While on one level, Sartre's philosophy may be a call to self-determination, and I could see some justice in some of his observations. But it was also very depressing to say the least, especially his comment “"Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance." It made our lives seem so meaningless and worthless.
I just now finished working on a volunteer project for India Literacy Project. My job was translating their number filled field study reports into reader friendly web content. (Link to writeup) The current initiative focuses on the educating the children of migrant workers in the brick kiln industry in a specific district in southern India covering some 100 kilns and 15000 families. It will be based on a successful model carried out in a neighboring district last year.
However, what I learnt about their lives was shocking and somewhat Dickensian. The workers stay inside the kilns for 5-7 months and work 12-14 hours a day including 7 hours at night. Given this, do they get any time to think about education for their children. Governmental education schemes exist, but they are too far away, or the teachers don’t like all the brick dust the kids bring, in addition to the kids being present only for 5 months in the school year. So why push for their education right? So more often than not, these children are roaming around in a very unhealthy and dangerous brick kiln environment, babysitting each other, or becoming child labor, so that they can help their parents pay off the advance amounts borrowed from middlemen. So education models for these child would have to cover a number of issues including the continuity of education throughout the school year.
Which brought to mind the seasonal nature of agriculture in the US. Are there similar issues regarding the education of the children of these migrant agri workers? I realized that I know very little about them, other than what may have been mentioned in my school history books. Cesar Chavez himself was in and out of school many times wasn’t he? But he barely made it to half a page in my US history textbook.
The next thought was how to link these issues to statements made by Sartre which essentially says that we have the power to transform ourselves. How can people caught in the perpetual cycle of poverty and illiteracy transform themselves. What is the existent reality of such folks? Or are they doomed, as Sartre proclaims, “Life begins on the other side of despair?”