One of the things that stuck out the most to me was this theory:
"If you teach a boy you educate an individual, but if you teach a girl you educate a community"He pointed out that when girls go to school they bring the education back to their parents and especially their children. Mortenson said that when girls were educated the population of some places leveled off because they were less likely to get married/ reproduce early. This kind of thing is especially relevant in places like Africa and Afghanistan where girls are married off by the age of 12 to start a family.
In the middle east where Mortenson's work is centered the Taliban sponsor many schools that center their education in hatred of the Western world and strict religious adherence. These schools do little to educate students about other worldly matters or even basic fundamentals (in Mortenson's book, many of the teachers in these schools didn't even know how to read or write).
A little known fact is that in order to join the Taliban (the terror group organized by radical Muslims responsible for 9/11) a young man must have his mother's permission. When I first heard that I had to ask myself what kind of mother would let her child join that kind of organization. Well the answer is an uneducated one. The more education a woman has the more she will know about what's going on around her. Therefore she wouldn't allow it.
This was really his whole point; that through education we could curb the Taliban and other radical groups from the ground up.
Then I began to realize that we in America (especially in urban areas) have a similar issue (on the topic of population control). Our rate of teenage pregnancy could be directly linked to lack of education. I don't mean fundamental education because we have that, by the time these girls get pregnant they at least know how to read and write, but they have serious deficiencies in knowledge of the world around them and their own emotional workings (as our societies get more complex our education will have to get complex too, simple english, math, science, history won't be enough).
So one way to fight this battle is, starting from a young age, focusing a lot more on self reflection and knowledge, along with worldly knowledge. Especially a practical knowlege such as that learned in a Family and Consumer Sciences class. Classes that teach how to file taxes, getting jobs, taking care of children and managing a household. This kind of education in combination with focus on the internal being could help reduce teenage pregnancy.
sounds good, E! it's been directly proven, in countless studies, that the more education a woman has, the lower the number of children she is likely to have.
ReplyDeleteyou know how, for some financial aid, we have to maintain SAP (satisfactory academic progress) or lose the money. well, some world organizations try to impose the same on 3rd world countries that ask for aid... cap your population, and we'll give you money.
and of course, it's never as easy as that. like during times of famine, just giving food will not solve the problem (in fact, it makes it worse; it's called the ratchet effect, google it). and just providing condoms and birth control will not solve the problem because it doesn't answer the root of the problem.
basically, while the answer can be simple, ie, lower population, increase crops, etc. they're so much easier to actually begin. the answers become the destination... how do i get to a lower population? increase education. now, how do i do that? there is just so much that goes into a solving a problem that a lot of people who mean well don't have the coordination or the means to see something through to the end, and thus the cycle remains.