Headline March 25, 2017/ ''' !FEAR -*EDUCATION'S*- FURY? '''

''' !FEAR -*EDUCATION'S*- FURY? '''

IN 1967 : YES, 1967 :  PHILADELPHIA : 

A 12 year old student/ girls' poem on  Napalm Bombing  in Vietnam had caused the Pentagon to cancel:

13,000 subscriptions to a Sunday School  magazine, the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education said, at the time.

The magazine  ''Venture'', which had a circulation of  130,000 was used in Protestant Sunday schools of  American Military bases. 

The board said the Pentagon described the poem as   ''an embarrassing item''.

The poem written by  Barbara Beidler, of Vero Beach, Florida is  beautifully entitled  :  ''Afterthoughts on napalm drop on jungle villages of Haiphong.''

Part of the poem reads:

''Little animals with fur aflame

then the children flamed,

Running  their clothes flying like fiery kites

Screaming  -their screams

Dying as their faces seared.

The women's baskets burned on their heads

The men's boats glazed on the rice waters.

*Listen Americans.

Listen clear and long:

The children are screaming 

In the jungles of Haiphong*.'' 

    

*The Poem aroused global tears and wrath*. 

SO, in the  Developing World, as in Pakistan even though there may be less resistance to  how many girls go to school,  there is another kind of resistance related to what girls do after they get educated.

This was apparent in the case focus groups with over 200  parents and  teachers of children enrolled in  low-cost  private schools in rural and urban north Punjab in late 2016.

'I was directly involved in these discussions,' states the author Ravale Mohydin,   at the Centre for Economic Research    -as the programme manager for the ongoing  Leaning and Achievement  in Pakistan Schools, or LEAPS.

The focus groups revealed that many parents viewed girls' education as a form of protection and expected social and financial clout for their daughters as the natural consequence of educating them.

Surprisingly, most even expected higher returns when it came to investing in a daughter's education as compared to a son's education  -both in social and financial terms.

One got to hear to comments such as   'we should spend more on our daughters as we will get a higher return on our investment. She will to college and study   -she will pass exams.

When we spend more on our son, we will spend more but he will fail,' And an educated girl is better able to handle issues with her  in-laws. This is a new and encouraging concept.

Yet, these same determined and financially invested parents also agreed the participating female teachers on girls discontinuing their work after getting married if they could not obtain permission from their in-laws to carry on.

Perhaps,  in their minds, socio-cultural norms take precedence over the financial and social freedom afforded by girls'  education. 

The two mindsets accounting for the staggered growth of education for females are discernible at this point, with one propelling such education forward and the other being more concerned about all of this getting out of hand.

Pakistanis, it seems, are grappling with how to fuse the two to progress, and also with how to sidestep whatever is deemed inconvenient in socio cultural terms. 

Pakistan's educated  female labor force  is slowly growing across socioeconomic groups-

And it would be a  missed economic opportunity if it is not accompanied by support in the form of  socio-cultural  acceptance.

One can only hope that as we get more educated,  the fear of education also becomes a remnant of the past.     

On Pakistan's Poetic Day, with most respectful and loving dedication to great Heroes : 

Students Merium, Rabo, Haleema, Eman/LUMS, Sameen, Saima, Aqsa, Malala [Noble Prize], Dee, Armeen/LUMS,  Areesha, Sarah:

And Lord's Little Angels : Kanza Faraz, Maria Imran, Mahyna Khan, Hanyia Khan, and Merium Khan.

*Come on girls, Go Change The World*. 

See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

And most respectful and  Special Dedication : Mother Teresa, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

''' All Choices '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless