The Power of Education

Two plans cancelled in three days. That is how our week is ending. Today we were supposed to visit San Marcos school’s museum, however, the administration were on strike, so we could not visit. On Friday we were scheduled to meet with students and faculty at Federico Villarreal National University, but the administration is on strike there as well! I have always loved learning and tonight that passion and all the power it holds is on my mind.

In Lima, schools are controlled by at triumvirate: the administration, the faculty and the students. When one body pulls out in protest, the entire university halts. Even though in these cases it was not the students protesting, I find it great that students have power. I find it discouraging, however, they feel that have to go on strike to demand quality education, not only because they are not receiving an adequate education, but also because if they are on strike, they are not receiving any education at all!

We are here as students attempting to help Lima’s poorest population educate their children. Dr. Celle explained to me that these children will probably never leave the slums, and only the luckiest few will receive a two year degree before they return to the shantytown to live out their adult lives.

On our visit throughout Lima’s formal sector, we visited the neighborhoods of Lima’s wealthy inhabitants. Dr. Celle told us that the children of these neighborhoods are given a private education at European schools in Lima and then go off to college in Europe. How is Lima going to better its education system if its most educated inhabitants send their kids out of the country and shelter themselves in their private schools and gated communities to the outside world? How will the influential elite of Lima develop their city if they turn their backs on what is happening to half the population? More importantly, to me at least, how can these children rise out of poverty if the Neoliberal government does not allocate funds to their education?

While the quality is always debatable, education is at the fingertips of every child in the United States. Here, students go on strike to attempt to incite change, are shipped out of country and turn away from the horrific reality of Lima’s current economic state and parents and teachers have to build schools for their children because they squatted on, and now live on, a landfill with no school. If I believe anything, I believe that education is power. We students and faculty of Omaha are learning so much every day, and that knowledge and those experiences are giving us the power to change ourselves and the way we view the world, while improving the situation of many young students just starting their life of learning. Each day every individual has the power to use the things he/she learns to impact the world. Whether it is learning to love your neighbors, to volunteer in a far away country, to smile at everyone you meet, to set aside time to help others or simply to let go of past grudges, I challenge us all to use the power of education everyday to better our lives and the lives of those around us! A person’s education never stops—even if it is just the simple lessons, they must never be taken for granted.

Erin Gesell: BA Creative Writing