I came across an African proverb, then held on to it for a Mother’s Day blog post. I sat down to write and then I wasn’t sure what I thought of the proverb. It holds truth to me, but I am not sure if I can dissect it accurately and eloquently state it any better than it already exists:
“If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a community.” -African Proverb
Instead of trying to explain what this proverb means to me, I’ll give you some background and let you make up your own mind. This proverb has recently become popularized by Greg Mortenson, who is the author of the book Three Cups of Tea. Back in 1993, Mortenson had to give up on a dream to climb K2 when one of his climbing crew members needed medical attention. Mortenson took him back down the mountain and into a small Pakistani village where they shared tea and scraps of food with the climbers. In his book he says that if you have one cup of tea with a person, you are strangers, if you have two cups you are friends, if you have three cups you are family. While there, he met some children who were receiving school lessons not on whiteboards or fancy Smart boards or chalkboards or even paper, but written in the dirt with sticks. Right then and there Mortenson promised to help build these children real schools. The book is said to discuss the journey Mortenson took, and what he gave up in his own life, to realize this promise.
During his mission to build real schools for the children, mostly girls, of Pakistan and Afghanistan, he met a young girl who endured taunting and stoning on her way to and from school each day. She was the only girl who dared to be educated in her small community. She went on to read and write and eventually became trained as some sort of mid-wife and has saved many mothers and babies from death during childbirth. The young girl, now with a degree in maternal healthcare, educates other women in her village.
Mortenson also points out that “One thing you'll see is kids coming home from the bazaar with meat or vegetables wrapped in newspaper, and then you'll see mothers very carefully unfold the newspaper and have their child read the news to them. It's the first time they're able to get a dissemination of news and understand what the outside world is like. It's a very powerful, transforming thing to see that happen.” Children pass on their education to their mothers. And the girls, become mothers, and pass on the importance of education to their children. Mortenson said if you educate a girl to a fifth-grade level, infant mortality is reduced, quality of life improves and population explosion is reduced. And so, truly, educating a girl in turn educates a future mother, who then educates other future mothers…
Happy Mother's Day to the world's greatest teachers - mothers.
Sources:
http://www.stonesintoschools.com/2010/04/oklahoma_daily/
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=11410
http://www.stonehill.edu/x13967.xml
http://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases09/fea_2009PresConvo_00909.shtml
Photo from kcgotr.org via flikr.com
