Education = Liberation by Kirby Nix

 

"The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you." – B.B. King

 

A consistent theme has developed in our first few trips to various public schools here in Ubud: education is liberation. The English philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon popularized this idea in three words: “Knowledge is Power”, but the idea has been around for centuries. The concept strongly echoes the teachings of Imam Ali ibn Ali Talib, a 7th century caliph, who emphasized that knowledge elevates one's value and protects them, unlike wealth, which perishes expediently.

 

There is a man here in Ubud named Irham that was the director at a local Montessori program dedicated toward not only teaching the local children, but building community leaders. He is now working for the Ministry of Education tasked with the ambitious goal of revamping the primary school curriculum to include teaching primary school children English by the time they graduate to junior high school to meet the requirements of a new law.  It’s a particularly difficult task not only because most of the children don’t speak English at home and only speak it once a week in school, but also because of the lack of fluent English speaking teachers. If he is successful, and the majority of children learn English by the time they reach junior high, they have many more opportunities in the tourism industry here in Bali, which makes up the majority of the economy and the desirable jobs.

 

Vocational schools are an important aspect of the education system in Bali. The school we visited trained students in kitchen work, hospitality, housekeeping, arts and culture, farming, and other crucial industries here in Bali. While we visited the school, the restaurateur students practiced their budding skills on us by serving coffee, tea, and pastries. We visited the kitchens, peaked into a classroom to see them about to take a test, and spoke with the headmistress of the school.

 

There is obviously a giant monkey hanging above this entire issue: the creeping Westernization of Bali. Is it preferable for the Balinese people to give up much of their culture and their way of life to cater to tourists? Should the island’s economy be largely dependent on the pleasures of American and European vacationers? In some ways it can feel a bit gross, but who am I to judge the progression of the island? Perhaps serving tourists is preferable to farming rice fields and sustenance living. It seems the younger Balinese generation in particular prefers hospitality jobs rather than traditional work. Even if they didn’t, it’s difficult to fight progress as the concrete and the villas encroach on the rice fields. Progression is the human way, and it seems unbearably patronizing for a Westerner to judge the people for wanting to pull themselves into an urban lifestyle much like the West has done over the past few centuries.

 

It’s a balancing act to protect Balinese culture while pursuing a more comfortable lifestyle, but it shouldn’t be up to me or any other foreigner to decide what is best. It should be a choice for the people who live here, particularly the younger generations, and the English literacy program and the vocational schools seem to be pointing into the inevitable direction of “progress”. The knowledge and skills these programs offer – from creating community leaders, to teaching English literacy, to job training – hopefully empower the younger generations to make the best decision for themselves and to live a life with more opportunities. Perhaps once that level of prosperity is reached, they can begin to more strongly consider whether the Westernization and the creeping of the concrete is what they want for the island.