If only...

I'm currently watching a BBC documentary 'Being Indian'. This episode focusses on a 15-year-old girl, Isha, in Delhi whose parents are rich enough to send her to a private school. The school is rigorously academic, and also has lots of facilities for sports and other activities. She has a cell phone, and can afford to take a taxi home if needed. Pretty usual for most schools here in middle class residential zones and also for private schools. But what strikes me about this school, is that the school partners with Unicef and gets their students involved in their programmes. Thus the students are exposed to those who are less privileged from them. They visit a slum and the impact on the students is tremendous. They are confronted by poverty, and Isha is challenged about the way she spends money. Their school also encourages them to teach someone who is illiterate to read and write. So Isha has been teaching her maid for the last 3 months and considers it her moral duty to teach someone to read and write. Wow!

If only schools in NZ would do that! Imagine what would happen if generations of school children are exposed to the 'other side of the coin' - the poor, the homeless, the down-trodden. What would that do? Perhaps we would have a generation of people who are acutely aware of inequality and are moved to action! Perhaps we would have more voices to speak out for the voiceless, more resources poured into fighting poverty, more people willing to do something! If only...

But in the meantime, let us do what we can.