Education the Road out of Poverty

As a young child and a teenager I'm a ashamed to say I really didn't like school very much at all, and I'll be honest with you, I didn't do particularly well, and because of this I wasn't really encouraged to aim much higher, and left as soon as I got the chance.  I'm saddened when I think what I could have been, but regrets get us no where, now I value education with an intense passion, and apart from my daughters, there are few things in life that I place a higher value on.

When our two girls were born, their father and I mutually agreed that fostering a love of reading and learning was paramount.  We were so proud when they they could write their names by the time they were four, and both were reading long before they started school.  As parents we were very involved in their education, I believe this to be the key to their success, they knew their learning was valued, and both did very well throughout their primary and secondary years.  And I say with more than a small touch of pride, they will be the first in our family to graduate from university.  Our eldest daughter will graduate this December with a degree in Media and Creative Advertising and our younger daughter is completing her first year as she steps on the path to becoming a Primary School teacher.

Education, along with love and a solid secure family, moulded our girls to be the amazing young woman they are today.  Where they take their lives from here is up to them now.  But as I watch them with younger family members I can see when it's their turn to be parents, that an enquiring mind will be fostered in their own children.

And so this passion for education of the next generation continues, but now I'm looking further than my own living room.   Only this past week the world watched on in horror as Pakistani teenager
Malala Yousafzai was gunned down on her way to school, with a shot to the head by the Taliban, her crime, promoting the education of girls.  How is this ever acceptable, when is it going to end? For now Malala Yousafzai is a sensational newsworthy story, but how long? Until the next tabloid scandle comes along? And all to easily the Malala's of this world will be forgotten again, forgotten until another young woman is brave enough to take a stand and she too pays the price.

Education regardless of sex, culture, religion or age is a basic fundamental right of every living person.

Young people in developing nations all over the globe, are yearning for what our children receive free on a daily basis, for what our children take for granted.  These young people are desperately fighting for what an alarming number of people in our society place little or no value on - an education.

What these children wouldn't give to be sitting in a classroom of only 25 children, with extensive resources at their disposal and to be taught by a dedicated professional, a professional that many sectors of our society think nothing of belittling.

So before you say you're too busy to read that book with a child in your life, what is it you're actually doing? Checking Facebook, texting, watching TV, even filling in a tax return, all of these things can wait five minutes.... Put down the smart phone, mute the television and focus on that child and read that book with them, give them the best gift of all, your time.

Our children get a world class education simply by being lucky enough to live in New Zealand.  We must never forget that or take it for granted, for there are millions of children all over the world that will never be so lucky.

Education is the road out of poverty....