You Better Belize It

Four days ago I was snorkeling with sharks off the coast of Ambergris Caye.  A week ago and I was admiring the ancient Mayan city of Tikal.  Now, I'm back in two feet of snow.  

Our vacation was filled with much fun and celebration, and probably a few too many rum punches. If anything can be described as bright and beautiful, Belize is it.  The colors and warmth of Belize contrast sharply with the cold dreariness that continues to envelope us in the Northeast.

Belize is a small country, roughly the size of Massachusetts in area with only 350,000 residents.  We were able to enjoy spending time in two very different ecosystems, the pine forests and the beach.  Tropical rainforests, dry tropical forest, and lowland savannahs are also part of Belize's ecology.  The people of Belize vary just as much as the landscape.  There are sizeable Creole (distinct from the French Creole that we know of here) and Mayan populations, along with a large Mestizo population.  People were proud of their ancestry and described in great detail their ethnic heritage.  The official language is English, thanks to British imperialism (Belize only became fully independent in 1981) and we discovered that some locals don't consider Belize to be part of Central America because Spanish is not the primary language. 

Belizeans seem to live simple yet fulfilling lives.  Many of their homes seem to be built by their own hands; simple structures built on stilts, containing one or two rooms for a half dozen people.  Cooking and much of the daily activity can occur outside thanks to the warm, sunny weather.  People got to work by bus, carpooling, horseback, walking or riding a bicycle. 

The wealth of knowledge of all the Belizeans we met astonished me.  While school is mandatory until age 16 (like it is in the States), every Belizean I spoke with regaled us with information about the Mayan ruins, the seasonal and annual weather patterns, the political history of the country, the natural history of the area.  It was like speaking with a cultural anthropologist, historian, sociologist, archaeologist, ecologist, marine biologist, speleologist and meteorologist all at once.  Because Belizeans don't hold material goods in such high regard, and because their survival is more tightly connected with the land and interpersonal relationships, learning about their environment and their own history is a necessary part of their lives.  As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, such knowledge is lost upon us as middle-class, materialistic, Americans.  We depend on the nuclear family, not the community to help us in times of need or to share in our joys.  We look to specialists to give us the information, and thus we don't take the time to learn it ourselves.  We think that the more stuff we have, the better off we are, paying little regard to the relationships we form with each other and with our land. Ultimately, what does this mean for us as a people, and a culture?   We may be rich in "stuff", but in the long run, how far is that going to get us?   

As Easy as Pie

I just finished making an apple pie using the recipe from "New Basics" by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins as a guideline. Making a pie from "scratch" (Carl Sagan reminds us that if we truly want to make an apple pie from scratch we must first create the universe) isn't really that difficult, although I know the thought of having to make a pie crust terrifies some people. Two hints: Chill the dough first, and then have plenty of flour on hand. I also roll the dough up around the rolling pin to transfer it to the pie dish.

Anyway, the phrase "as easy as pie" doesn't make much sense in today's context, because it is time consuming and as mentioned before, somewhat intimidating. I suppose however, this wasn't always the case. Pies (both sweet and savory) were a staple of American (and European) tables in the nineteenth century. So what happened?

Enter my first foray into modern education on this blog. We no longer teach the practical arts in our schools, and it's been this way for a while so now kids' parents can't teach them either (or they are never home, or they don't consider it a priority because of the ways we can get around not learning these skills). First, in the 1980's, was the loss of home economics. I never "learned" how to sew, and I certainly didn't "learn" how to cook. Through trial and error and a few lessons with my mom, I can replace a button and hem a pair of pants. I am indebted to my maternal grandmother for teaching me how to knit when I was about 6 years old. Now "shop" class (usually called technology education or industrial arts these days ) is also on the way out. Kids will no longer have the opportunity to design and build a birdhouse, a framed bulletin board, storage box, etc. It really wasn't the finished product that made these projects so integral to a sound education, but the process kids had to go through to create the end results. The measuring, the mistakes, the safety lessons, and the pride that that process instills when the project is finally finished and you have this beautiful, useful item. With the loss of these programs, kids sit in a classroom and are inundated with information about many different subjects, rarely learning skills that will be necessary later on in life, when they can no longer depend on their parents.

Over the last twenty years, the K-12 curriculum has become overstuffed with thousands of objectives that need to be taught (whether they are actually meaningfully learned is another subject all together). Kids are tested up to whazoo on all these different facts but their critical thinking skills, never mind the practical ones, are hardly ever evaluated. Educational administrators and policy makers have forgotten that our paradigm of learning has shifted with the information age. Any information kids need is right at their fingertips. Yet we spend 6 hours a day tossing more information at them. But what students don't have at most schools are the opportunities to create meaningful final products with their hands, to participate cooperatively in activities, to learn the business skills for life outside of high school or the practical skills such as how to fix a flat tire or change the oil in the car.

Part of the problem is that we live in a consumer culture and that culture is reinforced by the education system. There's no need to learn how to change the oil in the car because you can always take it to Jiffy Lube. No need to construct your own fine furniture...just buy it. No need to learn how to darn socks--just buy a new pair. No need to learn how to cook (and serve) a healthy family meal--you can pick up fully prepared meals at a grocery store or restaurant. I'm not suggesting that everyone should become an expert in all of these areas but students should have the opportunity to become exposed to these valuable trades, not only to help themselves in the future, but to also see what options there are in terms of professions. For many school districts, all that kids need to know is how to perform well on standardized tests including SATs so they can go to the top colleges (also a product of our consumer culture), come out with a Bachelors and no idea what they are good at or where they are going after school.

Schools often use fiscal constraints as a scapegoat for not bringing the practical arts back into the curriculum. But there would be plenty of money if we were to eliminate the focus on mandated testing (the amount of money spent on state testing is ridiculous) and there would be flexibility in the curriculum to teach these meaningful concepts as well. Policy makers, educators and parents really need to think about what testing shows us about students. That they are able to answer multiple choice questions and write essays based on documents? That they can memorize facts (without really understanding the hows and whys)? Where is the real creative thinking? Where is the real applied knowledge? Where are the practical skills that everyone needs in life? Just some points to ponder while nibbling on that apple pie.