Student+Commentary+3

=Religion, India= =and Literacy= = = to get an education? Do certain religions/cultures favor the education of one gender over another?
 * 1. How does religion impact one’s ability

2. How do the opportunities available to people in India differ based on the amount of educations (years in school) they have received? Or the quality of the education received? What factors cause people in India to dropout of school? What initiatives public (gov’t) and private are being undertaken to keep people in school? What more can be done?

3. How does literacy impact people’s behavior or contributions to the greater good of their societies (India, for example)? Can awareness of civic responsibilities be raised without undertaking efforts to educate people or make them literate?**

(**Discussion 3, September 20th, 2007)**

Some people would say that the second question is obvious and that there is no answer to that. But it is not as obvious as thought. There are many ways that people, even with the smallest amount of education, can help to develop a country or an entire nation. You just have to find out how. And this is a task we should concentrate on, to discover how they help to develop India. (Piet Schoettler)
 * I believe that the 2nd Question has the greatest scope. We will be able to create an argument regarding how education affects the opportunities available to a person. We can approach this issue from all sides making our argument seem more believable. Based on our research, we will also be able to propose a solution to solving the problem of how to bridge the gap of opportunities between people. (Aniket Kotnis)
 * I think that the first question is a hard question to answer or to suggest a solution for, because each religion has its own rules, which apply to education of boys and girls. And people can't easily change traditions from today to tomorrow.

This seems to be the main problem listed as most uneducated people do not realize the different opportunities they could have received if they had a good education. This question can be answered using Internet research and possibly some interviews. A solution to this question can be answered and presented in an easy format as well. In order to improve this question we must add a part about how to get people to strive to achieve a good education rather than just stating what is being done already. (Ankit S)
 * I believe that question number 1 really epitomizes the issue that we face. By means, of this question, we can research and reach a specific conclusion. also, the problem underlined in the question, is relevant to all countries and places in the world, even in developed countries like France and the USA. Also. specifically, this question will help us understand the large gap between the haves and the have nots in some communities (Manas Bajaj)
 * By my point of view, the first question would have a deeper root to the ideas of education around the world that are challenged and/or distorted due to religious factors. This question may or may not contain a deep history of how schools were related religion and how it differed the education needs of men and women. There might also be some sexist cultural belief, which might restrain women from having the same level of education as men in several countries. (Jun Yoon)
 * I am interested in pursuing the 2nd topic.

I believe religion holds people back. Mostly Islamic countries have a warped sense of ethical thinking and educational values. (Justin Martin)
 * I think that the 1st question is most suitable. This is because religion does contradict with education a lot. Especially between the two genders. Some religions believe that only a boy should be educated, because the women are staying at home and taking care of the children. This is discriminating women. We should answer this question because it is very common. (Ambika Chand Lall)
 * I choose number one (1), "How does religion impact one’s ability to get an education? Do certain religions/cultures favor the education of one gender over another"?

It is about a problem, which still exists but in my opinion is less then a few years ago. I think the problem that some girls are not allowed do go to school because of their religion still exist but more and more families change their thinking. One possibility to solve this problem is to inform these families about the western thinking of education and the possibilities their children would have with a good education. We should not try to change their religions or traditions we should try to give them other more interesting possibilities. (Freudenhagen Kerstin)
 * I honestly feel that question 2 has the greatest potential and can be effectively covered. In a place like Mumbai, it is very easy to find people like them and it would be a very interesting topic to make a documentary on. (Priyanka Mysore)
 * The question I like the best is question # 2. I think your job opportunities are based on the education you receive or the amount you have had. I think not trying and not really having an interest in the subject or subjects make dropouts more. I think we can really delve into this topic as a class, there is much research to be done on this topic. (Monica Salgaonkar)
 * I think the first question is the most interesting one.

and seeing as that I am an American, I feel it is best to answer it from my point of view. I think that one must take into account all other aspects of the society and the nation as a whole in order to make some statements in regards to the status of education. I definitely believe that more can be done, on many different levels, in order to improve the status of education in the U.S. I will reply with later, but I feel it necessary to make this introduction. (Hamilton Cook)
 * I believe that the third question is a great question to do a survey on. Asking random people would be the best way to do it because that way we can find the difference. It will be a great opportunity to learn about the education of people and their contribution to the community. (Gabriela Dziki)
 * I think that the first question is the best -- how does religion impact one’s ability to get an education? Do certain religions/cultures favor the education of one gender over another? I believe that religion restrains people, especially women from education. They believe that women should stay and home and learn domestic chores. I would like to further research this topic, it sounds very interesting. It is everyone’s right to have an education. It should be very interesting to find out the answer to this question. (Akiya Modi)
 * I think that we should do the second one because it has a greatest view and it is the one that might have the greatest effect if we can find answers to these questions. Also for the most part the research will be very easy to find the idea of the movie also will not be as hard to film as compared to the other two. Some of the ways that we can improve this is by trying to make the question it self a little more specific. (Premal Jay Shelat)
 * I think that the answer to question #2 is very different for the world,

It would also be interesting to look at the levels of literacy across a global map and compare between countries and types of political and social systems. (Arista Gates)
 * I'm interested in question 3. I think it would be pertinent to look at past civically responsible leaders and the level and amount of education they received. Also addressing the question of "what kinds of influences have most commonly lead past leaders to be civically responsible?" Is one of them education? or is there one that presents more prevalently?

