So we know that overpopulation is one of the biggest contributors to the current and projected environmental problems we face. We have discussed many of the roadblocks that stand in the way of curbing our current rate of population increase. In addition we have touched on some possible solutions to population issues as well.
One of the areas we touched on was education. Is education the answer needed to create long-term stability and a stabilization of the global population? If so, what kinds of education are absolute necessities? If not, what do you believe the answer is?
Answer completely, but I do not need a novel. State specifics, and make sure you support your opinion.
You must submit your answer via the comment tab, no later than 12:00 a.m. Wednesday November 26, 2008. Have a great Holiday!
30 comments:
Education in theory is the answer to long-term stability. However, I believe that in practice, it is unrealistic to implement education programs affectively in many areas. I argue that promotion of country development, as a whole, is a better solution. Increasing infrastructure and economic development will eventually positively affect even the poorest of the poor, and indirectly help solve the population problem.
Education definitely plays an important part in obtaining a long-term stability. It would help people realize about how big a problem population really is and how much it would affect our future. However, education alone won't guarantee any kind of change. People need to apply or see what they learned right in front of their eyes to feel that it wasn't a complete waste. From there they could use what they know to find out how they can help solve the problem. Of course, results won't come at an instant. Right now, many people in the world may not see population as a big problem, and it may be too late to teach others about our population issues. But if we educate the younger generation about this problem, then I believe they will be more aware than we are in the future and attack this problem to a higher extent than we are trying to do today.
Introduction
Whenever the topic turns to a problem in the world, there is an interesting phenomenon that takes place. Almost invariably, the favored response is some large, grandiose plan, that really has no hope of succeeding, or will be counter-productive. More often than not, such plans are top-down, created on the basis of the idea that one size fits all. The plan is put into action, and then with lots of fireworks, it spectacularly fails. The truth is, nearly all of these plans are built upon the best of intentions, but their execution is flawed, as we can see from the fact that concerns about global overpopulation have been around for 4 decades. We will see that the only practical solution, is one that is bottom-up driven, favors an evolutionary, over a revolutionary approach, and is broad-based. When we speak of education, it brings to mind high school and college for many people. The truth of the matter is, that in many developing countries, primary education is not only the only practical level of education, it is also the one likely to yield the greatest benefit. However, overpopulation is a complex issue, with many causes. To say that a lack of primary education is the only problem, is to take a a very narrow-minded view of the problem. Therefore, primary education in developing countries is not a panacea in and of itself. However, it is in some cases an important part of the solution. We will start by looking at the story of Kerala, a province in India.
The Success of Kerala
India has a huge overpopulation problem, with a growth rate of 1.38%, and has a population of 1.13 billion. “The median age of Indians is 25.1 years.” (Source i) Clearly, India still has a lot of potential growth. Yet, even within this country, there are some places where this wild growth has been tamed. One of those places, is the province of Kerala. “Kerala is home to 3.44% of India's people, and — at 819 persons per km² — its land is three times as densely settled as the rest of India. However, Kerala's population growth rate is far lower than the national average. Whereas Kerala's population more than doubled between 1951 and 1991 — adding 156 lakh (15.6 million) people to reach a total of 291 lakh (29.1 million) residents in 1991 — the population stood at less than 320 lakh (32 million) by 2001.” (Source ii) This is not just some fluke of nature. Rather, Kerala undertook a program to bring this about. Increased enrollment in primary education was a key part of that program. Yet, education was not the sole focus of that program. Increased access to contraceptives also played a role. A large part of the reason for this, is that the government of Kerala realized that in a country with a literacy rate 79.9%, education can't be the only answer. (Source i) There is one key lesson to be learned from all of this.
