Critical thinking (reprise)

I washed my hair last night and it is now straight up purple. No brown about it.  On a more positive note, I had an amazing discussion with my Senior 4MCB class. We spoke about the different types of Foreign Aid which I classified as

1. Individual (people giving to people… i.e. texting money to Red Cross after earthquake)

2. Foreign Development Aid (governments giving money directly to governments)

3. NGO (Non-governmental organizations) (Groups giving money, medicine, teachers to people, i.e. WorldTeach, Save The Children, Clinton Foundation etc)

Today we spoke only about foreign aid to governments. I introduced the idea by Dambisa Moyo (A Zambian woman who wrote book “Dead Aid) that governments should stop giving money to African governments. Her arguments are essentially that the funds are misused by corrupt governments and that it keeps the countries from becoming self-reliant. Then we covered the opposing side, that HIV and medical clinics, schools would have to close because of lack of funds. Paul Collier (Harvard Economist)  said that Africa has unique historical, geographical and tribal challenges (i.e. Colonialism) Everyone then wrote 5 sentences on their view. Most of the answers were that foreign aid is good, but my few star pupils (Franck, Laurien, Mirelle, and Gaston Fils) took the No Aid side.

Mirelle, Franck, Laurien)

We had an amazing debate before I told them what Kagame thinks.  Critical thinking may be a problem overall in Rwanda but this one class really stands out. The yes answers were well-thought out (money needed to buy materials, exports don’t make enough money) as were the no (governments need to be self-sustaining, Africa was once independent before colonialism). I wish I could video the debates (it would NEVER upload) because they are such skilled debaters. They answer direct points, defend counters, and come up with really thoughtful smart arguments. Senior 4MCB is amazing. One good point from the same debate in my 6MCB class “No one helped America, they developed on their own.” That in itself is debatable, but I liked that he recognized America was not “born” with computers and technology.

In theory, Kagame agrees with Moyo, but in reality 70% of the Rwandan budget comes from foreign aid. So while they are making steps to move in the direction of independence from aid, it may not happen in the immediate future.  Then of course, “Teacher, what do you think?” I agree that reliance on aid is a difficult issue, and that funds are definitely misused and that perhaps more reliance on NGO’s would be better as the help doesn’t go to the government but the people.  But I also introduced the idea of “You break it, you bought it” in relation to colonialism, and said that it would be wrong for the countries that created so many issues in Africa to walk away without trying to help rebuild. Thoughts? Also, I would love to hear from teachers (or anyone) on the 2 schools of thoughts I addressed in my mid-service post. Who is in charge of making students apply themselves? The teacher or the student?

Another aside, I apologize for my TERRIBLE grammar and sometimes spelling (even though I spell check here). Twice in class yesterday a student to correct my spelling on the board.  And one of the words was foreign, which I had apparently been misspelling all week. Go Teacher Jane.