A long flight is a good chance to reflect on all of the interviews I have conducted in the last month. My tour started with protests in South Africa over the affordability of education to the middle and lower classes in the #feesmustfall campaign. My time in Tanzania ended with increasing tensions over a disputed election result for the islands of Zanzibar.
This time the lack of protests and conversation puzzled me: was it apathy, ignorance or fear? One young man explained the lack of dialogue within Zanzibar on the right to choose a leader and have that result honoured reflected an inadequate education system. If a child is merely taught the vocational skills of their parent (in this case small fishing villages), they can not take part in conversations about their political choices and move towards improving the situation for the next generation. In his definition, the role of education is to create citizens who understand their rights and responsibilities, who have the digital, oral and written literacy skills to understand what is happening and be involved in those discussions and decisions.
“Kids need a good education not just a trade to know their place in society. They need to think about the next generation and how life could be for them.”
The movie selections in flight helped crystallize some of my thoughts about culture, change and protest ( or lack of it). I watched Kate Winslet play the role of an isolated child living a simple rural Australian life, in the movie Dressmaker, and was reminded of how childhood and education in Australia has changed over the last few generations. The teacher regularly chastised the children, which I can still recall observing as part of my own early education experiences in the 70’s.
The movie saving Mr Banks had a theme of how the childhood challenges of both Walt Disney and Mary Poppins swung them away from a childhood of hardship and discipline to another extreme of a childhood of fantasy and song. The author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, was brave enough to imagine a world so different to the one she experienced. Through her storytelling she has influenced a generation of parents and children in changing our expectations of joy in life.
The movie the Suffragettes ended with a list of dates of women getting the vote in various countries around the world, which was surprising. The Suffragette leaders who protested the oppression of children and women in the workforce and politically have bought about rapid changes evident in the different life stories of my grandmother, my mother, and myself.
South and East Africa , I believe, are undergo similar changes to change fear and physical discipline as the main motivational tool in education – but this change will happen far more rapidly. The young people I met filled me with hope that the next generation has very different expectations and the passion to make it happen. I am left with the hunch that there is a connection between economic growth and a move away from fear as a motivator. When our culture was under economic pressure our parenting and education choices were limited. Stern boarding schools were seen as normal and shocking stories of abuse of children, often under the banner of education, have since emerged. Perhaps, as we have more economic stability we have the luxury of choice?
“The realest things in our life are the stories we invent”
(Seth Godin)