Lessons from Kerala
One of the key lessons from Kerala, is that the best efforts are built on an understanding of local conditions. The program in Kerala was designed by its own government. This was one of the wiser decision, as it meant that the program was being designed by people who understood best what the needs of the province were, and how to best address them. Now, understandably, such a solution is not always practical, as in many cases, the government is either too corrupt to take meaningful action, or it doesn't feel overpopulation is a problem. However, NGOs must learn this same lesson – When you are crafting a program, involve the local populace, and listen to what they have to say. That way, not only do the locals have a stake in it, but the program also addresses the real needs of the community, not simply what we may think the needs are. In addition, we must take into account local differences. In Latin America, AIDS and pre-marital sex is not nearly as much of an issue as it is in Africa. Likewise, in Africa, the use of contraceptives is much more of a cultural taboo than it is in Latin America. In addition, different solutions work in different regions. In the Middle East, women aren't allowed to leave the house, and microlending will only work if it focuses on businesses that can be run without the woman ever leaving the house. In Latin America, economic cooperatives may work better. The key is, any such program must be created individually for each country. Thus, the variations in geography, history, culture, demographics, and economy of various countries are taken into account. However, this is one last requirement that we shall touch one – the key difference between evolutionary and revolutionary change.
Evolutionary Change vs. Revolutionary Change – The One Child Policy in China
When we speak of the difference between evolutionary and revolutionary change, we are talking about the difference between making small but steady changes, much like species evolve, or trying to change everything at once, much like a revolution where the political system is overthrown. As we have seen from history, the former has had a much higher success rate than the latter. Yet, the latter always seem to attract people, as it seems like a quick and easy solution. Unfortunately, the quick and easy solution all too often has a large price. To look at this in the context of population, we need only look so far as the One Child Policy in China. Now, we can agree that it has led to a radical drop in China's TFR. However, there is a hefty price for this drop. The amount of female infanticide has skyrocketed.(Source iii) This due to the fact that if you can only have one child, and you have a girl, you lose your only hope of having a safety net in your old age, as the girl will become a part of her husband's family. Forced abortions and sterilization of those who are found in violation of this policy, are commonplace.(Source iii) In addition, China's age structure has been unbalanced, resulting in the 4-2-1 problem, where many Chinese families will feature 4 grandparents, followed by 2 parents, with one child supporting all of these people. Such a structure is not feasible. Finally, there is the basic of human rights. Is cutting overpopulation in such a manner, when it has been proven that there are better alternatives, an act which is a clear violation of human rights, at all justifiable? In terms of ethics, there is no justification for such an act.
Conclusions
From all of this, there are some conclusions that we can draw. First of all, revolutionary change is not the answer, as we have seen from our examination of the one child policy. Secondly, change must be done in a evolutionary manner, on a bottom-up basis. Third, change must involve people from the locale where it is taking place, in order that it have any hope of success. Finally, change must take into account local conditions. Therefore, primary education is a key part of efforts to stabilize population growth, but it only one of many parts.
Sources:
Source i:
"Demographics of India." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 23 Nov 2008, 00:58 UTC. 23 Nov 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demographics_of_India&oldid=253502161.
Source ii:
"Demographics of Kerala." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Nov 2008, 15:10 UTC. 23 Nov 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demographics_of_Kerala&oldid=250660157.
Source iii:
"One-child policy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 23 Nov 2008, 02:00 UTC. 23 Nov 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=One-child_policy&oldid=253511759.
These days, it is very common for school-age youth to say that they hate having to go to school, because they see it as a waste of time. Although there is this strong anti-school sentiment, there is also the faction that sees school as a land of opportunity, a place where minds can be expanded with new thoughts and principles from a wide variety of subjects. However, this is only one example, from youth going to school in developed countries such as the United States of America. What about developing countries? Children there, instead of complaining about having to go to school, see learning as a way out of their dreary situations. However, with insufficient funding and unstable governemnt policies, good education is hard to find for children of extremely-impoverished laborers. What do the discrepencies between these two have to do with global population, and how can the population growth by lessened through education?
In my mind, the answer to try and help curb the global population growth is to increase education in the developing countries that are experiencing these population increases. First off, giving young people in those countries a chance to go to school and get an education will allow them to learn skills for better lives than what they have now. By doing this, there will be less poor laborers and more talented and educated people in these developing countries. However, this is not the only way to curb population; education in a typical sense is not the right answer to the problem.
