Education
By R. J. Wild
Please note that there are 2 documents on education.
- Overall view on our education principles:
-
Overall view of the European Technical Training Institutes:
Introduction
In times gone by, a child was sent out to seek an apprenticeship so that he could learn a trade
with which he could both make a living and contribute to society. Students often had several choices
in apprenticeships, and they would choose the one that matched their skill levels and interests.
As the world steered toward the Industrial Revolution, however, businesses began to require
that students have more specific skills before entering the job market. Since that time, learning has
become more and more focused on training students to reach a specific level of knowledge in
the shortest possible time. Unfortunately, what is often left out of this training is a proper understanding
of the foundations for what the students are presumably learning.
The principle idea underlying the core guidelines of the Nigua School Project is to revive and adapt
a teaching method that has been the backbone of mankind's learning experience throughout his evolution.
Our intent is to preserve or re-awaken both natural curiosity and the desire to be a productive equal and use
these things as the natural engines of learning to encourage students to reach their full potential in their own
time without exceeding their abilities.
The demands of today vs.
the needs of the future
We must first understand that the needs of
developing nations are fundamentally different from those of
post-industrial nations. The amount of knowledge a person needs
in order to have meaningful and comfortable employment in G-8 nations
is so great that a large percentage of a person's life must be spent on
education. The G-8 nations are propelled by rapid changes; the
entire function of industry is to meet ever-increasing market demands,
some of which are artificially created to spur the economy. G-8
nations are replacing more and more skilled workers and craftsmen with
computerized equipment in order to reduce costs. It seems that
the western dream of a perfect production facility is one stuffed with
robots, devoid of human existence save for one highly-educated expert
at the control panel.
The situation in the G-8 countries is under severe
scrutiny by experts in many fields. The oil-driven economy is
responsible for environmental disasters, pollution, and possibly even
weather changes, not to mention the destruction of entire species as
well as the natural habitats of other species. It is not’t
profitable to be 'green', so only minor attempts are made to be
environmentally conscious and recycle things for other uses. To
our way of thinking, it’s just a matter of time until the demand for
solutions to the environmental crises we are creating will be thrust
upon us with a vengeance, not so much by political upheaval as by the
actions of an ailing planet. It may be five years, a decade, or
20 years before it happens, but it will happen.
It seems obvious to us then that the key element of
development is not to have the developing nations copy the
post-industrial nations, but instead to have them try to bypass the
problems those nations are creating and experiencing by using more
advanced methods and solutions. When we use the term 'advanced',
we don’t necessarily mean high-tech or that each consumer product
should have some kind of computer chip implanted in it. Rather,
we define an 'advanced' solution as one that is the least harmful to
the environment while preserving the greatest benefits and efficiencies
for the people and the community. We certainly share the vision
that perhaps one day we will reach a level of advancement such that all
of our basic work is done by machines and robotics and all mankind will
need to do is relax and enjoy life. However, until that day
arrives, the core issues for the survival of both the species and the
planet we call home must be addressed.
We also need to understand that many social problems
as well political upheavals are directly linked to the modernization of
a nation's economy. In many instances we seem to have forgotten
to take into account the core needs of our species. We forget
that man is in essence a highly intelligent primate with specific
social needs. The social implications and the impact that any
given change will have on a culture are repeatedly ignored in most
modern societies. For example, an apartment complex may be the
best solution to house the largest number of people in the smallest
possible area, but it isn’t difficult to see the problems created by
this kind of living arrangement. The main drawback encountered in
such housing is the concentration of a large number of unrelated people
of differing social groups and affiliations into a small space. There
are many problems that have been shown by several studies to
occur under these conditions, some of which are social isolation,
neglect, and higher crime rates. No matter how we look at this
kind of housing situation, there are hardly any positive results. We
need to take into account both natural human behavior and the
specific culture of a place when we undertake any project there.
We have to provide the tools for incremental, internal changes rather
than solutions that change social structures overnight and thus create
severe rifts.
Market Economy vs.
Resources Based Economy
The present global market economy is one of the key
elements of the problem. Multi-national companies move more and
more of their manufacturing to developing nations to take advantage of
paying lower wages. While this may bolster the economy of these
countries initially by handing jobs to thousands of unemployed people
in those nations, it really doesn’t solve the problem. The
present situation of low-wage manufacturing centers in developing
nations is hardly more than a softer form of slavery. In most
developing countries, unemployment benefits, pensions, and universal
health care remain abstract concepts. The key element of survival
in many of these countries is a large, cohesive family structure.
