Angel G. Orozco Chavez and Dr. Ted Lyon, Education
Education: important, yes; beneficial, extremely; yet for a people where a disproportionate and discriminatory rate of progress seems to prevail, educational opportunities are scarcely available. The people of Mexico five in a place where the rich seem to speedily move up the ladder of success, wealth, and consequently education, while the poor seem to be caught in a never-ending cycle from which only a few are able to escape. I have personally seen in my extended family, the results of limited opportunities due to limited education. That is precisely the reason why I decided to embark on a combined internship/field study in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in the summer of 1995.
Cd. Juarez is a city rich in diversity, with constant influx of migrants from all over the country. Urban planners estimate its population to be around 1,300,0001 and usually divide it into three main socioeconomic strata: lower to low-class, low to lower-middleclass, and upper-middle to upper-class. These sectors clearly depict (through vast discrepancies in areas such as education and living conditions) the tantalizing effects of Mexico’s economic, political, and social problems.
Cd. Juarez, like Mexico as a whole, is plagued with problems already mentioned, all of which affect education, and vice-versa. First, the economic situation constantly fluctuates, creating a very unstable system which gives credence to skepticism and antagonism towards government refon-ns or even hope on behalf of the people. Furthermore, wages are extremely meager in comparison to costs of living. Second, the political system only fuels the cycle of “wealthy get wealthier, and poor get poorer” by not creating sufficient universities and by allocating existing university opportunities to those with “connections,” prominence, or exceptional intelligence. Finally, the social system, although it has of late been shifting, has traditionally dictated that if a family does not have the means to support the child through school, the child must then work to help support the family. All of these problems affect the continuation of education; and because education is interrupted, economic, political, and social instability are, thus, fueled.
While these problems shed light as to the stagnancy in education in Mexico, I wanted to find out, first-hand, what Mexican parents thought about education. Thus, I proposed three objectives for my study; first, somehow measure the importance of education in the parents of Cd. Juarez; second, measure the influence their own educational background has had on their offspring; and third, share my vision through an instrument that would motivate and inspire the parents to want to encourage and support their own children to achieve higher education.
Having understood that quantifying such a delicate matter as the importance of education, several professors of statistics, urbanization, and research at Brigham Young University, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, and the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez and I created a survey to help me in attaining my objectives. The survey consisted of ten simple and direct questions ranging from age to educational attainment of both the interviewee and his/her parents, and from reasons to discontinuing education to reasons for motivating his/her children. The results obtained were fascinating to all of those involved, and yet, consistent with my hypothesis: the higher the educational attainment of the parents, the higher the educational attainment of the children.
Concerning the first objective, when responding to the question: “Some people say education is important, others say it is not important. How do you feel about a university education?,” all but one of the three-hundred and eighty-one interviewed stated that education is highly important. The affirmative answers in an astonishing ninety-four percent of cases to the question “If you received, a scholarship to go to any university of your choice, would you take it?,” further demonstrated the importance of education characteristic of the Cd. Juarez population.
Concerning the second objective, several statistical correlations were run in order to prove the hypothesis. A Chi Square Test was chosen in order to not only analyze the city’s population as a whole, but also that of each socioeconomic sector. The Chi Square Tests showed a significant relationship at the .001 level or better between the parents’ educational attainment and the children’s; thus, proving with a 99% confidence level that the educational attainment of Mexican parents in Ciudad Juarez significantly affects the educational attainment of their children.
As to the third objective (sharing my vision through an instrument that would motivate and inspire the parents to want to encourage and support their own children to achieve higher education), I am well aware is very limited in scope. Nonetheless, I believe that the actual interview with the people let them know that someone cared about their thoughts and beliefs. For those three-hundred and eighty-one that we interviewed, for those fifteen that administered the survey, and for those that may read the published study in Cd. Juarez and other areas, I believe a small seed was planted. The affirmative answer in ninety-nine percent of those interviewed to the question “Will you motivate your children to go to college clearly depicts the sincere desires of a people many times oppressed, yet with a deeply-embedded hope for a better future.
As shown in this study, the educational level of the parents greatly affects that of their children. The study points out a few difficulties which face those of Cd. Juarez and Mexico. While I claim no solutions, I believe that we the Mexican people must not shun the problems that plague our society and fuel the cycle of regression and complacency. Employers, employees, teachers, students, parents, and children alike must do our part; and what exactly is our part? I suppose that is up to each person to decide and do.
References
- Escobar Valdez, Romulo. 1991.Cd. Juarez en cifras 1991.