Opinion
I have just returned from a journey to Bolivia, where I participated in a Habitat for Humanity project to build homes in that impoverished country.
Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America, the poorest country on that continent. Although blessed with the majestic mountains of the Andes and Lake Titicaca, a large portion of the population of 10 million lives in substandard conditions.
Most of those affected are the indigenous Indians who make up 60 percent of the population. Many have to live in unhealthy adobe huts with dirt floors, no water, no sanitation services, no electricity, and many families are forced to live in only one room.
For two weeks I and other volunteers carried bricks and rocks up a steep hill, hand mixed concrete, dug trenches – all at an elevation of 9,000 feet, sometimes in the rain. The work was very strenuous, but working alongside the future homeowners made the work so much more rewarding.
Did I sweat? Yes. Did I have a sore body? Yes. Was I tired? For sure, but the personal rewards were priceless.
The local Bolivian people were very grateful and motivated to improve their living conditions as exemplified in how hard they worked on building their homes. Something else that was apparent was that by being there we renewed the idea that others do care and we were a messenger of hope.
Just before departing on the last day of work, I said to the grandfather of one of the future homeowners whom I had been working alongside for several days, “Hasta luego” (see you later). His face grew a big smile and he grabbed me and gave me a big hug. With that he was saying “thank you” for not forgetting them in the future, and thereby giving hope for a better life.
I knew then that I could never forget the plight of those less fortunate in this world and in particular the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia.
The travel to Bolivia is via a long flight to La Paz, where the airport is at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet.
As an American I was very proud to find so many people from our country assisting in making a better life for the people of Bolivia. On the flight to La Paz I sat next to a fellow who had made it his mission to help the poor rural natives find a better way to grow and store potatoes, which is one of their major staples, without which they could starve. Also, on the same airplane were a group of American volunteers associated with the nonprofit Operation Smile, who specialize in surgically correcting children born with cleft palates and other facial deformities.
In the town where we worked, Cochabamba, I met another American, a professional civil engineer, who has dedicated his life to serving the poor by helping bring drinking water to many of the small villages located in the high plateau regions. This is what America is really about.
Regarding Habitat for Humanity, we operate in Bolivia and in more than 90 other countries. Most of the funding needed for these efforts comes from the individual Habitat affiliates in the United States.
We here at Habitat for Humanity Lake County have funded to our international operations enough money to support the purchase of materials for five homes, which average $4,500 each.
If you are interested in volunteering/donating here in Lake County and/or in our international work please call us at 994-1100.
Richard Birk is president of Habitat for Humanity Lake County.
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- Written by: Richard Birk
My son will not be attending public school as of May 8. I will be home-schooling him for the rest of the year. What follows are my reasons for pulling him out.
My son has enjoyed much of his time in his kindergarten class; especially the precious though limited time spent on art, music and playtime. After observing “stations” however, and my son's (and other students’) demeanor during that period, I am gravely concerned about the continued academic emphasis that is still being wrought upon these young children.
As an experienced, credentialed teacher myself with a background in child and language development, I am sad to see that the irresponsible pattern of shoving academics onto young children has gotten worse than it was even a few years ago.
Not only is it developmentally inappropriate to expect 5- and 6-year-olds to sit still daily for three, 30-minute periods doing worksheets and copying sentences off the chalkboard, it is educationally unsound. When my son was sick last weekend he told me he hoped he wouldn’t get well by Monday because he didn’t want to go to school. What adult alive today remembers hating kindergarten?
I know I’m not the only one who sees the danger here. Remediation rates are starting to increase in the fourth grades when students have to start actually reading to learn – not just sound out words to please the teacher. Public schools are sacrificing the development of the right brain to make their immediate test scores look good, but hobbling students’ overall brain and academic development by focusing so exclusively on the left brain.
Very young students are also “misbehaving” in class at alarming rates – not surprising since it’s not natural for them to do the things they are being expected to do. Why are we surprised when children act like children? Do we also argue with water because it’s wet or criticize a dog because it can’t meow nicely like a cat does?
My son resents having to miss recess if he can’t finish his “work” and has learned to copy from the children sitting next to him because he’s afraid the classroom aide will get mad if he circles the wrong answer. He dreads this endless “circling and crossing out” that pervades his school day and follows him home as homework.
I know that finger-painting, Play-Doh, blocks and dress-ups are not tested in the later grades, but real academics are; academics that now have no foundation to build on since they are taught in isolation, through endless drill, mindless copying, and parroting back answers that the Education Testing Service has decided students need to know to make their schools look good for the newspapers and local Realtors.
I feel for the excellent teachers, my son's included, who are caught up in a system that determines the direction of education by the current whim of the public and government officials. These days it shouldn’t even be necessary to go to college and study brain development, child development or developmentally appropriate educational programming. Teachers are reduced to classroom managers who can photocopy nice workbook pages and hand out glue and scissors for the exciting cut and paste activities.
Gale Tompkins lives in Kelseyville.
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- Written by: Gale Tompkins
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