The greatest resources of developing nations are people, and plenty of
them. Their main desire is to have gainful employment for these
people, so machines and equipment are viewed not as employee
replacements, but as tools that ease or enable a specific job.
We need to determine a fair and simple balance of
isolationism and trade based on what is absolutely needed rather than
just looking at what is possible and/or available at the moment.
Depending on G-8 nations to provide them with contracts to manufacture
labor-intensive products does not spell economic security for
developing nations. To understand the needs of developing
nations, we need to severely restrict our ideas of what is “humane” or
“civilised” when viewing their situations. To avert social and
political unrest in developing nations, we have to get the people off
the streets and into employment. A western mind might envision a
major construction project and see 20 types of job-specific machinery
excavating, drilling, lifting and so on, but we have to realize that
500 pick-axes would likely be able to do the same job just as
well. In cases like this, we should consider progress to be
substituting 500 light-weight jack hammers that are superior to the
ones commonly in use rather than looking at a few machines to replace
500 workers. Trade is in essence exporting a product that a country has
in abundance and importing a one or more commodities that it isn’t able
to produce. One of the basic ideas that one must understand is
that the real value of anything is the value of having it immediately
available.
In the specific case of the Nigua project, we will
have to deal with the severe energy shortage in the Dominican
Republic. Because there are no major hydroelectric power
stations, no oil reserves, and no major rail lines or other types of
mass transit, whatever revenues the nation might produce are instantly
spent on importing energy. Dependence on energy imports is
possibly the worst because it forces a nation to maintain an economy
whose sole purpose is to import the energy to sustain it. This
presents immediate research and development challenges for our
school. Can we implement solar energy use, and if so, what is the
best way to do it? Are tidal energy powerstations feasible? What
is the potential for using the electrolytic reactions of ocean water
with specific metals to create efficient electricity supplies? How many
people could we employ by exploring and using these
options? Once this nation is no longer dependent on imports to
survive, it can then claim true independence.
Some countries are known to be in such desperate
situations that they “waste” arable land to grow cash crops for export
instead of using it to provide food for their own people. The
cycle of poverty and indebtedness has to be broken. But
how? The only option not acceptable to the needs of developing
countries is the implementation of production methods that rationalise
away labor. Beyond that, there are many options, but the key
element is education.
The uninhibited
mind of a child
In our post-industrial nations, we relentlessly
attack the creativity of children by trying to force them to fit the
“norm” through our streamlined education system. We cram an
immense amount of information into them but rarely give them time or
space to ask questions because we have to prime them for the future by
specialising them as early as possible. After we have built our
human robots, we look desperately for solutions among our peers who
have also long ago had their creativity “educated” out of them, and we
wonder why the employees in our market economies seem to have lost the
ability to imagine.
When one is in engineering courses, for example, one
learns about combustion engines. If one is lucky, one hears that there
are in fact other types of engines besides those commonly used today,
but for the most part, one is told to concentrate only on the presently
available combustion engine in an attempt to make it more
efficient. The fact that the efficiency quotient of such an
engine barely reaches 40% under absolutely ideal conditions is
downplayed to the point of seeming irrelevancy. Engineers today
work on the same old engine principle and try to tickle a few more
fractions of a percent of efficiency out of them.
The solution to the market and environmental
problems we face is in the minds of those for whom the world is still
full of wonder and everything is a marvel - our children. Until
they enter the “educational” system, they are naturally curious
creatures. They are amazed at things that we adults have long
since taken for granted. Children are not stupid, and they are
not yet willing to accept limits. In their minds, nothing is
impossible, and until they realize the limits of a given application,
they will dream of this application serving in ways that we “educated
adults” cannot even imagine. An 8-year-old boy in Nigua
showed me the simplest and best example of a child’s productive
imagination.
I was sitting with several friends discussing the
plastic recycling project that we wanted to begin. The main
concern for all of us was how to collect the discarded plastic.
We discussed the fact that children in this society already earned
pocket money by shining shoes or performing other small services, and
we reached the conclusion that collecting plastic bottles for money
would be a natural activity for them. We determined that each of
the children would need to bring us a fair-sized bag full of scrap
bottles in order to receive a set amount of pay. The bags we were
thinking of using were the large industrial or institutional garbage
bags rather than the average household bag.
Apart from the plastic that litters the landscape, the Dominican
Republic also has a few other “small problems”. One of these is
the fact that just as in other such places, things that break are
simply left where they broke. Another widespread problem is the
population of wild stray dogs. They’re everywhere! They’re
generally harmless, easily frightened animals, but nevertheless,
they’re very much pests.
