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I am in the process of screening through more than 3000 email - a
consequence of my long stay in Goa so I enter into this argument late.
The discussion on education is interesting and highly pertinent and just
when I thought I could side with one argument another came up!
Yes our education unfortunately does not impart written and spoken skills
especially for kids whose parents are not educated. So many young people shy
from asking questions, reading or discussing problems like global warming,
HIV etc. Someone pointed out that South Goa kids prefer to go overseas, make
a fast buck and come back and that's true too and we have to address that.
Is it that teachers don't excite and challenge kids? In the US when we make
outreach activities for kids we focus on the question: WHY do they care?
e.g. Why do kids care if there are different types of clouds? But when I
left Goa I did not know how to make my presentations attractive, slip a few
jokes to make my talk more fun and get the audience excited in my work and I
still find it a challenge. So the teachers too have to get some exposure and
training. Perhaps a big curriculum bogs them?
Buoyed by the enthusiasm from students, academics in fields totally
unrelated to climate, priests and others at Basilio Monteiro's wonderful
conference (more on that in another email) Joaquim took his global warming
talk to many Goan colleges and the kids just loved it. Incidentally his talk
covers a lot more than Al Gore's movie and dwells on natural events such as
those mentioned by Gabriel Figueiredo. And he talked about the consequences
of the Goa Regional Plan too!!! But I think its Joaquim and I who were more
impressed with the kids who we met at these small colleges - Carmel's,
Dhempe's and Xavier's. In small and familiar settings they asked a ton of
questions, took copies of the presentation and talked of their own projects.
The latter were really impressive - in fact Carmels publishes a peer
reviewed journal with research articles from science to literature. But I
think we lack outreach activities that can take information researched or
learned into larger settings. Can these kids take their projects to schools
perhaps? Can they give presentations and excite and enthuse others? Will
their already packed schedules allow them to do so or could it be part of
their curriculum? At the same conference Prof. Junjunwala lamented the lack
of good teachers and the recent abundance of well paid jobs in
multinationals doesn't help. Can we do something like 'Teachers for
America'? We have a huge populace of retired academics, researchers etc.
Could we pay them to go back and teach in schools? And finally we need more
teachers on his forum.
Helga
> Ever since I set foot in the UK a few months ago, I have been amazed by
> the general level of awareness people here have about Global Warming
> and Climate change.
