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Education is one of the greatest tools we have for securing a good future for humanity. Every person has potential – every person has a calling, something they are good at – but that potential must be nurtured and scaffolded or nothing will ever come of it.
Unfortunately, literacy and formal education have historically been available only to rich men. Informal education – parents teaching kids how to sew, farm, cook, etc. – has always existed. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but receiving informal education alone provides very limited options for those children – namely, how to sew, farm, cook, etc. when they grow up. Formal education gives people the option to follow their parents' examples or to set out on their own new path to find their calling. Formal education inspires people to dream big. It inspires people to change the world.
Sadly, according to The Girl Effect, 70% of the world's 130 million out-of-school youth are girls. Many, many girls around the world still aren't getting equal opportunities to dream big, find their calling, and to have more options than to become a housewife. It's true – 38% of girls in developing countries marry before turning 18. 14% marry before they turn 15! Between 25-50% of girls in developing countries become teen mothers; compare that to 4.3% teen birth rate in the United States (according to the Guttmacher Institute), which is often portrayed as somewhat of a national crisis. Pregnancy is actually the leading cause of death among girls ages 15-19 worldwide, according to The Girl Effect. And, as if these girls didn't have to cope with enough already, 75% of HIV-infected youth in Africa are girls.
Educated girls are more likely to delay marriage and to have fewer children. Their children tend to be healthier and are more likely to receive education, as well. This isn't surprising, as educated women earn significantly more and they “reinvest 90% of it into their families, as compared to only 30-40% for a man.” Educating girls gives them higher expectations; forced marriage, domestic abuse, a lack of family planning, and limited if any options for a career stop being good enough. Education promotes equality and reduces poverty. Without a good education, people have fewer choices and they are more easily subjected to tyranny on a small, personal scale and on a larger, community or nation-wide scale; sadly, those people tend to be female.
Check out girleffect.org for more information - it's an amazing cause.
vanessaaishacoleman
| 12/15/09 10:03 PM
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