This little boy had heard that we want “huge bags”
of plastic. He could easily envision the size of the bags because
he had seen them often. He stood up and used his hand to estimate
the size of the bags compared to himself and then sat down with a very
dejected look and complained that he was out of the deal because the
bags were taller than he was. He sat there for a while looking
disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to participate in this rather
lucrative opportunity. After a few minutes, he began a kind of
monologue and stated that there were also many broken bicycles at the
sides of the roads. We agreed that this was also a problem. He also
mentioned the many stray dogs, and we again nodded our
heads. He thought again for while and then asked a question:if
he could take some wheels from those broken bicycles and make a small
wagon or cart out of them, could he use the cart and fill it with
bottles? We said yes, of course. He went on to say that if
he also be able to take one of the stray dogs, tame it, and harness it
to his cart, he could even get more of a load in this vehicle. He
asked if we would still pay him if he brought the bottles to us this
way instead of in the bags we were thinking of using. When we
confirmed that we still would pay him for the bottles, he smiled
broadly and began drawing a design for his cart.
This may sound like nothing more than a cute story,
but this boy solved three problems at once. First, he found a way
to overcome his physical size and collect the bottles. Second, he
not only recycled the bottles, but also found a way to recycle the
mechanical scrap on the road by using the wheels and frames of
broken-down bicycles for his cart. Third, he also came up with a
solution for the pesky dogs by “recycling” them into draft animals for
his collection cart. This is the solution presented by an
uninhibited 8-year-old mind, a street kid who could hardly be
considered literate. Remember the ideas that came out of the mind
of this uneducated eight-year-old and envision that boy 5 or 10
years from now after having been nourished and educated under the
principles I am about to describe. I think you’ll agree that this
boy has great potential.
Education from the ground up
In some institutions where teachers are trained, the
term “Robinson Principle” is sometimes heard. This refers to
Daniel Defoe’s fictional character, Robinson Crusoe. The
principle is very simple: people should be trained to understand
concepts rather than specific disciplines. For example, the laws
of aerodynamics that keep a small pleasure craft in the air are the
same laws that keep a 747 flying; the only difference is the size of
the numbers. The engines that power today’s cars are the same
ones that powered the Model T’s. What changed on these engines
were the materials, compression ratios, and fuel delivery and
management systems. Not a single part of the basic principle has
changed for over 100 years, but we quite often encounter mechanics who
are unable to manage a repair on any car model they aren’t familiar
with. It’s usually computer-controlled injection timing, fuel
flow metering, air preheating and other “peripheral gadgets” attached
to an engine that are the main cause of engine malfunction. It’s
no longer the material that fails, as often happened in early engines
that used frail alloys and bad lubrication circulation designs; it’s
the little black chip or the loose wire that now strands us along the
road.
The equipment in modern repair shops and dealership
service centers is primarily diagnostic in nature. It isn’t
designed to diagnose the engine itself because the actual engine is
mechanical and rarely has problems. All of this complex and
expensive equipment is usually used to find problems in the energy
supply to the engine or the peripheral systems that keep it lubricated
or cooled. Such equipment and service would be impossible to get
in developing countries. If a car factory is to be successful in
these places, it would have to go back to basics and revive the Model-T
and the VW. I’m not suggesting that it would need to go back to
those body styles, but it would certainly need to return to that level
of simplicity. The more complex such items get, the less likely
they are to be beneficial to a developing nation because they force
developing nations to be dependent on outside countries, companies, and
services. This could be offset by adequately training a core
group of mechanics for such services - this is one of the key elements
of the Nigua project curriculum - but we also need to enable such
nations to create their own pool of skilled technicians and engineers
who can accomplish almost any task without the need to go to outside
firms for help or supplies.
The "Robinson Principle" is a survival
concept. If I were to crash on a hypothetical deserted island,
would I have the knowledge to manage the available resources well
enough to survive? I don’t mean figuring out how to fish or plant
crops, I mean would I be able to build a shelter that is dry,
comfortable, warm, and can be kept clean and sanitary relatively
easily? Would I be able to harness natural resources like a
waterfall and use its power for my benefit? Would I be able to
overcome natural obstacles, like being able to bridge a gorge?
Would the dwelling I built be strong enough to withstand the
elements? Would I be able avoid illness by having clean,
drinkable water?
These things have little to do with how a computer operating system
works; they are basic knowledge that everyone should have. Let’s assume
that someone who isn’t an engineer and has never done much
mechanical work finds himself in this situation. Are the basics of
his mathematics and science education enough to get him started? Does
he remember the simple mathematical laws governing levers, for
instance, or is he someone who knows the specific formulas for 200
applications that he’s never encountered in real life? Would he
be able, for example, to apply the laws of Pythagorean geometry and
stake out a square piece of land with nothing more than a piece of
string and a few sticks?
