The political cartoon summarized the situation precisely… “That which is most terrifying to a militant Islamic fundamentalist … a girl with a school book.”
Compelled by fear of change, militant fundamentalists have closed schools and punished adults who secretly taught girls. The women who went to school before the imposition of harsh laws could not be “uneducated” but they have been severely punished when caught passing along their abilities.
Following World War II, mainland China saw the advent of the Communist regime with its fear of educated professionals. Many of the nation’s leaders in every field went to re-education camps and hard labor. Access to education depended on expressed loyalty to the state, not on ability. Rebuilding the country in the 1960s included ferreting out the gifted students and opening the doors of education to them.
Education scares more than just the Islamic fundamentalist. It concerns many conservative religious groups – the easiest example being the Amish. The culture requires that children leave school with an eighth grade education and begin learning a trade, help with the farm work or enter a shop to learn a business. Anything beyond a basic education is unnecessary and might compromise their simple way of livings, so the teenagers who desire to go to college often must wait until they are 18 or 21 before they can take the GED and begin pursuing further education.
Education became a forbidden activity and another closed door for Jewish children caught under the Nazi regime. Quashing a whole race began with refusing them access to the schools. Even their parents who served the community as doctors, teachers, editors, accountants and lawyers found their academically gained skills unwanted. A generation of children gained their education behind closed doors from professionals without jobs. Robbing the Jewish culture of educational opportunities was simply one more way to eliminate them.
But that decade and a half of educational destruction in Europe pales in the light of the slave codes instituted in America. In 1740, South Carolina wrote one of the first laws forbidding the education of the enslaved because having an educated slave “may be attended with great inconveniences.” The law included a penalty of 100 pounds to anyone who broke the law and taught a slave to read. The Virginia code written in 1819 required that the offending teacher and/or slave be punished with no more than 20 lashes.
All this after the invention of the printing press and its improvements ensured that anyone could have access to books and an education. One can understand the ignorance in the eons before industrialization of the printing of books.
In so many ways and in so many places the fear of education has kept millions from learning to read, to write, to study the sciences and mathematics. It is a valid observation. Education changes people, cultures and politics. To be able to read is to be able to discover another idea for oneself. It is not without reason that we say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.”
A greater truth prevails: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” and so we continue to educate our children in this country. We continue to measure outcomes and reassess how to improve the results.
In Union County, in small and large ways, individuals, businesses and groups have placed their stamp of approval on education with their establishment of scholarships, afterschool tutoring sessions, remedial course work – even paying the taxes which fund the schools. We want an educated county. We want our children to learn.
And so this next week, Union County will again demonstrate their support of education with a series of graduations from colleges, high schools and elementary schools. Each graduation will reflect completion of one phase of life and the beginning of another. Even more each commencement says, “we want you to learn, to think, to consider and to share that knowledge with others … to use it to enhance yourself, your life and the lives of everyone you touch.”
Congratulations, graduates … now go read a book and keep on learning.
(Joan Hershberger is a staff writer at the News-Times and author of “Twenty Gallons of Milk.” Email her at jhershberger@eldoradonews.com)