Skoler i storbyslum: Hvad forhindrer kvantitet i at blive til kvalitet? Og livsbetingelser i storbyers slum i dag. Og en læseanbefaling.

Og om livsbetingelser i storbyers slum i dag. Og en læseanbefaling.

I bogen omtalt nedenunder dokumenteres og beskrives hvordan store  indiske regeringsinitiativer, der giver midler til selvejende velgørende institutioner, der starter skoler i slumområder, bliver udnyttet af såvel politikere som andre til at hive midlerne ned i egne lommer. Der beskrives hvordan både ansattes navne, antallet af gennemførte skoledage, ja selv antallet af skoler forfalskes.

De konkrete eksempler sætter et stort spørgsmålstegn ved tilliden til statistikker i Indien, og når man tager den omfattende generelle korruption i mange andre lande i betragtning så begrænses spørgsmålstegnene ikke bare til Indien.

Bogen, jeg henviser til, er ...

Catherine Boe (2012): Behind the Beautifull Forevers, som er oversat til dansk:

Catherine Boe (2012): Bag det evigt smukke, Gads Forlag 

Bogen kan anbefales til egen læsning, fordi det er lykkedes Boe at give os læsere en stærk oplevelse af hvordan det er at leve sit liv i en slum i Bombay lige uden for den nye luksuriøse lufthavn med reklameskilte med teksten "Beautifull forever" på hegnene, der adskiller de globale rejsende fra slumbeboerne og deres daglige overlevelseskamp.

Gads Forlags egen beskrivelse er meget rammende:

"Asha er dronning af slummen, teenageren Abdul lever af at videresælge de riges affald – og sammen er de to af hovedpersonerne i en sand og inspirerende historie fra et af Indiens utallige slumkvarterer. Bag det evigt smukke illustrerer, hvordan ambitioner og håb for fremtiden kan blomstre i selv de mest udpinte, mudrede og stinkende omgivelser – og om, hvor galt det kan gå, når tragedien rammer. 

Midaldrende Asha og unge Abdul vil frem i verden. De vil have del i Indiens nye rigdom – og kæmper på hver sin måde for at komme tættere på Mumbais nye, glitrende virkelighed. Asha drømmer om magt, koste hvad det vil. Abdul drømmer om en hustru, der kan holde lugten af ham ud. Bogens forfatter, den prisbelønnede journalist Katherine Boo, lader i romanform disse drømme udfolde sig – og kuldsejle – så det er umuligt at lægge bogen fra sig.

Katherine Boo har tilbragt måneder sammen med sine hovedpersoner, og med intelligens, humor og stor indsigt tager hun os med ind i hjertet af en verden, de fleste af os kun har beskuet på bekvem afstand, fra turistbussen eller tv-stolen derhjemme – og ind i kernen af rigtige menneskeliv, som det er svært at ryste af sig igen. For der kommer mere end én tragedie på tværs af alle fremtidsplaner og håb, når affaldssælgeren Abdul anklages for en alvorlig forbrydelse, den allestedsnærværende korruption sætter en stopper for al reel udvikling og terrorangreb ryster den indiske millionby.

Katherine Boo leverer en barsk og usentimental beskrivelse af, hvad der sker, når menneskelige ambitioner, mod og håb konfronteres med en omskiftelig og tumultarisk moderne virkelighed – og når to familier, som bor kun adskilt af tynde vægge, får magten til at afgøre hinandens skæbne. Bag det evigt smukke er solgt til udgivelse i en lang række lande, deriblandt Holland, Frankrig og England.  ...

Katherine Boo har boet flere år i Mumbai og har tidligere udtalt, at hendes arbejdsmetode består i, at hun gør sig usynlig og rapporter, hvad der sker omkring hende."

Salman Rushdi citeres: ”Skal læses! Mumbais slum fremstillet og forstået på en helt ny måde i et intenst smukt sprog” 

Bogen bygger på 4 års sociologisk research og alle navngivne personer har virkelige forbilleder.

Boe viser også hvordan den globale verdens begivenheder slår ned i dagligdagen i et slumkvarter, hvor hovedindtægtskilden er indsamling og salg af alt, der kan genanvendes: Et resultat af den økonomiske verdenskrise i 2008 var at priserne på genanvendelige materialer gik drastisk ned, og det ramte de fleste slumbeboeres daglige indtægter. Da der kom færre turister til Mumbay efter terrorangreb i 2008, så blev der mindre affald, og færre i slumkvarteret blev dagligt mætte. Og når det går bedre for den indiske økonomi i almindelighed og lufthavnen i særdeleshed (hvis grund slumbebyggelsen Anawaddi ligger på) så trues bebyggelsen af at blive ryddet til fordel for lufthavnsområdets udvidelse:

   "But the slumdwellers rarely got mad together - not even at the airport authority.

   Instead, powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Somtimes they tried to destroy one another. Sometimes ... they destroyed themselves in the process. When they were fortunate ... they improves their lots by beggaring the life chances of other people.

