Coffee High, and French Education

So after the gym today, I passed Joy and Carlo having coffee. I stopped and had three espresso-size cups. I'm having a hard time sitting still long enough to write this, and I think I'm vibrating....

It's great to have Carlo here, and it's generating a lot of discussion about the program and what Jeremie and Haiti need for education. Talk about extremely opposite approaches. Haiti's education system has come from the French one, very theory- and philosophy-based. And there is a gap when it comes to practical application of theory. AND, this is a problem for us, because we're trying to teach new approaches to teaching, so the theory may be embraced, but never implemented.

We've also be talking a lot about what contributions would be most useful here. It has been suggested that we need to find ways to apply our tools to the curriculum that the professors use. I'm not sure that I agree, for two reasons. First, this is a small program, without a lot of resources, and the "national curriculum" is nearly impossible to find in written form, so the efforts needed to attempt might not be a good use of what we have. Second, I think our applying of theory to the curriculum here would perpetuate the same problem, of Haitians not solving their own problems and creating their own path of development. If Haiti is really going to progress, Haitians have to do it. I believe the outside world can and should provide tools and support, but the actual process of taking development into their own hands is an essential part of building strong social, educational, political, (etc.)infrastructure.

I'm hoping by the end of four weeks, we can have professors talking together about what they'd like to see change and how, and for them to start working together to implement these plans. It would be a small start for building some social capital, but as the Haitian proverb says "Piti piti, zwazo fe nich."- "Little by little, a bird builds its nest."