budding scholar

People often see education as a panacea to fix all social problems. And this can be a problem, because people expect schools to do things they cannot, like fix broken homes or solve the childhood obesity problem in the United States. But I think Nicholas Kristof is on to something with this article. I haven’t yet read Greg Mortenson’s book he mentions about building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time. But I’d like to. And I’d like to support education efforts, like the work being done by the Afghan Institute of Learning. And I wish we all would push for schools instead of, or even in addition to, sending more troops to Afghanistan. Because schools are much more likely, long term, to make a real difference. We know from research that more educated women pass on the education to their children, and as Kristof says in the article, women’s literacy hovers around 3% in some of the most unstable parts of Pakistan.

Education is not a quick fix, but I think funding schools, and local people to work in them, is much more likely to promote stability in Afghanistan long-term. What do you think? Do you know of any good organizations doing work promoting education in Afghanistan (or anywhere else)? How about organizations that work with the local people in exemplary ways around educational issues?

I wish I could go to this conference, in Berkeley next weekend. It’s hosted by UC Berkeley’s Center for Urban Ethnography, an organization I’d like to learn more about and perhaps get involved with. In the future I hope to have my research use more participant observation and ethnographic approaches. Part of me sometimes wishes I’d become an anthropologist! And the conference is focused on children around the world, and peoples’ up-close research on their experiences of adaptation and survival. A very important topic. Anyone planning to go?