   What was unfolding in Bombay was unfolding elsewhere, too. In the age of global market capitalism, hopes and grievances were narrowly conceived, which blunted a sense of common predicament. (min fremhævning)

   Poor people didn't unite; they competed ferociously amongst themselves for gains as slender as they were provisional. And this undercity strife created only the faintest ripple in the fabric of the society at large. The gates of the rich, occasionaly rattled, remained unbreached. The politicians held forth on the middle class. The poor took down one another, and the world's great, unequal cities soldiered on in relative peace" (Side 236)

Behind the Beautiful Forevers Summary:

https://blog.12min.com/behind-the-beautiful-forevers-summary/

Quote from the end of the summary: " Boo “humanizes with all the force of literature the impossible lives of the people at bottom of our pharaonic global order, and details with a journalist’s unsparing exactitude the absolute suffering that undergirds India’s economic boom. The language is extraordinary, the portraits indelible…”

So, there you have it: Behind the Beautiful Forevers has the best of both worlds.

Or, to paraphrase a New York review, Boo’s report reads like Watergate, and it is written like Great Expectations."

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Dette blogindlæg supplerer afsnittet ” Hvad er meningen med et uddannelsessystem i en nationalstat i dag?”

 i mit kapitel i Hedegaard, E. (2017): "Uddannelsespolitik og globalisering - uddannelsesreformer i en usikker tidsalder"  

i bogen P. Ø Andersen & Tomas Ellegaard : "Klassisk og moderne pædagogisk teori". København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Se Overblik over alle blog-indlæg

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USA: Hvorfor er sorte drenge i krise?

BLACK BOYS IN CRISIS: 
“BLACK PEOPLE CAN’T BE DOCTORS” 
BY MATTHEW LYNCH, JUNE 6, 2017

I denne artikelserie fokuseres der på sorte drenge i USA, men de fleste af problemstillingerne er også relevante for drenge i minoriteter i andre lande:

Forfatteren til disse 10 artikler introducerer serien sådan:

"In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

When I was in elementary school (the mid-1980’s) one of my teachers periodically brought professionals from the area to our class to talk about their careers. On one occasion, she brought in a black male doctor from a local hospital. He spoke for about fifteen minutes and then opened up the floor for questions. One of my friends (also a black male) raised his hand. “Are you really a doctor?” he asked. The man replied that he was, and my friend retorted, “Black people can’t be doctors!” To be honest, my friend echoed what the entire class must have been thinking. I know that thought had surfaced in my own mind.

Sure, we had seen black doctors on television and movies, but we thought they were make-believe, like the cartoons we watched on Saturday mornings. We only believed what we could experience or see for ourselves. And since we had been to plenty of family clinics and hospitals and had never seen a black doctor there, we automatically believed that he was not being truthful. That was how brainwashed we were.

Recognizing the Crisis

There is a crisis in America today. It’s a crisis in education; a crisis that predominantly affects minorities. And perhaps the most affected subgroup is young African-American males. This is my background: I was a black boy growing up in one of the poorest counties in America, in a school district so dismal it was eventually taken over by federal authorities. Though I succeeded in pulling free of the mire, many of my classmates did not. Shortchanged by their education and left with few prospects, they fell into a cycle of criminal activity, drug use, and jail time. From my time as a student and, later, as a teacher in the Mississippi public school system, I know firsthand the struggles, temptations, and apathy black boys face. But I also know what it takes to turn a life around; I know what it means to watch a flower spring from trampled ground.

One out of three black men in America will be incarcerated in his lifetime, and more than a third of the prison population is black. But this unequal rate of discipline does not begin at adulthood: it has its roots in the schools. Federal data indicate that black students account for 15 percent of the total K-12 population but make up over one-third of those students who are suspended once from school, nearly half of students who are suspended more than once, and over one-third of students expelled.

Over half of black young men who attend urban high schools do not earn a diploma. And of those dropouts, nearly 60 percent will go to prison at some point. It should be apparent that this crisis does not just affect the African-American community: the enormous costs associated with retaining students, supporting dropouts who cannot find a job, and incarcerating large numbers of young men are borne by society as a whole.

This series aims to serve as both mirror and roadmap. I have pulled out the seven issues that I feel are most critical in the lives of young African-American males: income inequality, incarceration, racial stereotypes, anti-intellectualism, etc. The series will begin by addressing those issues with statistics and stories culled both from my personal experience and from the experiences of others. They will move on to a more general discussion of the topic and examine efforts to overcome the difficulties. I intend to hone in on what works; on practical steps to move us from the current crisis to a future of parity and promise. 

Links til artikeloversigt og alle 10 artikler:

Black Boys in Crisis Series Archives - The Edvocate

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Dette blogindlæg supplerer afsnittet ”Anden uddybning: kampen for at få alle med”

i mit kapitel Hedegaard, E. (2017): "Uddannelsespolitik og globalisering - uddannelsesreformer i en usikker tidsalder"  

i bogen P. Ø Andersen & Tomas Ellegaard : "Klassisk og moderne pædagogisk teori". København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Se Overblik over alle blog-indlæg

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