I sit and I watch the class, 8 remarkably different individuals with one common factor, the desire to learn. Each of them either goes to school or works all day, and each chooses to spend one hour of their evening, one hour of their free time, learning English from me.
They’re so ready and willing.
No, not willing. Desperate.
They’re desperate because learning is what is going to drastically change their lives. The education they are so willing to sacrifice for means a better life for not only them, but their family as well. If they learn English, they are more likely to get a good paying job, and therefore will be able to put food on the table for their parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and themselves.
Their education isn’t just a pathway to a better life, it’s a lifeline.
I sit here in shock, of a life so vastly different from my own. A life these children live everyday.
I’ve always enjoyed education, but I have never been desperate for it. In the States many view education as a burden, a chore, not as a way to a better life. While we sit (or sleep) in class wishing we were home, they sit at home wishing they were at in class.
What if we changed our perspective? What if we treated education like a lifeline? What if we went to school with a desperation for knowledge?
How different would our lives, communities, states, and country be?
What if…?
