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Been looking at education recently and seeing what some people of influence had to say about it.

Some amazing and fruitful quotes came to view when googling education and I felt I had to pass some of them on.

One of the best was the words of Martin Luther King, actually Dr Martin Luther King, a Doctor of Diviinity, a civil rights leader, an American man of colour as we would now say, who obviously thought long and hard about a great many things in his struggle to overcome segregation and racial prejudice in America. In his consideration

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

He became a spokesman for more than the black civil rights movement. He became a leader of men on the world stage as these words show from his Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech in Oslo, 1964.

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964

So when talking about books and reading, and why we should teach little children to read and let them keep them at it, I came across this little priceless nugget of insight from another great voice of America. This time Oprah Winfrey, the talk host show, Number 2 on the Forbes list of the 10 Top Richest Self Made Women at an estimated 3.1 billion fortune.

“Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.”

Well that is certainly a shift of viewpoint. She grew up on a small farm, with her grandmother, where they grew everything. There were no shopping trips to town.

Oprah has this to say about herself.

“I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who, from an early age, knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.”

And so this brings me to another completely different story from the opposite end of the spectrum.

This is the incredibly inspiring story of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace prize winner at the age of 17, in 2014. Malala was born in Pakistan where her father was an educator and had a school. Malala wanted to learn, and become educated which was not something the Taliban were in favour of.

Malala also had been blogging for the BBC since 2009 about life and conditions under the Taliban regime. This was not popular with them either.

One day on her way to school, some Taliban soldiers got on the bus taking her and her friends to school and asked which of the girls on the bus was Malala. When she was identified, she was shot at close range in the head. Miraculously, she did not die. She was flown to Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where doctors operated on her more than once to save her life. She is now living in the United Kingdom with her family and pursuing her education. Her story went viral and she rose to become a person of influence and speaker about matters of concern for her.

Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her actions her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. She shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi.

She has this to say about her experiences.

“I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.

The one thing she said that I love best of all is this statement.

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.

And so to close, these profound words.

“Extremists have shown what frightens them most. A girl with a book.”

“With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.”

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Filed under: General • Training

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