Though there may be many differences between the United States and Paraguay, it has become apparent to me that there is a level of similarity as well between our countries. I have found that no matter what language you speak or how you speak it, and even if you live in poverty or wealth, there is always an amount of understanding between all human beings. However, the most striking difference between here and the U.S. is the quality of education. For example, at home it is well known by all that with exceptional education comes better opportunity, but here in Paraguay, for most students, education is a mere stepping stone towards the real world where most end up working jobs they do not like just to make ends meet. For the few who can afford it, high school can also be a doorknob connected to a doorway of better jobs and a better possibility of making more money after college.
It is not their fault that most do not take their schooling seriously, but the fault of the community in which they live by sending them messages through the resources given—by giving them small schools in which some have to take turns to learn in the morning from seven to twelve, or at night from two or three until almost eight because their school is so small that all of the students cannot learn at the same time. Also by teaching them out of torn books in tattered classrooms on graffitied desks, the school and the community send a message to their youth that in a way makes it easier for them to drop out or get into trouble. The most surprising thing of all is the school’s curriculum. I was devastated when I visited the history class of my host sister who is almost eighteen and in her last year of high school. Despite her age, she and her classmates were learning about human rights, a unit that is covered (in public schools at least) at the level of an eighth grader. In a way, I feel guilty for going to such a good school in which I am privileged to be given what I know now to be one of the best educations in the world.