Such a thing is in fact easy to do. Simply
make 12 evenly spaced knots in the string, then tie one end to a
stake. Lay the string out in a straight line and place another
stake at the 3rd knot. Turn approximately 90 degrees and lay
the string out straight in that direction. Place a third stake in
the ground 8 knots later, and then walk directly back to the first
stake. Move the first stake as necessary to place it next to the
last remaining knot and in a straight line with the two other
stakes. If one follows these instructions, one will have defined
a perfect right angle according to Pythagorean geometry: A2
+ B2
= C2, or 32 (9) + 42 (16) = 52
(25). Would our stranded person
remember the geometric law, and could he extrapolate it and use it to
his benefit in this situation?
He doesn’t need to be a structural engineer or know
the exact formulas for load factors in order to put a roof over his
head, either. As long as he remembers that the force exerted is a
multiple of the length of the support arm, he will be able figure out
approximately how big the beams need to be in order to support the
roof, and he won’t make the mistake of trying to use twigs that will
break under the load of a mouse crawling over them. These aren’t
complex math and physics problems from an MIT exam; these are examples
of basic knowledge which he should have learned in elementary or junior
high school. This is what I mean by teaching students to
understand a concept rather than stuffing their brains with hundreds of
formulas that they’ll never remember how or when to use.
Mechanical or physical solutions have dominated our
problem solving efforts since we climbed down out of the trees. The
hammer, the lever, and the rope propelled us from being
hunter-gatherers to the technical species we are today. Many
years ago, the South African government needed portable radios that
could be used in the isolated outlying regions without the need for
batteries. They introduced a version that has a hand cranked
generator inside which provides enough power to operate the radio for
45 minutes. This is sufficient to enable isolated communities to
at least have the means to listen to news and severe weather or bush
fire warnings as well as having music and entertainment without
requiring expensive and landfill-polluting batteries.
Would it be possible to use a similar mechanical
solution to make a portable CD player that needs only a few twists of a
dial to wind up its generator and allow the owner to enjoy music for
the next 45 minutes? Could we take the same concept and use it in
other small electronic items like hand-held games, portable radios and
tape players, etc.? The idea of hand-wound devices that generate
low wattages and amperages to power simple things like this shouldn’t
sound so strange. Simple solutions like this would allow us to
still have these items without polluting the environment with used and
discarded batteries. We could expand the concept by standardizing
these generators and recycling them. For instance, if something
like a GameBoy™ used a small generator pack and the Sony® came out
with a new version that your kids just had to have, you could just
transfer the generator pack from the old one to the new one. Using such
generator packs might also revive something like the old
watch repair shops because they are mechanical systems that can be
repaired and/or rebuilt rather than simply thrown away and replaced.
It might even be possible to apply such a solution
in some way to power laptop computers or at the very least as emergency
power backups to protect a company’s computers in case of a power
failure. We could also apply the concept to replace the battery
in a car. Once started, a mechanical system on the engine could
automatic wind up the generator pack again, and in an emergency one
could still hand crank the system back to power. This simple and
“primitive” concept can easily be adapted and applied to many needs in
the appropriate sizes and capacities.
This simple device that has been the energy source of wind-up toys for
children around the world for a over a century could be expanded and
applied to the task of creating independent energy supplies. A concept
like this could easily create a spin-off industries such that we might
consider re-designing certain items or calibrating them to use lower
currents instead of the present power grid. In isolated regions,
this kind of generator could be used to power small 6- or 12-volt
lanterns. We could go even further with it and package a laptop
type of device that is a complete set of school books for a certain
grade which could be used by students to study at home or in places
where energy sources are limited. When the student advances to
the next grade, simply change the software to accommodate the new
level. What is so primitive about this? It’s a sound
solution to the incredible waste of packaged energy as we now use
it. It could also be easily manufactured almost anywhere using
local resources and reduce or eliminate dependence on outside sources.
There are many such examples, some better known and
some less well known. Some may have been used extensively in
earlier times and others may have been shelved due to lack of funding
or other reasons. One such simple device is the crystal radio, an
inexpensive single-frequency receiver which could be adapted to receive
an international emergency frequency or emergency broadcast
system. Another vital but long-forgotten mechanical device is the
gravity flow pump or “hammer pump”, so named because of the distinctive
sound it makes when it’s operating. This type of pump doesn’t
require a motor or other attached energy source to operate; the
momentum of the flow of the spring or river is sufficient to make it
work. It would be an ideal low-cost solution for irrigation or
general water supplies in remote villages. We might explore the
idea of simply converting to 6- or 12-volt car lamps or diodes for
simple
illumination of houses at night. The alternator from any car
attached to a windmill with a power-regulating battery or capacitor
would be sufficient to provide a small house with adequate lighting to
enable almost any task, even reading.