Instead of typical education, these young minds from developing nations need to be given opportunities to make change in their respective countries. For example, allow some of these people to pursue careers in major areas such as literature and global politics; by doing these things, they can bring more awareness about the current situation in their home countries into the global spectrum, because the people in developed nations hardly know of anything occuring in poor countries around the world.
However, what does education have to do with lowering global population? By raising awareness of the situation of poorer nations through education such as lectures from citizens of the country itself, people from developed countries can send aid to the places in need or volunteer in one of many aid organizations, hopefully allowing the standard of living to rise and kick-starting the economy due to a surge of private enterprise. When this occurs, the need for the "child insurance policy" is not as important, so families don't need to have numerous children in order to survive. After this, government reform must be attempted; this is where education in politics for local adults becomes important. Through certain kinds of political education, these people can try to make a difference in their country, and allow aid to go through to the people that really need it but were denied it before under the dictatorship/broken governmental system in the country.
In conclusion, if changes can be made to the economy of developing nations, then the need for children will go down, and the global population growth will plateau/decline as there is less reason to have children for "insurance". In developed nations, education about a finite amount of resources can be used to convince people that they need to do something about global population. If the population continues to increase, resources will dwindle even faster, and will eventually disappear altogether; however, through the right education techniques and awareness about poor nations presented in developed countries, then the population will hopefully go down, and the developing countries can continue to grow economically instead of population-wise.
Education is a crucial aspect in helping stop overpopulation. Without education we would know very few things, even though some argue that you can learn most things by just living I strongly disagree with this. Yes you can learn to survive by trial and error but you cannot find new ways to flourish without a lifetime of work. Education cuts this lifetime into a simple month or less. With education we are able to accomplish much more than before education.
Education will help defeat overpopulation if the education is strongly enforced and the right things are taught. Yes people may dread education but I am pretty sure that anyone who has ever been to school can find one thing good about it. It is hard to go to school everyday and not learn anything. This is why after all the ideas to solve overpopulation it comes down to education. Without education you may just think having children will not harm anything it just will help me but with education you can open your eyes to other places and see how this is such a large problem. Western civilizations seem to be mystified about why the third world countries don't understand overpopulation. It is because of many things but one stands out the education they have now does not even start to teach them or show them what is happening around the world. It is not the teachers fault or even the schools fault it is solely the lack of money. Without this money they can barely teach math let alone teach overpopulation and how people are working to stop it.
To stop overpopulation we must work together to make sure everyone in the world has adequate education. Yes it will be hard and will take lots of money but it must happen because without it happening overpopulation will never be solved.
Though education is the best way to inform/promote sustainable solutions involving overpopulation, issues arise because areas which would benefit the most from these sustainable practices lack access to basic education. While educating people on safe, practical reproductive practices is a feasible solution that addresses overpopulation, before educational programs can be implemented, basic infrastructure (schools and teachers) must exist. Until education becomes an international priority, even the most cost-effective, culturally-sensitive, sustainable programs are obsolete without educational facilities.
Education is a key part of solving the overpopulation issues, however, we need to do more on top of that as well. Education can provide developing and developed countries with knowledge of what issues we are currently facing. Once given this information people may start to change their ways of life to reduce over population and slow other problems. However if this is the only course of action taken at this point, nothing is going to be fixed. We need to better the overall conditions of developing countries so they can live safely and steadily without the need to have an excess number of children. We need to develop easier, safer ways for women to get abortions. There are many different courses of action we need to take to start slowing overpopulation, not just education or just easier safe abortions.
What China is doing by giving more opportunities to first children and discouraging multiple kids per family is one effective way to start reducing overpopulation. While I may not whole-heartedly believe in all the components of this plan at least they are doing something. As a whole, we all need to start taking fairly drastic steps, maybe not exactly like this one, but in the same general direction, to slow overpopulation.
