Education. . .

I got into an argument/discussion with the older girls a couple weeks ago, as we were coming off the giant rainstorm we had. They missed 9 days of school due to the rain. Growing up we had days built in for snow days and whatnot, there was even one day when I was in elementary school when they made us go to school on Saturday to make up a snow day! But it was being discussed as to whether or not classes would have to go later in the year or if they would still get out the scheduled day. (remember the school year in Nicaragua goes Feb-November so we are ever so near to the end of the year) 
I told them they needed to make up the days they had missed. They of course got defensive saying it wasn't important and they weren't going to be learning anything new. TWO weeks of classes, and not learning one new thing??? Debonney said her class was already reviewing for the end of the year. They went on to explain that since our school is ahead of curriculum it doesn't really matter that they missed all those days. I was somewhat frustrated that they felt that way! I told her shame on your teacher for not taking advantage of the time she has to teach you. But my real frustration/surprise came when Joely said, "Why does it even matter? You don't need an education." She went so far to cite an example: the president of Nicaragua. He isn't educated and he is the most powerful man in the country she argued, so why should anyone value education. BINGO, there you have the mindset of many of the underclass Nicaraguan people. An education will get me nowhere, so why bother. I said, "Joely, that's it. People in this country do not value education for anything. She then asked me, "Well what is the value?" My heart sank that this 16 year old (who I know respects her education and works very hard at school) was honest enough to ask that question. I climbed up on my soap box and pured out to them why I thought education was so valuable. I told them that education is so much more than simply learning things. The true value I have found in education is becoming a person with a better sense of self. A person who has opinions and knows why they believe what they believe because they have learned the facts to back up what they know and see. You see the uneducated people of this country go along with what they are told because they don't know any better, and they don't have the confidence in their own opinions and ideas to stand up for what they believe in. Don't get me wrong, I have met plenty of people here who are intelligent and well 'educated' (just not in a formal school setting). But their lack of formal education is due to the lack of opportunity, not the lack of value they have for education. Education is not going to school for 7 hours a day 12 years of your life learning 'boring' facts. Its a time of self grown and a development of your sense of identity and confidence in who you are an d what you know. As I finished it was like a light bulb had popped on in her brain as though she had never viewed school in that way. And seeing her response taught me something too, sometimes teaching the value of knowing something is just as important as teaching that thing in itself. I don't know if any of that made sense, but I think that it makes me value my education even more too.
Anyways, just thought I'd share.