Blogging for International Women's Day

It’s a day late but I’ve still decided to participate in yesterday’s International Women’s Day blog prompt from Gender Across Borders which asks, what does equality mean to me?

Equality, for me, simply means every person being given an equal opportunity to prove themselves in any situation, based on their skills and personality. This may be a simple concept, but it would take a lot of changes, worldwide, to implement.

In this blog post, however, I am going to focus on education to go along with the college environment that is allowing me to write this blog post!

Let’s start with the utopian dream: education would be free, from primary school straight through to a PH.D (if you wanted to go that far) because everyone who wants to learn deserves a chance to, and should not have to worry about whether or not they can afford to learn. More than that, however, education would not just be free it would be of equal caliber for everyone; regardless of an area’s income levels they would have the supplies and well-trained teachers needed to optimize each student’s chance at success. Wealthier countries would help less-well off ones build up their schooling and make it accessible to all students, regardless of gender or class, because we’d acknowledge that one of the best ways to help a country rise out of poverty is through education.

This is, obviously, never going to happen. However, we can get pretty damn close!
Here’s a few ideas as to ways in which you can help make education more equally accessible for everyone, not just those privileged to live in areas with good K-12 schools and then money to attend the college of their choice.

• If you’re an education major or have an interest in teaching consider applying for a program like Teach for America which takes college graduates and trains them to teach over the summer, before placing them in an area that really needs good teachers.
• Donate to a school supply drive. Various Ramapo organizations hold them through out the year, but you could also donate independently to an organization like Develop Africa. (http://www.developafrica.org/collect_school_supplies)
• Protest the funding cuts to higher education that Governor Christie is proposing in NJ. Contact Ramapo SGA for information about petitions you can sign, or do some research on your own and write a letter or organize a protest… just do something.
• Make a difference in your area by taking a class like Student Literacy Corps (EDUC 221) which you can take even if you’re not in the Education program. This class allows you learn, “methods and techniques of teaching reading to elementary, middle, and high school students” and then apply them in your community through the fieldwork component.
• Donate to a an organization like DonorsChoose.com which allows you to choose a classroom project to help fund. (http://www.donorschoose.org/)
• Come up with your own plan, and implement it… whatever it is! You get to learn something about yourself in the process, and you also get to help work towards a more equitable world, where all people have opportunities to learn and grow.

Obviously education is not the only thing that needs to change in order for us to create a world where everyone truly has equal opportunities. However, it is a really good place to start since the more ambitious, educated people we have in this world, the more we can change things for the better!