Issues Paper Topics

What to write on? What to write on? With this being such a big paper and worth so many points, I really want to find a topic that I'm going to be interested in and enjoy. So far I'm considering how Globalization has impacted the language of schooling across the world. I had the opportunity to live in Africa for 5 weeks last summer where I worked in an orphange/school, teaching subjects I was less than qualified to teach. The reason I was able to teach was because in Tanzania all secondary schools (elementary-junior high equivalent) are mandatorily taught in English. This restriction made me, an 18 year old girl, more qualified than at least 5 of the 8 teachers at the school. It was incredibly difficult to teach the children concepts such as geography, math, science, and religion in their second language. For example, teaching kids about pollution, when they don't know what that word means, was almost impossible. Those subjects are hard enough for American's to learn in their first language. Can you imagine being taught them in Spanish, French, or German?

No swahili is allowed to be spoken at the schools there, except for a short fifty minute class, where they learn it each day. This means they can't even ask clarification questions in their other classes. This throws the kids into a sink or swim scenario, where unfortunately 50-70 percent, or more, fail miserably. It is heartbreaking to see how hard the kids work, and their struggles based solely on a language barrier.