In the world today the places with more education seem to have a less "delicate" situation when it comes to overpopulation. When someone is educated properly they tend to become more open to other ideas, seeing as how that is really just what education is, new ideas. If we were to educate people in developing countries at a younger age they will most likely be more open to foreign ideas and be more inclined to reach an agreement. It would have to be a longterm process, but I think that in the end, spreading education in the world will help with the problem of overpopulation.
People should be educated in mostly the general areas of mathmatics, literacy and, as touchy as it may be in some cultures, science. Mathmatics will help them with their ability to solve problems, literacy will help them with processing things in multiple ways and science will help the people with understanding the world around them.
I do feel that education in the long run could deffinately help with the growing problem of overpopulation.
With all the ideas that have been presented to help reach the long-term stability in both developing and developed countries, promoting education in both seems to be the most logical answer. Of course in developed countries, this isn't as much of a problem, but educating them about the threat of overpopulation is something that still needs to be done. Most people in developed countries try to put the blame of overpopulation on the developing countries and don't see the need to change their lives and continue to live in apathy. By educating the generation now to keep the fertility rate low, it will create a sustainable future sooner, rather then later. In developing countries, education in general will allow people to support themselves better and can provide a stronger infrastructure which may help stabilize the population. We’ve seen it in our own population, when the United States was first undergoing industrial and economical development. Once we reached the definition of a “developed” county, our average fertility rate dropped and now our total fertility rate is almost at replacement level, as with most developed countries. It is the hope that with the proper education and economic changes in developing countries, that the same will happen there. Getting the overall message out there of how the increasing population is depleting ecosystems and making the world less inhabitable is something some may want to listen to, and others not, but we need to educate people about it all the same. Without educating those in developing and developed countries of the dangers of overpopulation, and what it’s already causing in this world, the problem of overpopulation will never be solved.
Education is one of the most important tools a population can receive. It is key to long-term sustainability and stabilization because of the possibility of leading to a demographic transition. A smarter population is going use resources more effectively, realize the issues of birth that hinder sustainability, and form a more stable population as less children are needed as insurance. The most important forms of education for the global population are reading/writing, agricultural science (teaching people how to develop the land they have most effectively, resource management, etc), environmental science (effects on environmental sustainability from population, etc), and various forms of business/economics.
Reading and writing are the basis of education. One cannot or will struggle to learn if they cannot read (cannot read from books on the subjects of interest), or write (responses/testing the knowledge of the individual to make sure they have learned the subject). The world must be able to do these two things, because reading and writing are the beginning to the world of learning.
Agricultural science is very important because many people do not have any way to get food, water, or just provide for themselves. Not everyone is a farmer, but for those who want to till the land, this should be available to them. Agricultural science will teach the farmers techniques for effective land use, the best plant/animal crops for their environment, advanced farming techniques to maximize crop output, and more. This will all serve as a source of food, income, or both for a portion of the population. If the people have a market from which they can support themselves, there is more food, money, and stability going on.
Environmental Science is important for those farmers and people to realize their long term (or even short term) effect on the environment around them. Agricultural science is there to teach the people how to use the land, but environmental science is needed to teach people how to protect the land and the peoples' livelihood. This is the way for the population to learn about sustainability through land management, birth rates, and pollution. To continue growing food from techniques they learned from the agricultural science, the people are going to need to know how to do that in a way that doesn't completely destroy the land (some will be obviously taken down for farmland). If the people don't know about such things are the turnover times of crop lands (as nutrients/minerals are exhausted from the soil), output of crops will dwindle until there is nothing. The people will then return to the starving state they might have been in before. Birth-wise, it will emphasize (not everyone will follow this) that the less children you have the less strain on the environment and less mouths one has to feed. Although not all people will believe in this (some again will think this is just a way for other countries to enact genocide without killing people), it will have a better effect coming from a book supported by logical information, rather than some idiot tourist.
Business and economics will help all of the people learn how to sell their products for the maximum profit. The idea here is to make sure that once businesses are started by the people that most, if not all stay in business. A population can have an explosion of business and economic growth initially, but keeping those two is a different story. Ideas such as profit maximization, supply and demand, and global economics are important for keeping the economy of the country going. Global economics are essential for bringing money into the country. Through tourism, selling of crops, or other products, a country needs to first have a substantial amount of money within the country to get things going. Bumps in the road do happen (the world is experiencing an economic right now), and those are to be expected. Business/economics classes can help teach people how to react to this events and how to keep a sustainable economy going for their country, city, or town.
