The right to an education
14 April 2008
My mother never seizes to amaze me with her teachings, with her open manner of looking at things, with her warm, tolerant attitude towards the human flaws. Recently, I had another discussion with her, regarding unwritten and unfair rules of the world we live in, and her attitude made me realize I will always have something to learn from her. There are some mistakes the world makes by default, but then again, as the result of the limitations that came along with the communist education. Unfortunately, a few generations from here on, will continue to be exposed to its influence. Our talk referred to education and the fact that an uneducated person will never understand just how important education is for them, until someone helps them take at least a small step in their development. By becoming conscious of the step they have taken, it might be that they could get a vision of the road their mind could cover, with a little assistance.
A person lives their life according to the examples they saw during childhood and teenage. The children that don’t follow other examples than the ones in the family, or the neighbors, the parents’ friends, will make perfect copies of them, especially if they don’t have the chance to search for other models through education. But, unfortunately, many parents from disadvantageous families, consider education to be useless, so the responsibility passes on to us.
The people with limited access to education can’t be blamed for their mistakes because they are typical for someone who is ignorant. The ones born in families that don’t see the importance of education and culture, aren’t responsible. You can’t even blame the parents . the responsibility belongs to those who have the power to bring the parents to realize how important education is, but still don’t.
If you care about the future and the world your children and grandchildren will be living in, you have to think ahead and programme.
In our country, Medicine and Professional Education are the two fields that are going worse and worse. Teachers and doctors are very poorly rewarded, in spite of the fact that these two are most important in a country’s future.
You can almost think of teaching as a voluntary act. I’m saying this from the perspective of a teacher’s daughter, but I’m not going to continue with this subject, not now.
I remembered the next story: when we were young, my mother was helping a child that came from a Rrom family. His name was Florin and he came from time to time at our place to ask for food or money. My mother would feed him and sometimes make a little food package for him to take home or give him some clothes. Florin became close to us and we began to care for him. One day my mother was in a hurry, she had to finish cooking for the Easter Holidays and she was pressed for time. She needed someone to shop for her but no one was at home. Then Florin came to our house. She thought of giving him money to help her with the shopping and in return, he would get the change.
Florin left, and as the time passed by, doubts were rising in my mother’s mind. The store was right behind the corner, there was no way it could take that much time… my mother was very disappointed, thinking that Florin left with all the money. Well, after two hours, Florin came back with the groceries: he had searched the whole city for a cheaper store… That was a lesson that will always help me.
My mother reminded me of yet something else: when I was little, after a hard day at school, I supposedly told her: “mommy, you know, when you’re at the school teacher’s desk, every child is waiting at the desk, for you to give your attention to them, to give them the impression that you know they exist. When you teach you have to look each one in the eyes, not just in the eyes of the best pupils.” Twenty years later I’m learning from the child that I was then. As an artist, it’s very important to study every type of public, to show them that it’s important to you. As an artist, you have an immense responsibility. If only the renown, public individuals would realize that
