Education fights poverty?

I used to think that the One Laptop Per Child project was nonsense. I mean really, so what. You give all these kids a laptop, they'll play games on them. Big giant waste of time. Almost all of the reviews I've seen on this are about the technical merits of the laptop itself. But it's hard to find articles on the effect something like this has on a community, village, or even the child that receives one. There are a few testimonials from the OLPC website, but not much in the way of news. Can something like a laptop really educate? I can only speak to my own experience with my kids and technology certainly does help, but needs guidance.

They all go right for the games. And if I leave the sentence alone, you might think they are all playing quake blowing each other up. But first, this is a Linux OS, with my kids and the OLPC. The games aren't really the same that you find on other operating systems. My older son likes to play TetraVex. My younger son plays GCompris which contains many educational games what taught him how to use the mouse, click, double click, and now he solves puzzles and plays the memory game. My daughter likes Anagramarama, which tends to grow into the whole family shouting out words to try. So, there are games, but they can teach. And that's only the games.

But, why the big deal about educating kids in third world countries? Would they be better served by sending food and money so they can build better schools?

I ended up watching a film about child slavery. "This World Child Slavery". One thing that kept coming up with all the kids shown is school. They all want to go to school. Generally, the environment was so rough that the parents were unable to afford sending the kid to school. Even if the school was free, that child was able to earn money so the family could buy food. School would have to wait because the family needed to eat. In a lot of cases the parents pretty much sold the kids off to "masters". So what? The kid learns a trade and helps out the family, is school that important?

It's kind of like saving for the future. The better educated the children, the better the return on the investment. Not just for the child though. People are finding out that the village does better with more education. One example is Hai Krong in Viet Nam. By changing the villages view on school, they have graduated doctors, and teachers. Not only are the kids better off, but the community benefits from the doctors visiting the village. Or the teachers coming back to teach.

Even the World Bank agrees: Simply opening a stock market in a developing nation doesn't work, Rutherford adds. 'Foundations have to be laid first, and education is one of these.' and from the article: The report offers many examples of how enhanced education programs have improved economic growth and people's lives. In the 1960s, South Korea and Ghana had similar per-capita incomes. South Korea now has an advanced post-secondary sector and a per-capita income of $10,550 (U.S.). Ghana's per capita income is only $370.

So, the OLPC project might not solve world poverty on it's own. But you can't drive a car on just the wheels either! You need the engine, a steering wheel, a gas pedal, and so on. It's when all these things work together we get something we can drive to work in.