Another low-cost idea is the valveless four-stroke
engine that was developed a few years ago by a class of
16-year-olds (yes, you read that right!) at the Technical Training
Institute (HTL) in Steyr, Austria. This is the same school that one of
our founders graduated from, and he would like to copy and adapt this
engine to the Nigua project. The engine operates with nearly 80%
fewer parts than a regular engine but is still a fully-functional
four-stroke engine. It’s currently limited to only two pistons,
but even at that size, it would be ideal for portable or small
industrial machinery applications such as compressors, generators,
small tractors, or pumps for firefighting equipment.
The working technology in developing countries must
operate reliably. Products in these countries need to be sturdy,
simple, and easy for an average person with little special knowledge to
repair and maintain using whatever materials were readily
available. Some 15-20 years ago the Dominican Republic began
producing a small pick-up truck. Barely 40,000 of them were made,
perhaps because they were seen as a competitive threat to the the major
car manufacturers or perhaps for reasons that are simply unknown. When
one takes into account the small production run and the fact that
production of these vehicles has long since been halted, a surprising
number of these small vehicles are still operating on a daily basis
with only minimal maintenance. They are extremely reliable and
are well-suited for the job of being an all-around utility vehicle for
the small entrepreneur.
We are considering attempting to revive the concept
of these vehicles, but from a different angle. Instead of building many
models with different engines, gear boxes, or other mechanical
differences, we would design a common frame onto which a variety of
common engines of small and mid-sized cars could be fitted. Using
this idea, we could be able to recycle plenty of scrapped or wrecked
cars that might be too expensive to repair but still contain working
engines and transmissions. The uniform frame could be fitted with
several different bodies to serve as a pick-up, a small van, or a
custom utility vehicle.
We all know that the binary code system of 0’s and
1’s is used as the basis for all computer programs and operations, and
if we talk about binary systems, most of us immediately think of
complex electronics. However, we could easily adapt a
binary system for use in a mechanical sorting and filing system by
cutting holes (zeros) and slots (ones) into a piece of material.
Consider the possibilities of what such a simple device or system could
achieve. Something like this could, for example, bridge certain
labor shortages in societies plagued by high illiteracy rates.
These examples are simple ones, but they underline how concept
education works. What if we asked our students to try to come up
with other uses for “antique technologies”? I can guarantee you
that once I taught one of these concepts to a 14-year-old student whose
mind is not yet obstructed by what is “possible”, he would surprise us
with some stunning solutions. Children are dreamers, and if they
have not yet been exposed to the reality of what is technically
possible, they will many times envision solutions that we “educated
adults” would never have considered. The wind-up generator is
just one of the many examples of a product that can teach how simple
concepts can easily be applied in any number of applications. It’s a
good one, though, because the radios used in South Africa are a
living illustration that this could be a viable consumer product.
Some might view the Nigua Project as a step
backwards or some kind of regression to the past, but we see it as an
aggressive attempt to harvest the future. While we must remember
the plight of our planet and do our best to reduce environmental
pollution and destruction, we also need to keep in mind that these
people are in most cases facing the daily struggle of economic
survival, and a discarded plastic bottle or bicycle is of little
concern to them unless collecting and recycling them can be shown to
have value. Neither can we expect developing nations to forgo
the comforts of a technically advanced society by telling them not to
have cars, proper housing, and so on. These people may be working
in difficult and exhausting jobs for little reward right now, but they
do aspire to the luxuries and easy life they see in our western
societies. Recycling abandoned equipment by adapting one machine
component into another workable item such as with the standardized car
frames would help clean up many of the now polluted areas while at the
same time providing these countries and their people with new resources
and products.
The role of teachers and their
qualifications
We will require that teachers for the Nigua project
have several qualities that go far beyond the standard employment
requirements of teachers elsewhere. Being experts in their
respective academic fields is only a very small part of what will be
demanded of them.
