keep’em illiterate 4-12-26

In the 1700s both Protestants and Catholics across Europe and the United States began Sunday Schools to teach literacy to children who worked long hours in factories six days a week. These schools taught basic literacy so that students would be able to read the Bible. In the 1700s, preaching the Gospel and discipling followers meant hours of school on Sunday providing basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills along with religion. The book ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley, has many passages in which slave owners did not want their slaves to know how to read and write. Owners did not want slaves even looking at newspapers or books. Still a few, such as Belle, the cook for the big house, and her daughter did learn. Belle could sound out words in the newspapers and decipher the news for the other slaves. One day the owner saw her standing in front of his shelves of books. He did not know she could read. Still the very next day she discovered that a lock had been installed to prevent her access to the books. That did not keep her from reading the newspapers the master threw away. Thus she read and told other slaves about local and national events, including hushed reports of slave rebellions.When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 higher education minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani initially said women could continue their university studies albeit in gender-segregated classrooms. That promising beginning quickly disappeared as they limited education for girls to the sixth grade. Opportunities in education, jobs, even leaving the home – let alone any kind of public life – have declined drastically in Afghanistan. Since then, according to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), about a third of the young girls enter forced marriages. During the primaries of the 1980 election cycle, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were questioned about educating the children of immigrants, specifically those without authorization to be here. Both recognized that even the children of unauthorized immigrants need education. Bush said, “I would reluctantly say I think they would get whatever it is that … society is giving to their neighbors. But … the problem has to be solved…. We’re doing two things: We’re creating a whole society of really honorable, decent family-loving people that are in violation of the law, and second we’re exacerbating relations with Mexico. The answer to your question is much more fundamental than whether they attend Houston schools …. I don’t wanna see a whole thing of 6- and 8-year-old kids being made totally uneducated and made to feel they’re living outside the law. Let’s address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people.”Reagan said, “Rather than talking about putting up a fence why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And when they want to go back, they go back. And they can cross and open the border both ways…” He advocated for inclusion rather than perpetuating a permanent underclass through lack of education.When society wants to “keep them in their place” whether as females, another race or social group, a deliberate or subtle refusal to educate plays a vital role in making that happen. When the Christian church really wants to grow, the leaders emphasize, advocate and work towards as much education as possible. Thus many of our great universities began when churches saw the need for higher education. Whatever the reason, whatever the population, it is as true today as it was in 1972 when the United Negro College Fund coined the slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”