I think this question shows one of the major barriers in 'education for all' because of the many, many different cultures. (Mondraya Flore)
 * I think question 1 is the most interesting. Certain religions/ cultures have different, from western, views on education, especially extending education to all genders, and that creates a problem for the idea of education for all. This issue would also be one of the hardest to resolve because the religious and cultural views on education have been in effect for hundreds of years, and people would not be so willing to just give up something they have known their entire cultural existence. Plus, if we try to impose our ideas on other peoples cultures that would create multiple problems.

(Lexi Nisita, a SPA Global challenge member is working hard on our project.) - The quality of education is limited to two factors, funding and facilities. If schools can gain proper funding, then most things are possible. Staff, facilities and materials are all proponents of said funding. Take for example two schools, a charter school (a specialty public school) and a normal public school. Charter schools are smaller and have access to more funding and therefore better education, public schools, if managed poorly, become gigantic and unable to perform properly. The burden, then, falls to the student to perform well, and lucky, be able to make it to one of the charter schools. One must also keep in mind, that people are not machines, not everyone can be educated on the same basis, the individual must be kept in mind. Take me, for example, I am an extremely visual learner and have a like and affiliation for the humanities, mathematics and science, however, I do not perform as strongly in. No matter how you spin it, I will not learn math and science to the degree that others might. This, I assume, must be true for most students. Everyone must be accounted for their own strengths and weaknesses and education should be tailored to help the Individual. This does not mean, however, that certain subjects should be dropped, au contraire. Learning differences should be accounted for and implemented within curriculums to help all students.
 * I think the 1st topic is the most interesting because it has the widest opportunity for analysis. the second question seems more like a purely research and answer deal, and the third is one that has--to an extent--a common sense answer. religion in education is a controversial topic that has unique and changing effects both in developing AND developed countries. (Lexi Nisita)
 * - The United States, in truth, is lacking in education. Public schools are crowded, charter schools have not enough funding, and privatized schools are expensive. Private schools generally perform better than public schools, due to greater capital and more attention paid to the students. As is obvious, smaller classes and schools tend to help the students learn better than opposed to larger institutions. As sad as it is however, in order to educate a large population, the government must build large schools that can neglect the needs of everyone. If increased funding was opted to build smaller schools, however, then we would indefinitely see a rise in literacy rates and a decrease in dropouts’ rates.

- Total # of dropouts for the United States: 3.8% (414,000 students) - Graphs: ([|http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/dropout05/figures/figure_01.asp)] Income - ([|http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/dropout05/figures/figure_02.asp)] Race - ([|http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/dropout05/figures/figure_04.asp)] per State - Here is the documentation of the total number of dropouts separated into categories, etc: ([|http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/dropout05/tables/table_01.asp)]

- The reason for dropouts can be attributed to what I had said before in my previous post, people do not see the gains of completing an education and merely take the “easy way out” by completing either a GED or just dropping out in general. As Lexi said in class “we should disband the GED system all together and require a full high-school education for everyone”.

- Here is the United States federal fiscal budget for the year 2007: - $586.1 billion (+7.0%) - Social Security - $466.0 billion (+4.0%) - Defense - $394.5 billion (+12.4%) - Medicare - $367.0 billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare - $276.4 billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid and other health related - $243.7 billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt - $89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training - $76.9 billion (+8.1%) - Transportation - $72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits - $43.5 billion (+9.2%) - Administration of justice - $33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment - $32.5 billion (-15.4%) - Foreign affairs - $27.0 billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture - $26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development - $25.0 billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology - $20.1 billion (+11.4%) - General government - $1.1 billion (-47.6%) – Energy

“Education and training” only a tiny fraction of what is being spent in the upkeep of our nations education system. Therefore, privatized education has the means to incorporate adequate education because they are better funded. It is obvious, that if we want conditions to improve in the United States, that more money will have to be delegated to education instead of the military, for example. ([|http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states-federal-budget-2007)]

-In order to create more incentives for staying in school, occupations can initiate testing and specific exams that are tailored to “weed out” one applicant from another (aka: those who did well in school). Plus, jobs could initiate meritocratic spaces for individuals who did not perform well in school but are still readily able. As much as I hate to say it, if this is going to work, then more standardized testing and reporting needs to be implemented in order to make sure that the students are meeting deadlines and keeping up to speed. (Hamilton Cook)

To **Discussion 4**
 * I am most interested in the third question. I think that finding data to show how literacy rates effect the economy would be a big help in our project to show what we are trying to correct and achieve. I think that something that would be particularly useful would be to have a map of the world, which is colored by literacy rates and filled in with various textures by the average income per citizen per year. In this way we would have a map that at the same time compares the literacy rates and the economic strength of the various countries of the world. (Zachary Sethna)