Economics and Education Reform - the relationships?

  As I have packed and prepared for this trip, I have become much more attentive to the different writings and images about India that pop up in day-to-day life.  Most recently, I have read two articles, one from the New York Times and another from the New York Review of Books.  Reading about India, looking at photos, I have felt that it is extremely foreign and difficult for me to appreciate.  While obviously interested, saddened, and concerned, I have been too distanced from the country to think that I can do anything about it.  And, yet, both articles discussed (to some extent) educational reform.  Each focused on the relationship between economic growth and the improvement of basic standards of living and education.  I find this relationship (and its implications) fascinating, and, thinking about it, I already feel a bit closer to the work we will be doing. This unification of the experience that I will have with the information that I have read is one that I hope will strengthen during and after the trip.  Frankly, I really can’t wait. - Madeline