Taking Education Seriously - Day 3 - Sanare - Tiffany

Tiffany-Day 3-Sanare

Today was the best day out of all days that I have been here. My favorite part of the day was going to the highschool in the countryside town of Caspo. I think breaking up into small groups was a great idea. This gave me a chance to really speak up and express my ideas because if I was in a big group I would of never spoke up. While we were in our small groups with the other students from the countryside it made me realize that just because you speak a differeny language from somebody else doesn’t mean that you can’t communicate with them. Communicating can come in all different forms, shapes, and sizes. Today my views on the education system in California that I recieved changed, after I heard the students from Venezuela share their knowledge with me. I believe that their education system is a lot better than ours. I think that it is very sad because we have a lot more resources and technology. I think that one main reason why their education is better than ours is because of the teachers. What I mean by this is that you can tell that the teachers really care about educating their students. One of the teachers today said, “ When we educate these students it is like creating a seed in the soil to give back to Venezuela for the future generations.” On the bus ride while we were on our way to the school I remember asking, “Is there any disadvantages of being educated in the countryside?” The woman replied, “yes” because in the “city life” of Venezuela they have a vast majority of resources that better their education. I beg to differ with this because it’s not the resources that makes the education system better but the desire and passion to want to teach and want to learn. People who complain about not having resources and complain about how this affects their education is B.S. You don’t need a text book to learn, you don’t need a computer to learn, yo don’t a notebook and a pencil to learn, all you need to learn is an “OPEN MIND.” Those other things are just extras that would be nice to have. At City Arts and Tech High School we don’t have text books and we obtain the same and even more knowledge than other schools. Something that I seen today is that these students really take pride in their schooling! Pride is a reality that the students in the San Francisco community need to be beat with to get it implant in their minds so they could implement it in their everyday life.
My ancestors fought for us to have an education and we sit there and complain and complain about how education is boring and worthless when in actuality education is the very thing that is going to open many doors for us and have us soaring high with countless numbers of opportunities. Looking back at my research question which is,
“What impact will Venezuela have on my lifestyle when I arrive back to the U.S.A.?” one thing that I am going to change about my lifestyle is taking more pride in m education. This is because of the education aspect impact that Venezuela has had on me in these past few days. I’m sick and tired of defining the stereotype that Black children take their education for granted. It’s time for a change and I Tiffany Mone't McDonald will be apart of the change. It’s never to late to change! Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today but instead be the change you wish to see. My favorite saying is, You are not finished when you lose, you are only finished when you quit,” and I will not quit but instead start to and continue to strive to be the best that I can be.

- Tiffany McDonald - April 1, 2009