Select forms of education (the ones I mentioned) are most important for any population to be able to sustain itself. Individuals should be encouraged to seek further education, but all should be provided with these forms to be able to establish food and income sources. Thus, the population will stabilize with readily available resources and money, hopefully leading to a demographic transition as nutrition is provided (along with water), money is available to build hospitals (death rate decreases), and parents do not need children as insurance policies.
I believe that education certainly plays an important role in the dontrol of global population epecially in developing countries, but, it isn't the only part. Other major factors include the development of infrastructure along with the development of a strong economy. With a new infrastructure and economy things we take for granted in the US start to take root; clean water will be available, hospitals will have proper equippment, schools will have the supplies to teach, and soon the country's death rate will start to decrease. With that decrease in death rate the process of demographic transition begins and over time overpopulation in that country will begin to decrease. I find that you cannot simply educate people and that will solve all their contry's problems but it is definitely needed as part of the solution.
I do believe that education is a key factor to solving the overpopulation crisis. However, long term wise I don't believe it is a sufficient solution.
Education is a good in the moment solution for overpopulation. It will help to educate the next and current generations, allowing them to make decisions in life with more reasoning behind them. But that education only lasts for so along, along with the people to whom they affect.
Even if a school system is set up for long term education, who is to say that it will actually be stable enough to last even two years? The countries that are in desperate need of education programs right now, don't have the government to support anything to that degree.
What needs to happen first is government stabilization and then the setting up of education programs that will last for a long time. And though that is drastic and somewhat crazy talk, I believe it's what needs to happen.
d.c.=developing countries
I do not think that there can be one answer to the problem of overpopulation. Education alone is not the answer because as we have learned, in many developing countries having many children is a way to live longer, or just at all. There must be change in the governments, economy, and ways of life of these developing countries, as well as improvements in education. Government reforms will insure that the system is not corrupt, and the distribution of wealth is as it should be. The economies of these countries needs some form of stimulus, so families do not need to rely on having children as a source of income. One new and great way to help the economy in d.c. is by micro financing. With micro loans money is given to the citizens of a country that they can begin a business or a source of income off of. The above will surely change the way of life, but even further having children needs to stop being looked at as a status symbol. As long as you are more of a man or woman for having many kids, citizens in d.c. will likely be having many kids. This may require changes in religious and social practices, and so be it, it needs to be done. Lastly education is a very important tool in the reduction of the human population. The areas most important to be educated in, in the way of population control, are environmental sciences (specifically human impact on our earth) and sex education (birth control). With this information I feel that citizens of d.c. will be able to make educated informed decisions about the impact they want to make on this world. Beyond this I think that everyone should have the right to further education in areas of interest, and of financial interest. Increasing the education level in d.c.s will create new economic possibilities, and eventually increase their standard of living, hopefully.
Aside from the developing countries, everyone in the developed nations need to make changes as well. Our changes have less to do with economic and government reforms, and more to do with changing our way of thinking. We all (especially the older) seem very stuck in our ways and are too stubborn to change them even though we are heading toward that metaphorical tree. We need to change ideals set forth by religion and our consumer driven, more, more, more lives. Everyone is afraid to change, but change is going to save us.
So to sum it up, in the developing countries what needs to happen is government, economic, cultural, and education reforms to achieve the greatest strides in population control and living standards. This is not going to happen, however, without help from the developed countries. This help comes in the way of financial assistance and self-reform. We need to stop looking at ourselves as many groups of different types of people and begin looking at ourselves as all humans working for a common cause to save our earth. We all need to work together to help ourselves out of this disaster we've fallen into, before we fall too far down.
Education is a start, it's an awareness raiser. It would take a long time to get the message across and from there slow down population growth, but it's a start. Education would spark ideas and plans which may fail many times over, but eventually all of the efforts will add up. Just like dropping coins into a piggy bank to save up for something expensive, eventually the money will add up.
The most important kind of education would be the effects and problems that come with overpopulation. Also, how species interact and balance in the biosphere.
"We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves."
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Francis J. Braceland,
The countries that need education most and that would benefit most from it are developing, so education is not widely available. These countries should develop more before education is implemented as the main approach; through economic gains and resolving debt issues, infrastructure, and modern medicine becoming more available. Once the affects that development has had on these countries are understood, including the affects of balancing the population and ultimately reducing the fertility rate, the situation can continue to be helped through education. This would have been harder to do beforehand, considering developing countries consist of people of many different cultures and religions, who may not understand the benefits of reducing the population. Education can continue to be the solution in developed countries, because we have the resources to provide help to our country and other countries in order to maintain awareness of this issue.
Ever since the beginning of time, intelligence has been a powerful tool. Intelligence founds invention, expansion, inclusion. It supports technological, political (in most cases), and social advances. Education encourages youth to enhance their abilities, it empowers, and expands the lives of all that it reaches. The thirst for this knowledge provides hope to many. However, when considering the issues that surround overpopulation; one is forced to consider the branches of education which would be most beneficial.
Concerning nations that offer free, or inexpensive education to youth, an expansion in the subjects of world population, sustainability and global issues needs to be considered, as ignorant students make for a slienced struggle.
The topics that need to be covered in order for this education plan to be of any use vary from region to region. In nations that are dependent on offspring as a work force, perhaps sustainability and self-reliance are important courses to implement. But in many of these places, resources for schooling are limited, so perhaps organizing a few people from individual social groupings for the purpose of such a conversation would be more successful. Areas in which birthing many children is social, empowerment courses might be suitable. Religion plays a role as well, such communities would require alternative contraception lectures. There are many confounding variables which play part in the fiercely overwhelming human growth, and while
education is a powerful tool which will aid greatly in the reduction of population expansion, other digression factors will need to emerge.
I believe that education is important to some extent. However I do not believe that it is the main cause that will effect maintaining stability. I think that the answer is resources. Some may argue that having more available resources only helps the population grow more. If you look at it from the view point that if the current developing countries had proper resources then the population may go down. In the idea that these are countries where having more children is more profitable. Where as education is good to the extent of learning what situation they are in and what needs to happen. My belief is also that with education of contraceptives, it may be contradicting to their culture. That barrier may be hard to break. So by aiding developing countries with resources I think that we can help with out trying to tell them to change their culture or beliefs.
Although education is an extremely important part on the road to a stable global population, I don't believe that education alone will solve over population. I think global education would be DANDY, but change needs to take place surrounding the governments,infrastructures and economies of many developing countries as well. It doesn't help that education isn't simple either. Depending on the country, certain subject matters may create problems, like science or religion.
Education is a start, but there are still many oher things that need to be done as well. Many countries need resources and money to help the economy and raise the standard of living. I think developed countries should help aid developing countries with resources, money AND education. It would be best if aid could be given to local areas within developing countries so they can focus on specific problems. Different areas will have completely different needs to repair the infrastructure. Although they may not competely fix the problem, I think the combination of education and local aid is at least a start.
While I do not agree education is the sole answer to the issue of overpopulation, I do believe it is one of many solutions to the problem. Giving education and spreading awareness helps build a foundation for developing countries to grow off of and hopefully prosper more efficiently. In addition to education, changes and improvements need to be made to the government and infrastructures, therefore eventually creating a more stable and beneficial economy. This of course, needs money to fund, and needs to be focused on the long term effects rather than instant gratification projects. For example, instead of temporarily providing food for a community, to help create a stable agricultural investment, thus giving them their own sustainable food source. Though for such events, adequate education must be given in order to make knowledgeable and civilized decisions and actions to carry out the needed projects.
