Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Adolescent girls in the northern Tanzania districts of Shinyanga Rural, Kahama and Micheweni are confronted with poverty, early marriage and pregnancy and an overall low prioritization of education in their communities.

Reading this information is so unfair for the females in this area. I work with the young people at my church and I showed them this because this year we have four children grauduating and two are males and two are females and the weird thing is the boys want to go to college and the females are having to be pushed. The boys had to be pushed to finish high school. One of the boys was pushed all the way from his early years in school.

“presuming competence"

The principle of “presuming competence,” is to  Assume that a child has intellectual ability, provide opportunities to be exposed to learning, assume the child wants to learn and assert him or herself in the world. To not presume competence is to assume that some individuals cannot learn, develop, or participate in the world.  Presuming competence is nothing less than a Hippocratic oath for educators. It is a framework that says, approach each child as wanting to be fully included, wanting acceptance and appreciation, wanting to learn, wanting to be heard, wanting to contribute.  By presuming competence, educators place the burden on themselves to come up with ever more creative, innovative ways for individuals to learn.  The question is no longer who can be included or who can learn, but how can we achieve inclusive education.  We begin by presuming competence.

So many times educators think the exact opposite. They look at a child and assume things that are not there or they might be there but due to the child's environment and we as professionals do not work with them to the level that we need to.