Three Cups of Tea

I recently finished reading Greg Mortenson's book Three Cups of Tea. If you are not familiar with the book, Mortenson was a mountain climber who became lost after a failed attempt to scale K2 in Pakistan. Separated from his climbing party, he ultimately ended up in a remote village where he was nursed back to health. In gratitude for their care, Mortenson asked what their most pressing need was and when he found out that it was a school for the village's children, he began a quest to fulfill that it. Ultimately this passion lead to the creation of a program called the Central Asia Institute. Mortenson and the CAI have built hundreds of schools in the mountainous regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan to educate both boys and girls.

What struck me about the both the adults and children in these areas is the intensity of their desire and the perseverance to receive an education despite overwhelm obstacles-not only mountainous terrain, but war, poverty, and often a religious culture that discourages the education of women in addition to the teaching of certain subjects. For example in 2003 he took a donation of textbooks to medical school in Khabal, Afghanistan. Until recently the Taliban had monitored all classes to be sure that any pictures of the human body were not displayed even for anatomical reasons and most of their textbooks had been burned as they had been deemed to have unacceptable material.

The book detailed story after story of students seeking education under all types of similar hardships.For example a girls' school in which under the Taliban rule the teachers had to go into hiding. The school was back in operation but the classes met outside in all types of weather. At one point a flight of helicopters passed overhead and the wash from their rotors knocked over and shattered the school's only blackboard. The head of the school had not received a salary in over a year.

What struck me was the juxtaposition between these students and some (thankfully not all) of the ones I saw on a daily basis at my school- "Hall crawling", disruptive in class etc. Or the AP students who blew off the AP tests. The tests in my district are paid for by school district-aka taxpayer-so any student no matter what their financial situation can take the test and hopefully earn advanced college credit. As a proctor I watched a number of them doodle in the space for the free response essay sections, put their heads down and sleep ten minutes into a 2 hour test or simply fail to show up for the test.

Somewhere along the way getting an education has ceased to be important to many in this country. We can throw around all the money we want and have all the greatest and latest tools and programs, but students and parents need to value receiving an education. How sad that with all the resources at hand in this country there are those who do not. It is especially striking when seem along side places like Pakistan and Afghanistan where children will sit outside in all types of weather using a stick and the ground before them as a slate in order to learn. They will walk miles in order to attend school and some of the villages have had to go against ultra-conservative religious leaders in order to have a school in their village so that girls especially can be educated.

If you are interested in knowing more about Greg Mortenson, his life, his accoplishments, and CAI check out this video on You Tube: Q & A With Greg Mortenson