In all, I do think proper education is vital in our hopes of controlling the overpopulation crisis, though it is not the only factor. It gives a basis to further grow from and after all, 'knowledge is power', and if used in the right way, and combined with the help of an improved government and infrastructure, it can drastically improve the situation of overpopulation we have come to.
The purpose of education is to develop students to regularly use the knowledge they learn in primary and secondary schools. In order for students to use their knowledge, you must provide them an environment that allows them to do so. This being said, education is currently not the answer in curbing the increase in population for DEVELOPING nations. Developing nations simply have no desire for higher education because there is no incentive for receiving one. To tackle this issue, there must be dramatic change in nation's infrastructure, government, economy, etc. In dude terms, the developing country must be developed. As far as a developed nation, I believe education is currently a great start. Not so much about educating about contraceptives, but more about educating in detail about the overpopulation issue. Not only could education influence thousands of people to get their hands dirty and take action, but it could lead to being a very hot topic in future presidential debates. Education is also a great next step for developed nations in order to allow governments to take action about the issue.
In conclusion, there are a lot of issues that developing nations must tackle first before enforcing education as a primary tool. Developed nations should use education not only to curb overpopulation, but to allow the developing nations to become developed.
Education is one of the most important factors in maintaining a long term stable population. When a populace is educated, they are more able to make decisions for themselves. If this power is left to well informed people, a better result will be reached, because they have an understanding of the religious and cultural boundaries and expectations. Through education, the risk of destroying a culture is reduced. Ironically, I believe that the future of developing countries is in the children. They are the ones that have to make the choice to change. They need to be given a well rounded education including reading, writing, math, science and history (so they can learn from past mistakes.)
Another benefit of schooling the children is that some of them could acquire higher income jobs. A huge problem now is that people flock to urban areas, all competing for relatively few jobs for unskilled workers. The educated would become more affluent. The United States and some European countries are a perfect example of how prosperity reduces population. It is essential that inexpensive instruction is provided for the youth of countries plagued by overpopulation. The effect will not be immediate, but in the long run, education is the best option.
The answer to overpopulation is indeed education. Education creates another problem though, I mean how can you educate the whole world on overpopulation... You make millions of clones of Mr. MacDicken, that's how.
These "Mr. MacClones" will not only build the schools, they will also teach in them. Millions of Mr. MacDickens spread throughout the world teaching children everywhere about global population stability. It's genius.
When it comes to overpopulation, education is certainly a large ingredient in the solution, but the lack education in such a way that people of different mindsets and cultures will be able to understand, accept, is what has allowed this problem to grow and become seemingly impossible to solve. On a smaller scale, we have seen this "one-size fits all" as Jacek said in Bush's No Child Left Behind. Much like students not meeting state expectations, overpopulation has been given great attention, but it is not a TRUE measure of where the problem is. Some religions, cultures, are not willing to take in global overpopulation and the exceeding of the earths carrying capacity as a fact, because it is contradictory to their beliefs. With this in mind, simply saying "increased education in developing countries" is not only too broad, but brings with it many obstacles; the biggest of which being government.
Governments in third world countries are often corrupt and have no interest in their people, so they take advantage of the lack of knowledge and push their own agenda. This is where the root of the problem starts, governments do not give contraceptives, decent wages, healthcare, etc. and people feel the need to reproduce because many of their kids don't and won't survive in such an environment. Therefore, government reform through UN intervention and volunteer organizations in third world countries where governments don't give the necessities for survival and prosperity will need to come before, or with the improvement of education. Obviously, using force to remove a government will not work, like a revolution, but giving the third world countries incentives to take action, is one direction to go in. The UN could give the national and local governments in India grants for necessary projects, such as infrastructure, construction, economic development, health services, etc. Essentially, improving the standard of living so that people have a sense of security, one of the main reasons people reproduce so frequently in developing nations. In order to make sure that the government does not misuse the money, the provider will be specific to what the money is going towards, and if they do not use it for that reason, cut of the foreign aid to that country. Ultimately, people do rely on the government for a sense of security, but how can they trust a government that they have no say in and know nothing about? Once again the answer is education.