The main qualification for our teachers will of
course be that they must have a solid theoretical and practical
background in their chosen disciplines as well as a “hands-on” attitude
and approach to teaching. Our curriculum will be not be geared so
much toward following a set lesson in math, for example, but much more
toward building something that will require the students to face and
overcome math-related problems such as calibrating tools and measuring
materials. This gives the students the opportunity to “learn by
doing” and helps them retain the knowledge much more easily. I’m
sure that if Pythagoras’ law was explained to students the way it was
explained in the Robinson example, very few of them would ever forget
the formula or its application. The most frustrating issue for
any student, especially a child, is to be required to learn something
that he can’t use in real life as soon as he learns it. Children
are quite eager to learn basic mathematics such as addition and
subtraction because these things can be and are applied to their daily
lives immediately. They can look at how much spending money they
have and figure out how many options they have to buy drinks, snacks,
or other small items. What does a triangle calculating formula do
for them? What is a logarithm and what is it used for in everyday
life? If they don’t use them, such things will remain completely
abstract concepts that have no practical value. They will be
forgotten quickly unless the students can apply them to a project using
their hands and brains and make something take shape right before their
eyes. If a student is exposed to this kind of education, he won’t
mind working on a more difficult projects later on, projects for which
he may spend weeks learning about a theory before he goes back to the
shop to apply that theory and bring the project to reality. To
simply stuff students’ brains with theories but give them no
opportunity to see those theories in action is a waste of time and
effort.
We would prefer to have teachers who may not be a
math geniuses up to University levels but who have personal qualities
that make them ideal for this teaching environment, such as the ability
to communicate concepts and ideas clearly and effectively and to keep
their students excited about learning. For instance, structural
forces can be calculated with complex formulas, which, once mastered,
will make a task short and simple, but they can also be calculated by
using vector force grids. This method is rather time consuming,
but it is much more visual and clear. A basic girder bridge is a
good example of a vector force grid because each support beam
represents a force vector that opposes the actual force. It’s
easier to learn with visual representations of what one is supposed to
be learning, and we would rather have someone who has the ability to
teach vector force grids by drawing pictures than a Doctor of Applied
Mathematics who is unable to communicate the basic concepts to the
students because he speaks only in formulas. We do not need
lecturers. Once the students have matured into a more disciplined
adults, they will more easily be able to sit in a lecture hall at
university and absorb the information the professor is giving, but for
these kids, such things are far beyond their natural capacities. We
need teachers who enjoy their work and are willing to get down in
the trenches with their students. Our teachers will need to have
the type of personality that will give their students the sense that
the person teaching them is “one of them”: a friend rather than an
authority figure, but with real authority derived from the respect
earned by their personalities and superior skills or knowledge rather
than by “pulling rank”.
Our teachers must encourage their students to
“brainstorm”. They will most likely be surprised at times by what
their students come up with. The boy who was depressed at first
because he was physically too small to handle large collection bags
didn’t give up; he decided to attack the problem from another angle and
came up with a workable solution that we hadn’t considered.
Children do not tend to give up easily, and our teachers must maintain
the attitude that if there is even the slightest possibility that a
student’s suggestion could actually be workable, the student should be
encouraged to do further research with his idea. Creativity must
be constantly encouraged and mentored, and our teachers must also have
the ability to listen to what is behind their students’
questions. By this we mean that our teachers must not only be
able to listen to and answer academic or subject-related questions, but
also try to understand the purpose of the questions so they can better
assist their students. Many times when a curious student asks a
question in class, he is not asking because he didn’t understand the
subject matter; he is often asking a question to flesh out an idea for
a possible solution he has come up with, and the teacher may well learn
something.
We’ve all seen those seemingly perpetual motion
devices in novelty stores. They are essentially a few small
pieces of a photosensitive material mounted on a frame that is balanced
on some sort of a pin inside a vacuum tube. The material spins the
frame on the pin just by being exposed to light. A student may
see such a device and rightfully ask why one could not use this
principle to make a generator. The teacher should, of course,
explain the physical limitations of such a device as well as the
effects that friction, air currents and other outside influences would
have on something like that. The teacher is not, however, to give
an answer such as, “If that were possible, I’m sure that Ford or GM
would already use them.” This isn’t even an answer, and it’s the
same type of brainwashing so many institutions use to discourage
students from using their imaginations. There are many reasons
why a product is not brought to market that have nothing to do with
whether something is possible. Some are simple, such as an item
simply being economically difficult to manufacture on a large scale,
and some can be quite complex or mired in political, cultural, or other
issues. It might simply be that it is cheaper to import whatever
it is than to try to develop an alternative.
