with a different one the teacher often gets confused and tells them it is incorrect when it is correct or vice versa.

The teacher walks around with a rubber belt off of an old car or machine and if a student acts up or has answer the teacher deems just too stupid then she hits them with the rubber belt.  It doesn't do any damage, but I'm sure it stings a bit.  Or if the teacher is not feeling like worming her way through the packed desks then she nods to the kid next to the kid who is acting up.  The acting up kid leans forward in the desk, and the kid next to him or her punches him or her in the back.  The teacher says "Voila" and continues.  I can understand why the teachers have to control by fear.  For one thing, they have no training to help them come up with another way, and they can't bribe the kids into good behavior as they have no incentives.  I volunteered in a 2nd grade class in America just before coming here, and if the students were good they got to get a treasure from the "treasure box" at the end of the week.  The treasure box was mostly silly decorated pencils and cheap plastic ring things, but to a second grader those are pretty cool.  And what was easily found, usually for free, at various events and things by the teacher in America would be found here only at the sacrifice of giving up a meal or something like that.  And though decorated pencils are pretty cool, not being hungry is even cooler.

The teacher had bigger ambitions, but those were dashed when she was married off to some guy.  Her husband does not want her to go to University so she can't even try.  Also, now she has a few kids.  Her youngest, being a little over a year old, goes to class with her everyday.  This is obviously necessary but it often takes the attention of teacher off of her job.  The kid frequently will start whining, so the teacher has to pull her shirt down and start breast feeding while teaching.  Definitely multitasking.

Now I know I've painted a fairly bleak picture, but accurately describing a living and rich experience is a tough task so I've had to pick and choose what to share and how to share it.  There is definitely hope in the system, but it is still a tough set up.  A few kids will go on to finish high school through the Madras in Sikasso.  One of my best friends from village is about to finish the 12th grade.  He understands that scholarships exist, but he says he has to do really well on his exams to get one.  I hope he can get to college.  I wish I could pay for it actually because I think investing in education is the smartest investment anyone can make, but I don't have that capacity right now.

I hope I've painted a fair and informative picture of education if Mali, but I probably haven't so keep that in mind as you read this and form your own opinions.  But regardless, what I've described above is why I am so, so thankful for the education and opportunities that being an American has given me.  And again, our system is also flawed, and I think always moving to improve is an awesome and valid goal.  However, I see online and hear/heard from various people so many complaints and criticisms about how stupid, horrible, corrupt, and unfair our system is without so much as a nod towards some of the good aspects of what we enjoy as Americans and it annoys me sometimes.  Right now is one of those times.  I know this will sound elitist and self-righteous, and I think that all opinions are valid and help society evolve as a whole, but I really think all the damn whiners should really shut the fuck up because the fact that they have the ability to write their stupid, uninformed opinions all over the internet is a blessing that literally 74%  of this country does not have.  I am extremely fortunate and nothing has made me understand that better than being here.