Remember those old Visa commercials that listed several
material items and their prices? Then they’d name one final non-material item
that cannot be bought and deemed it priceless?
This is how I would do that commercial: Pencils- $3.00, paper- $4.50, backpack-
$15.00, education- Priceless. I’d show people of every age heading off to
school. Little kindergarteners holding
their parents’ hands, teenagers goofing on each other on their way through the
school doors, college students getting hugs goodbye as their parents drive away,
moms dropping kids off at school then heading to college, dads at the computer
after tucking their kids in bed for the night, night school people working
toward their GED, and older folks who have a need to continue to learn walking
through those doors of higher education.
It would be a pretty cool commercial, don’t you think?
Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States,
who happens to be from the great state of Iowa, understood the importance of
education. Through his life’s work, knew
that not every country had the same educational expectations and benefits of
its citizenry as the USA does.
“My
country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance.
It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and
honor. In no other land could a boy from a county village, without inheritance
or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope.”
– Herbert Hoover
I read the book Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission
to Promote Peace… One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson a few years back.
Greg, a mountain climber, nearly died in his attempt to climb in the Karakoram
mountains of Pakistan. He wandered incoherently
into a remote mountain village, where the residents graciously cared for
him. When he regained his health and
was preparing to leave, he noticed that the village children were scratching
letters into the dirt with sticks. It was because they had no school. He vowed to the
elders of the village that he would come back and build them a school, and he
did. This book was an interesting read
for another reason too; and that was the cultural differences between Greg, an
American, and his host village. The book is called Three Cups of Tea for
a reason. This leads me to my final point…
I have been given the opportunity to teach English Language Learner classes at a
local community college to adults who are immigrants and refugees. These people are from all over the world and
have left their homeland for a better life in America. My students are on average, about forty years
old. Some a little older, some a little younger. None of them have had formal
education in their home countries. I
teach the very first level class called Basic.
I’m teaching these people the alphabet.
I’m teaching them the sounds that letters make and how to put the sounds
together into words, and the words into sentences. It’s very humbling for me to see them work so
hard for what so many of us take for granted. These people are the epitome of
Hoover’s quote. They didn’t have connections; therefore they didn’t have an
education.
And they’re all so happy to be here and to be learning.