The second most important quality our teachers must
possess is being comfortable with the age groups they are
teaching. Our teachers have to be comfortable with and enjoy the
company of adolescents and young teens. We will not accept a
teacher who is good in college level mathematics but doesn’t like kids
in this age group for whatever reason. Those who daydream about
teaching adorable four-year-olds in kindergarten should do just that;
go teach kindergarten. The students we will be working with are
street kids who will come into the classroom with a lot of rough
edges. They’re often loud, boisterous, and use foul language in
normal conversation. Their bodies are almost adult physically,
and they will try to mimic adult behaviors, but they are sensitive,
vulnerable, and come equipped with plenty of emotional baggage.
The third vital quality is the ability to remain
both religiously neutral and morally non-judgmental. In
situations that involve deeply ingrained religious issues such as
religiously-based hatred for another group, the best approach might be
to try to defuse the situation not by giving a feel-good lecture, but
by demonstrating more tolerant behaviors. It would be
devastating, not to mention possibly dangerous, for a teacher to
attempt to use his own religious or cultural beliefs to overcome the
problem. We are never allowed to enter a society and attempt to
brainwash the students into thinking that any part of what their
society stands for is wrong, stupid, or immoral. Some of the
countries that will become the primary clients for franchising the
Nigua project will uniformly follow a certain religion. We
believe that an agnostic or atheistic teacher is far better off in such
a society than a Baptist teacher would be in a predominantly Catholic
country. The easiest and fastest way for us to fail would be for
the dominant clergy of a nation to see our project as a threat to their
moral order.
By morally non-judgmental behavior we mean that
cultural and social sensitivity will be paramount. It is
important to realize that brainwashing is a cultural reality in G-8
countries. Many of the social and cultural issues which are
enforced upon our children are contrary to natural behavior or to
behaviors that would be encountered in other cultures and
societies. Our teachers must be absolutely clear that the only
“superiority” they have over their charges is knowledge. They do
not have a “moral high ground” over the society or culture they are
teaching in. They may come from a richer country, but that does
not mean that their country is “better” in any way. There will
likely be some amount of culture shock with any teachers who come from
English-speaking countries, not just because of the language, but
because little of what they have learned in their own cultures will
apply.
Our teachers must accept that other countries and
cultures can and usually do differ from ours. Should the Nigua
project ever be implemented in a Muslim
country, the teacher must be comfortable living an alcohol-free life so
as not to offend local customs. On the other hand, in a setting
and culture where alcohol is freely consumed, an abstaining teacher can
be just as problematic as one who drinks in a “dry” country. Each
teacher must be able to comfortably blend in with the setting and
environment he or she will be teaching in. It would be disastrous
for a militant feminist to attempt to teach in a male-dominated culture.
Even if our teachers have 20 years of experience in
handling teens in Montreal or Chicago, they would do well to forget
that experience. Dominican teens have completely different
priorities than the Canadian teens do, and Nigerian teens have a
totally different outlook on life. A Canadian teacher who has
that 20 years of experience is accustomed to never touching one of his
students in his home country, but he will be surprised to learn that by
remaining physically distant from his students in the Dominican
Republic, he is sending a signal that he doesn’t like them. Our
teachers should therefore allow their students to be the “teachers”
with regard to general comportment and adapting to the completely new
culture that they will become a part of. This in itself is an
amazing element of the curriculum, because nothing is more frustrating
for a child then the impression that he doesn’t know anything worth
teaching and is therefore of no use to anyone yet. If a teacher
who is imparting his academic knowledge asks one of the students to
show him around, that student’s self-worth will immediately rise by
several notches. The teacher knows his subject, certainly, but
the student knows his subject as well, meaning he will jump at the
chance to pass on his intimate knowledge about his town, his society,
and his culture to the teacher. It becomes an exchange of
services, and both will benefit.
A final quality, and one we will absolutely insist
on, is that our teachers must not be afraid of being bested by their
students. If a student is not able to outperform the teacher in
the knowledge or skill at hand at some point, then the teacher must
have been withholding some vital information. A kindergarten
teacher doesn’t mind eventually getting trumped by a former student
when that student has graduated as a doctor; however, I have observed
that at higher levels of education, teachers seem more resistant to
their students becoming better then themselves. This attitude
will absolutely not be tolerated in our teachers. Our teachers
must be prepared to give 100% of their knowledge to their students, and
when they have exhausted their own knowledge, they must readily assist
their former students in finding a new teacher or locating the
information the student needs. It is our belief that there is no
better compliment to a teacher’s success than a student becoming better
than his teacher.
