Three Incredible Resources
- Not to be missed
I have a long list of Blogs I want to share with you but finding the time seems to be an ongoing struggle.
Today I am going to put three of them together.
During the last couple of weeks I have been exposed to three incredible films/videos/resources. I want to share them with you.
A - "It's a Girl"
In 2012 the United Nations created the "Day of the Girl" to be celebrated each year on 11 October. Some people may ask why such a day is necessary. It is true that opportunities for girls have improved in most western countries. However that is not the case in much of the world.
On October 11, 2013 I had the opportunity to watch the film "The Three Deadliest Words in the World...It's a Girl".
The following description is from the web page (link below) which also contains a trailer of the film. The film can be purchased relatively inexpensively if it is for personal use.
In India, China and many other parts of the world
today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are
girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls(1) are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.
Girls who survive infancy are often subject to
neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands
of their own husbands or other family members.
The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old
tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in
combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls.
Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl
reveals the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being
done to save girls and women.
The film tells the stories of abandoned and
trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave
mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would
kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in
context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively
lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.
B - " Schooling the World - The White Man's Last Burden"
Taken from the web site.
SYNOPSISIf you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it?You would change the way it educates its children.The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a ‘better’ life for indigenous children.But is this true? What really happens when we replace a traditional culture’s way of learning and understanding the world with our own? SCHOOLING THE WORLD takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last sustainable indigenous cultures.Beautifully shot on location in the Buddhist culture of Ladakh in the northern Indian Himalayas, the film weaves the voices of Ladakhi people through a conversation between four carefully chosen original thinkers; anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence; Helena Norberg-Hodge and Vandana Shiva, both recipients of the Right Livelihood Award for their work with traditional peoples in India; and Manish Jain, a former architect of education programs with UNESCO, USAID, and the World Bank.The film examines the hidden assumption of cultural superiority behind education aid projects, which overtly aim to help children “escape” to a “better life” – despite mounting evidence of the environmental, social, and mental health costs of our own modern consumer lifestyles, from epidemic rates of childhood depression and substance abuse to pollution and climate change.It looks at the failure of institutional education to deliver on its promise of a way out of poverty – here in the United States as well as in the so-called “developing” world.And it questions our very definitions of wealth and poverty – and of knowledge and ignorance – as it uncovers the role of schools in the destruction of traditional sustainable agricultural and ecological knowledge, in the breakup of extended families and communities, and in the devaluation of elders and ancient spiritual traditions.Finally, SCHOOLING THE WORLD calls for a “deeper dialogue” between cultures, suggesting that we have at least as much to learn as we have to teach, and that these ancient sustainable societies may harbor knowledge which is vital for our own survival in the coming millennia.
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C - Barefoot Teachers Training Program
I was referred to the next resource by our Volunteer Feedback Coordinator Marc, who saw an article in a Manitoba newspaper. I am going to quote from the newspaper article and include the links to the three part documentary.
October 8, 2013 8:37 pmLearning how to count or sorting out the alphabet can sometimes be taken for granted.
Yet in some parts of the world children will never step foot into a classroom.With the help of a unique teaching program, India’s poorest kids are getting an education and now the University of Manitoba is looking to help.
“They set up schools in some very impoverished communities, under roadways, overpass, if it provides some form of shelter they will set up a school there,” said Dr. Jerome Cranston, the Acting Associate Dean of Education Undergraduate Programs at the University of Manitoba.Earlier this year Cranston travelled to Calcutta with his research assistant to learn more about the Barefoot Teacher Training Programme.The name stems from the belief you only need your feet to walk.The program doesn’t focus on theory. Instead it gives people in some of the poorest neighbourhoods practical tools to teach children who would otherwise never get an education.One place they teach in are brickfields, where children endure painstaking work to help their families survive.“The seven months they will spend in a brickfield school, which is only a couple of hours a day, is their only experience of schooling,” said Cranston. “They will not attend another school in their life.”With financial help from the University of Manitoba, Cranston put together a three part documentary on the innovative teaching methods used, including helping integrate predominantly spoken languages into villages..It’s an idea that some people say could work on First Nations here and in Canada’s most remote communities.“Taking a person from an indigenous community and training them to be a teacher within their own community is not something we focus on here,” said Elise Ahrens-Townsend, Cranston’s research assistant who also travelled to India.Cranston is working to set up a course through the U of M with the program in India to give students a different perspective on teaching methods.“Doing work but also going over there with a sense of humility and learning from them,” said Cranston.
Tamara Forlanski
You can view the documentary here:
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I'm sorry this blog is so very long.
I do believe it contains valuable information.
I hope you enjoyed it.
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