In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance
When I went to Nicaragua for the first time during the Contra war, I had no idea that I would soon wind up helping a Nica friend start two literacy programs and then a Free High School for Adults. It opened in 2002, and now, only 15 years later, we have 1001 graduates, 54% women, 45% rural (mainly f...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
2017-09-01
|
| Series: | Radical Teacher |
| Online Access: | http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/radicalteacher/article/view/385 |
| _version_ | 1818491858069749760 |
|---|---|
| author | Margaret Morganroth Gullette |
| author_facet | Margaret Morganroth Gullette |
| author_sort | Margaret Morganroth Gullette |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When I went to Nicaragua for the first time during the Contra war, I had no idea that I would soon wind up helping a Nica friend start two literacy programs and then a Free High School for Adults. It opened in 2002, and now, only 15 years later, we have 1001 graduates, 54% women, 45% rural (mainly from subsistence farm families)--all of them excluded from the regular high schools for one reason or another: being pregnant, being a woman, turning eighteen, working five days a week, or living too far from town without the ability to pay bus fare. My real education came with theirs and is still going on, with no end in sight. What I wanted to know was how the teachers--all college graduates who were teaching in the high prestige regular high schools--figured out how to teach these people, many of whom had been out of school for decades and were unused to learning or scholastic discipline; many accustomed to being heads of households; some pregnant or carrying a baby to School for lack of child care or need to nurse; some drunk or exhausted early on Saturday mornings when classes began. The teachers told me their own stories, of overcoming prejudice and learning how to create a welcoming atmosphere. And the graduates told me THEIR stories, of what it took to succeed in those conditions, and how education--especially learning how to speak better-- transformed them, and they, in turn, transformed the entire culture and economy of the region. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T17:36:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-096d9b2ddf2d4b178c432b1b366f1f5f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1941-0832 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T17:36:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017-09-01 |
| publisher | University Library System, University of Pittsburgh |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Radical Teacher |
| spelling | doaj.art-096d9b2ddf2d4b178c432b1b366f1f5f2022-12-22T01:39:31ZengUniversity Library System, University of PittsburghRadical Teacher1941-08322017-09-01109141110.5195/rt.2017.385219In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second ChanceMargaret Morganroth Gullette0Women's Studies Research Center, BrandeisWhen I went to Nicaragua for the first time during the Contra war, I had no idea that I would soon wind up helping a Nica friend start two literacy programs and then a Free High School for Adults. It opened in 2002, and now, only 15 years later, we have 1001 graduates, 54% women, 45% rural (mainly from subsistence farm families)--all of them excluded from the regular high schools for one reason or another: being pregnant, being a woman, turning eighteen, working five days a week, or living too far from town without the ability to pay bus fare. My real education came with theirs and is still going on, with no end in sight. What I wanted to know was how the teachers--all college graduates who were teaching in the high prestige regular high schools--figured out how to teach these people, many of whom had been out of school for decades and were unused to learning or scholastic discipline; many accustomed to being heads of households; some pregnant or carrying a baby to School for lack of child care or need to nurse; some drunk or exhausted early on Saturday mornings when classes began. The teachers told me their own stories, of overcoming prejudice and learning how to create a welcoming atmosphere. And the graduates told me THEIR stories, of what it took to succeed in those conditions, and how education--especially learning how to speak better-- transformed them, and they, in turn, transformed the entire culture and economy of the region.http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/radicalteacher/article/view/385 |
| spellingShingle | Margaret Morganroth Gullette In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance Radical Teacher |
| title | In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance |
| title_full | In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance |
| title_fullStr | In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance |
| title_full_unstemmed | In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance |
| title_short | In My Nicaraguan High School: Giving Excluded Women and Men a Second Chance |
| title_sort | in my nicaraguan high school giving excluded women and men a second chance |
| url | http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/radicalteacher/article/view/385 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT margaretmorganrothgullette inmynicaraguanhighschoolgivingexcludedwomenandmenasecondchance |