Monday, November 17, 2008

Controversia: Systemic Corruption

Can pedagogy compensate for systemic corruption?

In a chapter of Stephanie Elizondo Griest's Mexican Enough, which describes a protest by educators in Mexico City, Griest not only touches on a quarter of Mexican educators teaching classes of more than three grade levels, but she also addresses the issue of corruption.

Griest speaks with an employee of the striking Noticias newspaper & the reporter explains: "I didn't pass the university exam. Hardly anybody does. If five hundred take it, only like seventy will pass--and those who do usually bribe someone. The system here is so corrupt. If you don't have money, you can't get a degree, and without a degree, you can't get a good job, and without a good job..." (201).

Part of what's alarming about Mexico's education is perhaps that the rhetoric surrounding education is similar to our own regarding jobs. The correlation between money and a degree still remains a mental/financial roadblock for underrepresented students.

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