Dear Editor,

Let’s say I am a Belizean student. Let’s say I am six years old. In the future, I will be a part of the progress (or regression) of this country I love.

I’ll be: a teacher, politician, construction worker, policeman/woman, nurse, electrician, drug-dealer, hustler, prostitute, or a host of other things. Depending on my education.

Meanwhile, I depend on the impetus, knowledge, wisdom, passion and commitment of my teachers. From the time I begin learning things at home (birth), until the time I graduate, I will be dependent on the things I am taught, and those things I am taught will be dependent on the things my educators are taught.

And, those things will depend on what my educators can afford to teach me. Not just with their money that they take from their own pockets and purses to compensate for the things not available to them due to lack of proper funding, but also with their own education.

We, as a country, are limited only by ourselves. The single most important thing we could invest in, is education. Or else, what will we have?

We will have very little entrepreneurship. No vision. Just going on along like we always have with no view of what our future could be. We will remain behind and beneath those who are in control – which is the way they want it – so that we may stay uneducated and, thus, powerless over our own future, our government, and our country.

I am a student of Belize. Pay my teachers. Pay my educators so that I may learn and become an asset to the country I love so much.

If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.

Educate us. Teach us so that we may become a stronger nation.

What is your alternative?

I am not really a Belizean student but I come from a place where they oppress people through not providing proper education, especially to less fortunate (poor) citizens. I know this because I lived there my whole life, up until now, and – because of this lack of proper education – we have someone like Donald Trump who could potentially be the ruler of the free world.

Think about it,

Cristina D. Johnson
International freelance journalist