I just finished reading I Am Malala by Malala Youfaszai (Malala Fund). You'll probably remember, as I did, that Malala was a Pakistani schoolgirl of fifteen when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman on a makeshift bus on its way home from school. What I didn't know was that Malala and her father, the founder of her school, had campaigned for years in Pakistan on behalf of children's right to an education. They spoke out on radio, blogs and a NY Times documentary even though the limelight made both of them prime targets for the right-wing Taliban insurgency. I Am Malala is required reading for my daughter this summer before she enters eighth grade, and I am so glad that she will read it and see how schoolgirls across the world struggle and risk to gain the opportunities provided by education.
The book motivated me to write to our sponsored students in Kenya and Guatemala - one boy and three girls. They walk a long way each day to get to school and struggle to fit homework in with their many chores. One has eight brothers and sisters, another has twelve. They make bracelets or help with crops to earn money to pay for school. Though my children work hard at their studies here, their access to education is unprecedented when compared with the situation of many around the world, and their lives are comparatively easy.
So I'm also motivated to continue arm-wrestling my kids into math, reading and some writing each day. (OK, not every day, but four out of seven.) Each summer we start out strong and then lose focus as the long, hot days sap our strength and concentration and fade the memory of homework and placement tests. There is a place for relaxation and de-stressing, but no place for forgetting what we've learned when girls like Malala are prepared to give their lives to obtain an education.
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