education without fear

In a time when we expend billions of dollars to legally contest the distribution of dollars for education, take time to pause and give thanks that we have an established educational system and that educators – such as my daughter, sister, brother, aunt, grandmothers, sister-in-law and many of my friends – can teach any and all children without fear of reprisal.
I say this because in Afghanistan, Islamic Taliban demand that schools for girls be closed and threaten to kill any who teach them.
These are not idle threats. Prior to the invasion of the United States in 2001, the presiding Taliban powers succeeded in their “educational program.” Girls stayed home and boys studied only Islam in an effort to establish a “pure” Islamic state.
The only problem with a “pure” Islamic state is it does not prepare students to enter the university to prepare for a profession. A few brave souls persisted in teaching anyway. “My mother was a teacher. She insisted on a strong education for me. When the Taliban prevented us from going to school, my mother ran some underground classes,” wrote Parween al-Sha on her website. She now lives and studies in the U.S.
Even though hundreds of thousands of children have returned to school since the American occupation, many have not. There are about 1.2 million primary school-age girls alone who are not being educated, according to a United Nations report in an AP story.
The Taliban threats continue to hinder education. For security reasons, 100 out of 170 of Afghanistan’s outlying provinces’ schools are closed and less than 10 percent of the students in school are girls.
And, the Taliban continues to attack teachers. In December four armed men grabbed, stabbed and decapitated Malim Abdul Habib, 45, in front of his wife and eight children.
Why? Because as headmaster at Shaikh Mathi Babas High School he welcomed girls as well as boys and taught more than just Islamic principles.
As headmaster over 1,300 students, in the remote mountainous province, populated mainly by Pashtuns, Habib had faced at least two other threats, including one while working for a group helping disabled children. In December the Taliban followed through with their previous threats to Habib.
In the United States we debate ‘what’ to teach, but we never debate ‘who’ to teach. We insist that every child must have an education. Each child needs a public, private or home schooled education in order to learn how to read, write and understand their world and prepare for the future. We embrace education as a means of improving everyone’s life and as a means of ensuring an adequate number of trained professionals as well as an informed public. We want people who can read and understand prescription bottles, road signs, newspapers, instruction manuals and our nation’s Constitution.
Certainly, not all students go to school in optimal environments and, sadly, many ignore the advantages offered them, but each receives a chance to learn.
We may debate many facets of our nation’s educational system, but no one says “don’t educate these children.”
Our educational system has it flaws, but closed doors and scuttled opportunities under the duress of the Taliban or others of their ilk is not one of them.