The Nigua project is meant to make the impossible
possible. We have never said that the Nigua Project is for all;
this project is for the rare and elite group of those who have been run
through the mill of life but have refused to give up. Out of
every hundred people who grow up in slums and simply go with the flow
in a life of poverty and crime, there are one or two who do not accept
that this as all they can have, and they want nothing more than a
chance to get out. These are children who are well on their way
to being beaten into submission by discouraging comments and
circumstances. These kids have heard it all. They’ve been
called “stupid”, “poor”, “budding criminals”, and so on, but they have
one thing going for them: the rare quality of refusing to be a
“quitter”. These are the ones we will target. This is the
“clay” from which we will create masterpieces.
Our raw material will be teens aged 13 - 18. For the
most part, they will be impoverished, possibly abused, and in
some cases even homeless and destitute. They are very well aware
of what the future holds for them, namely poverty, unemployment, drugs,
crime, and prostitution. The only assets they can bring to us are
their desire to succeed, their desire not to go down the same bad road
that others have, their desire to make it so they can go back to give
their parents and siblings a better life, and in many cases, plain and
simple stubbornness in their decision to make it in spite of being
orphaned or destitute. Apart from food, clothing, and safe and
comfortable dormitory housing, these children need little more than
plenty of hugs, smiles, encouragement, and the assurance that no matter
what their backgrounds may be, they can be winners if they so
desire. These kids want and need to see results. It’s
useless to try to teach them a subject they cannot identify with or
that they will not need to know until three years from now. If
they need to know something three years from now, we will teach it when
they need that knowledge. For now, they need to experience the
rush of those “I can do it!” moments. This is the reward which
will keep them focused and growing. Once we have attracted a core
group of these “losers” and everyone sees them turning into winners
right before their eyes, a large percentage of those who were “fence
sitters”, those who dreamed of success but weren’t sure about the
chances, will gladly choose our solution over those that a life of
crime and vice would offer.
Our teachers must have the ability to listen and
advise their students on more than just academic questions and
issues. Their jobs will not end at the sound of the bell. This means
that they will not just teach a specific discipline or
subject. They must be able to mentor these boys and girls through
an extremely confusing stage of development with gentle guidance,
trust, and quiet strength. They will be the confidantes of their
students and must, within reason, become personal mentors to
them. Many of our students will simply be from poor families, but
some of them will orphans or abandoned street kids. These
especially need an adult role model to give them the sense of security
and love they long for. We will not just be their teachers; we
will be their surrogate parents as well as the big brothers, big
sisters, and friends they can rely on. Because of this, our
teachers must have a sense of commitment such that they will not accept
a better posting somewhere else until this class has successfully
graduated, even though that might be four to six years away. They
must show absolute loyalty to their charges and never see their
position as just another job.
It may seem like an insurmountable task, but the
greatness of the human spirit is much stronger than what it may
seem. These children lives are in a precarious balance; they
aren’t quitters, and despite their educational shortcomings, they’re
quite intelligent. However, if they fail to achieve what they
aspire to on their own, their intelligence and partially developed
minds will make them vulnerable to extreme factions and seductive but
deadly futures. The repeated denial of their simple desire to
succeed will cause frustration which will quickly turn to rage. Their
capacity to reason will be twisted by those who have an agenda
for power and skillfully channeled into black and white, friend or foe
thinking. In a decade or less, they will be the first ones to
revolt, agitate, and terrorize, and we as a society will be on the
receiving end of their rage.
However, if our project succeeds, these will be the
minds that in that same decade or less will find workable solutions to
complex problems. These will be the men and women who will have
the confidence to believe that nothing within reason is
impossible. They will reap the rewards of having “learned how to
learn” and will be able to tackle any problem thrown at them. They will
know how to look for answers, where to find information on
any subject, and how to apply that information to find desirable and
workable solutions. The phrase, “I can't” will vanish from their
vocabulary. If an eight year old can find a solution to the
collection of plastic, the recycling of bicycle wheels, and the use of
stray dogs in just five minutes, how much more could a 13-year-old
achieve if he is driven by the single, overriding desire to win and is
given the chance to do so?
We must be careful, however, that we never let
ourselves be lulled into the mindset that we are “giving them
something” or that we are some kind of “white gods” bringing
gifts. We must become one of them. In our school, these
children will never be just a number; they will always be people
with faces and names. They will become our sons and our
daughters. They will allow us to adopt them for five years and
give us the rare opportunity to have the honor, the duty, and the joy
of shaping their minds and encouraging them to achieve whatever they
may desire. We will never achieve this project without the one
gift that, while it cannot be called scientific, is nonetheless vital
to the success and achievement of our students - love. Our school
will never be “just a project” or “just a job”; it will be our life.
For more info on the European system please follow this link: Overall view of the European Technical Training Institute