From a real textbook, yes. It’s my favorite because I like to imagine what students would do. You have the analytic test-taker who would memorize the positions of the colors, labelled on another page. You have the unconventional realist who would say it’s grey. You have the pragmatist who would sit next to someone and copy. Then, you might have the iconoclast who would write, “Why in all heavens would you bother to print a lesson about colors in black and white?”I know the answer because I talked to the people who made the book. I was told, “Because of the cost of printing in color, four students would have to share one book rather than three.” I had another question too. Why print a textbook that has more than 20 errors in one page, uses difficult passages from the Internet and cuts out parts of my logo for the front cover?
The answer was, “We only had two weeks to finish. If we didn’t meet the deadline, World Bank wouldn’t pay us.”
I tell people I’m a volunteer though I have to redefine what that means. In Laos, a “volunteer” usually means you have a big house with a maid, driver, security guard and view of the Mekong River. I don’t have any of these because I’m a volunteer, I don’t get paid and my job is to mop up the mess from the headlong rush to reach quantitative millennium goals. If “Education for All” is ever claimed, we’re going to have to redefine “education”.
