The children of Latin America come from varied racial stock an assortment of
languages
and live in twenty different countries we are North America would share our
hemisphere with them in peace
and cooperation want to know how they are growing up in the United States we have
educational problems.
The cure to us what are the problems particularly are to Latin America compulsory
education is in the law books of most Latin American countries
but in many regions notably in the vast agricultural tracks universal schooling is
an ideal not easily realized in practice we all know
that there are still regions in the United States which have
that same problem more of our southern neighbors are engaged in agriculture.
Then in any other occupation.
Therefore a large proportion of the children are growing up to be farmers the great
problem for each country's authorities is how to take education to these youngsters.
Partly for geographical reasons.
The problem is more troublesome in Latin America than it has been in North America.
There are economic reasons too.
In the past their basic agricultural economy hasn't produced sufficient funds to
provide many schoolhouses teachers books
and equipment then
there is the transportation difficulty Latin America is a world of vast distances.
Of lofty mountain ranges of deserts a fertile valleys an upland of tangled
jungle of great tracks of wide rich Pampas
and of twenty different countries a consolidated school system is not easily
developed under such difficulty
Latin American children learn to have their ancestors for generations.
At the side of their fathers in the fields
or helping their mothers in the chores of family life learning by doing one season
they come to the harvest for fun next season.
It's their job to help get the crops in on time in this setting no childish
questions about going out to face the world ever arise the world is right here
about them
and in some countries like Mexico they go with their parents to the Fiesta there
they learn much of their religion their cultural background
and their native dances things learn better by living them than from books.
It is in Mexico two in the robust paintings of Diego Rivera on the walls of the
ministry of education
that we find a symbol of the progressive trend in Latin American education.
Mexico is taking the lead in systematic national education through a plan which
functions in spite of the poverty of the small rural community
the demand for schools has come from the people
that an official gone mung the rural folk or any Thera Monye or fiesta.
And among the direct appeals from the people will always be please for more schools
and the appeal has been heard the annual expenditure for education among our
neighbors to the south has increased enormously
as we've seen the first consideration must be for the country school on the eager
members of a small community will build a school house with their own hands on the
promise of the state to send the teacher.
While it is still true
that some Latin American children have never seen the inside of a school.
It will not be true for long knowledge
and desire for education are contagious in these rural schools.
The subjects taught still reflect.
Fact
that most of these children will spend their lives on the last.
We realise what the country schools will mean the Latin American life.
When we see teachers taking special courses in public health.
The teacher can't do much about training the minds of her charges until she first
build strong healthy body.
Today the teachers are bringing their lessons in planning
and disease control into the schools they teach their children how to recognize
and deal with common ailment they teach disease prevention
and the rudiments of nutrition and personal hygiene.
That's the way is paved for substantial medical aid along with ordinary schooling.
In the rural regions of Latin America
or the free clinics would circulate through the interior
and others which have been established in the larger villages.
Beginning in the earliest colonial days.
The Catholic Church as vigorously
and continuously maintained a great teaching tradition.
Throughout all Latin America the educational pattern has been definitely Roman
Catholic. If it schools did not reach every village and if in some respects.
Particularly in recent times the education of the masses was somewhat neglected.
Still its contribution has been unflagging.
Today in such schools not only religion literature and languages are taught
but science
and they are a medical schools
and training schools for.
Nurses are among the most important institutions of higher learning in South
America
in the laboratories in operating rooms modern methods are equipping an army of
Latin American doctors
or work among their own people in this progressive development North American
Physicians and foundations have played an important part.
Although most university work down here is in the fields of medicine law
and theology
and though the students specialize in their chosen subjects rather more closely
than we do they still find time for their own cultural interest.
It is traditional for educated persons to develop their talents as poets
and artists and men of letters.
What changes will take place in their education as our neighbors share from the
plough to the assembly line where their industrial activities are daily becoming
more important great factories have been built
and more are coming in which the vast natural resources of South America can be
fashioned into useful good artisans
and technicians who operate the machinery of mass production will need different
training from that given the men who work in the fields
and on cattle ranges already many young Latin Americans have
developed the skills of modern machine where.
Already the mysteries of wood and metal working of gage
and lathe are being explored in new trade schools
and at the same time. Thousands of others are being trained in clerical work
and the science of management in new business schools future accountants
and distribution experts the plan. Managers an office chief are hard at work.
The newest equipment is at their disposal.
The newest teaching devices are employed
there is another voice which is more potent than ever before.
Millions in the Caribbean in Mexico Central
and South America are taking great interest in the United States.
They have always known much more about us and we have about them now
that they know we are in earnest about the good neighbor policy very good to know
still more about that.
The good neighbor policy functions actively in the minds of young people is first
rate assurance for us that it really works.
A clue to the new attitude is the great increase of interest in the learning of
English many adults who studied French and German
when they were at school are joining clubs where they can learn to read
and write English as Latin Americans see the temporary eclipse of European
civilisation to which they have traditionally looked for cultural ties they seek to
find new ties with us.
Let us not fail
and let us also seek the elements in their culture which can enrich our own many of
them are destined to use their English in American universities as exchange to
our Latin American countries extend their basic educational facilities they are
also organizing schools for special training.
Music in the arts are now studied under masters who have lived
and worked in their native environment
and who can relate the modern idiom to the artistic traditions of Latin America.
All the world has long paid tribute to the glories of the as Mayan
and Inca cultures today young people are borrowing strength
and vigor on these amazing creative forces to find the new styles
that will express their own time
and their own civilization take these children in a Brazilian
school their ancestors came from Portuguese castles cities in farms
or from the banks of the Amazon on the shores of Africa Latin American children
like ours in the United States have fallen heir to a new vigorous youthful culture.
Derived from many races they are America.
These children are moving toward a future that is also ours
or as they grow toward manhood and womanhood.
All of us in this hemisphere men women
and children are moving toward new wisdom new strength new unity.