Braving death, Baghdad's children start school

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=inDepthNews&storyID=2006-09-20T132119Z_01_GRA034034_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-IRAQ-SCHOOL.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage3

The start of Iraq's school year was greeted with trepidation on Wednesday, but also joy, as parents accepted that their children might be in danger but hoped they would find relief from the boredom and fear of a city consumed by violence.

"We feel sorry for the students. How will they manage to study with all these bombings, killings and kidnappings?" said Suaad, an Arabic language teacher at nearby Zanabuq Primary School, asking that her surname not be used. "But the students want to come to school, it is the only outlet left for them."

Most schools have fewer pupils this year, and many of the pupils are new, a result of families moving neighborhoods or fleeing the capital altogether. Teachers, too, have fled, which means classes are larger, with pupils from more than one year packed into a single room, often in shifts.
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25-year-old biology teacher who asked not to be named said she no longer knew why she came to work. Salaries, generous in the initial days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, have been eroded by inflation. Hers is now worth about $110 a month. "Nothing encourages us to come to work, neither the salaries nor the security situation," she said. "Maybe I'd be better off staying at home."

Because we know they will be now.

One should never have to worry one's children going to school.

Here it is 5 years after we invaded Afghanistan and the officials there have been quoted as saying that a whole generation of kids have been "lost" because of lack of schooling (school bombings, teachers murdered, kids too scared to attend the schools). I imagine now that the Iraqi school year has started we will be hearing of the same violemce over the next few months.

I am glad we are closing our schools over here, and trying to find funding for our
teachers and classrooms, so the Iraqi children can go to school........................