Wide Angle Video

Watching these videos was real eye opening.  I did not realize that there was a plan to make sure every child is to get an elementary education by the year 2015 from 187 nations.  Many nations charge for public school and even though it is a menial amount, it made it impossible for some children to go to school as the money was not there to pay for schooling. 
Lifestyles also played a large part in some communities.  Women in some of these countries were not thought to be allowed to learn and until recently many women were not allowed to receive any education at all.  I feel I have taken the United States Education System for granted in these aspects. 
In Pakistan the fear of war and being killed as a child just trying to go to school would be horrible to have to deal with on a day to day basis.  Taliban is against education and have burned the school buildings down in some areas that they have a stronghold of.  Also because of these problems, books, pens, pencils. and other materials are just as hard to come by too.
Other countries such as Kenya where poverty is high and there are other problems such as drug dealers and police raids where opening fire can cause many other casualties as well. This is just daily life for these people and yet the children are still going to school even though there parents have died, there is no food to eat, or the violence in the street has come closer than usual. 
These children seem determined not these almost unbearable circumstances get in their way of education.  American children seem soft in comparison to these children whose way of life seem impossible.  We complain if we cannot have a book to take home and one to keep in the classroom, or that our backpack is too heavy, while these kids walk miles to school everyday dodging drug dealers, gunshots, or bombs, only to get to school that has no supplies and maybe one book for every five to ten kids in the room.  These kids are still expected to do homework without books and learn.
A few of the children have other problems besides poverty which is the way of life.  The girls are expected to take care of the house and do all of the family work as well such as farming, cooking, and cleaning, meaning that there is not a lot of time left over for an education.  The few that are going to school are lucky to be able to get even some education, while others are not able to receive any education at all.  THis is a way of life for these people and change is moving very slowly.
There were a couple of other children that were getting a highly desired education but there were sacrifices in those families as well.  In Romania a girl in kindergarten had to take the subway/train system to get to her school by herself.  In America this would be considered child abuse. If a bus does not pick our children up then we drive them or they go to a school locally. High Schools are earned so testing is not just a statistic to see if the teachers are doing things correctly. The testing in these schools determine what type of high school education the students can get into. 
School systems around the world are vastly different from those here in America.  We seem to take a lot of things for granted in this country including our education. Many children around the world have a larger than life struggle, yet they still attend school and realize that without an education, even basic, they will not be able to get out of the slums that they are currently living in.