A few years ago I saw a news report on Brazilian television about a man in a poor neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro teaching children to play musical instruments. More recently I saw a similar feel-good story on the same channel about a man who’s taught music to kids in the poor communities surrounding Brasília. Similar tales are told and re-told in Brazil of people taking the initiative to teach music, dance and other arts to poor and at-risk youth. I honestly think this is great, as the arts help people explore their creativity and can build self-confidence. However, no one should ever think that the arts are a way out of poverty for the majority. Ever.

What troubles me is that near the end of almost every news report about teaching the arts to poor kids, they ask the children what they hope to gain from what they’re learning. Always…always they mention “opportunities.” I’m sorry, opportunities to do what? Play on the streets for spare change? Play at the mall food court for practice?

Again, it’s wonderful to teach children to sing, dance, paint, play musical instruments and write poetry. These disciplines enrich our lives and occupy a central role in what it means to be human. However, don’t expect to make money doing any of these things. If you want to help a young person to find her way out of the margins of society, help her learn math and science. At the very least teach a practical trade. Carpentry, masonry, plumbing, etc. In my case, the area is open source and the specific fields are system administration and programming.

People tend to specialize in subsets of either system administration or programming, but rarely do both. If someone trains to be a Linux system administrator, for example, he likely won’t go very in-depth learning a programming language like Ruby. The same holds true for programmers with regards to system administration. There may be some overlap, but not a lot. For this reason I’m asked from time to time whether I plan to go more into development or system administration. I hesitate, not because I’m uncertain, but rather because I like the two areas and also hope to learn skills in both that I can then teach.

In the past few months I’ve blogged about John “maddog” Hall’s Project Cauã. It is an effort to initiate a sustainable solution for people to go into business for themselves using system administration skills, creating their own opportunities and providing a valuable service. It’s a source of income that can make a world of difference for people on the edge of poverty.

Another project I’m excited to be participating more directly in is Ruby Nuby. This project aims to teach Ruby on Rails development to entrepreneurs and others who can then help at-risk youth learn Ruby on Rails, possibly even hiring them.

One project uses system administration skills, while the other focuses more on development. I like both, and from these and other initiatives (including Linux Against Poverty and ByteWorks) I hope to gather information and experience and form a picture of how I can work in Brazil to help young people reach beyond social and economic class into which they were born.

While I lived in Brazil teaching English and working with a church I was amazed at the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of the people there. I believe that this innate creativity and even optimism can be encouraged and brought to bloom in meaningful, transformational ways as people gain valuable work skills. Math, science and vocational training. These are what can make the most positive economic impact in people’s lives. A few years from now, through open source tech training in the context of a broader community development program (perhaps even including the arts, for reason cited above), I hope to begin making a real difference.  In the meantime, I’m learning, preparing and, hopefully, growing.
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See Also:

Someplace Wired
Doing It Wrong
Ministering on the Emerging Grid
Being the Change