Education can come in the form of media. Going into countries and trying to establish a sound, uniform education system based on our beliefs, not only sounds imperialist, but could lead to the belief that America is once again on an imperialist crusade. So what we really need to do, is establish a worldwide law that gives citizens information on a global scale, no matter how poor the region, to all worldwide media: BBC, CNN, etc. so that they can make decisions on their own. Giving every region a T.V., computer, where they can access news worldwide. With the increased knowledge of world issues and news broadcasts, citizens of developing countries can make the change themselves, if the government isn't willing to help out. Then, though it may take a while, people of developing countries will learn to make the changes and decisions they need, so when overpopulation becomes a worldwide problem that is stressed in EVERY global media station, they will know how to react.
Solving overpopulation is not just as simple as implementing laws, or waging war on governments that don't comply, it is working with every area and corner of the problem to make sure they understand it and are ready to do something about it....at least this is the only peaceful way to solve it. Human rights, I hate to say it, might have to be violated if we want to control population, but if we can get cooperation and education, people will have a ground level of knowledge to build on, especially in developed countries.
In regard to that last sentence, I meant "developing nations"
Even though I completely spaced doing this assignment until Thanksgiving night, I'll give my opinion. What is the purpose of education? I believe that it is to gain knowledge expand your mind and use what you gain in your life to come. In this respect there needs to be educational awareness. Give the people the knowledge and let them make the decision. Also have economical benefits too. The knowledge that they need is awareness, benefits, and seriously use a little scare tactics like Mac said. Globally we can only guide people and their governments. If they don't want to help themselfs, tough.
Education is a complete neccesity is creating long term stability and sustainability. This is because without certain types of education population will continue to grow at an ever quickening rate. However, this only pertains to a certain type of education. Before third world countries can begin to have public school services, they need to educate their citizens about the downers of having 10=15 kids, and then let them make their own choices. First the infrastructure of third world countries needs to be rebuilt, than education can take a large role in stopping overpopulation.
With the issue of overpopulation, education certainly can do no harm. I think that it can help a lot because generally, when someone knows the consequences of their actions, they may think differently in their situation, especially if the consequences effect others besides themselves. I really agree that education all over the world would really help because a lot of people in undeveloped countries don't exactly know how they are affecting the entire world by having many children. But not only is it undeveloped countries, its everywhere. if knowledge was spread throughout the world, people not only may change decisions they make, but make smarter decisions for a bigger picture than just families or supporting themselves. Something needs to be done where at least people know what is going on. People need to know how they can change the earth in the decisions they make. If people still choose to have big families etc, at least they are aware how that may influence our world. But there are people out there that don't and if they did realize the issue with overpopulation it really could make a huge difference.
Besides education, there needs to be money provided for suffering areas that gives them incentives to consider having a small family, or insure them that they can survive and do well with the fewer children. obviously the questions will arise like where will this money come from, but in reality money does need to be sent there, we just dont know where from yet.
Overall I believe education is really important but there is so much that's needed to be done that its hard to concentrate just on the education of people.
Looking at Kerala and how they managed to develop socialy instead of industrially, I feel like natural resources has a lot to do with it. The fact that Kerala has all of these cash crops that naturally grow there, and the sea, really helps them economically. This is opposed to regions that need artificial conditions to grow crops, wasting resources and money. So what about the developing countries that don't have many natural resources? Well it's true that there should probably be a change in the populations and densitys of areas. Places with greater carying capacitys should have larger populations. Other areas should begin businesses in retail and objects for trade. It's really important that there is good social policy in order that wants what is best for it's people and for the environment.
One reason that countries haven't been able to achieve development without industrial development is because I don't feel like they saw it as an issue. Also I think there wasn't an environmental sense, or any restrictions. The focus was more about making money and being able to live better. When talking about developed countries I think at one point we didn't think it mattered, but after a while it became more about it being easier and cheaper to do thing not so environmental. The environment just hasn't been taken very seriously, plain and simple, and thusly we haven't tried to develop sustainably, but I know that with some thought it is definantly possible. I think regions need to play to their strengths!
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