1-14
Examples of questions to get people thinking
and talking about the purpose of schooling:
• How much of what children are taught in
school is relevant (related) to their daily lives
and needs?
• How long do most of the children stay in
school? Which children drop out early?
Why? What becomes of them?
• Which children continue with their
schooling? Why? Do they usually return to
serve the community? Why or why not?
• In what ways does the teacher set a good
example or a bad example for the students?
How does he or she relate to them? As a
friend? As an equal? As their master?
In what ways do our
schools help this child
to meet his needs?
• Who does the work that makes money available for schooling?
• Who decides what is taught in the schools and how? Should the people in a village
or community have some say as to what their children are taught? Should the
opinions of the children be listened to?* (See footnote.)
• In what ways do schools shape children’s values? How does this affect their
families? Their community? The poor?
• Are children taught to question those in positions of authority, or to obey them?
Why? How does this affect those who are powerless?
• Whose needs does schooling serve the most, the weak or the strong? In what
ways?
• In what ways does schooling benefit or harm people in villages? In slums?
• What changes have been taking place in recent years in the content or approach to
schooling? Why? What changes would be needed for the schools to better serve
the interests of the poor?
*For those who believe that children are too unwise or too inexperienced to make intelligent judgements about
their educational needs, we suggest you read Letter to a Teacher, by the school boys of Barbiana, Italy (seep.
16-16).
These school boys from poor larming communities make remarkably sound and challenging suggestions for
changing the school system to better meet the needs of the poor majority. Recognizing that many children of the
poor leave school after only a few years, they insist that, “If schooling has to be so brief, then it should be planned
according to the most urgent needs.” They question the usefulness of each major subject. They ask, “How much
math does one have to know for his immediate needs at home and at work?” History as taught in schools, they
insist, is “no history at all.” but “one-sided tales passed down to the peasants by the conqueror. There is talk only
of kings, generals, and stupid wars among nations. The sufferings and struggles of the workers are either ignored or
stuck into a corner.”
These boys also criticize the fact that most schools encourage competition among students. 11 would be better,
they say, if schools helped each child 10 feel that “Others’ problems are like mine. To come out of them together is good
politics. To come out alone is stinginess.”