RE EDUCATION

Many of us have heard the adage:  "Feed a man a fish and you've fed him for a day.  Teach a man how to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime."  In my opinion, this is an accurate observation; and ought serve as the rationale behind our efforts to bring education to all the world's children.  No one can ever know "too much"; and, likewise, there can never be "too many" people in possession of any or all knowledge.  We must therefore strive to share our knowledge with our fellow man at every opportunity.

I further believe that education is the most valuable tool a human being can give to another human being; and that it truly is, according to a Japanese proverb, "the stem which winds the watch."  Education has been credited with being "the only serious prescription for world economic and psychological troubles." (Alfred DeGrazia, Political Organization)  The teacher has even at times been equated to the priest--for he or she is said to serve as a moral exemplar, deriving authority from society to honestly and objectively interpret society's will.

The higher the incidence or level of education existing in a place, the higher is its labor productivity, the more rapid its growth of gross domestic product, and the more dynamic its level of social integration, including its people's participation in cultural and political affairs.  Furthermore, and once again parenthetically, as an unexpected added bonus, the more widespread and advanced the incidence of education happens to be in a place, the later its people tend to marry; and, thus, the lower the rate of population growth in that place.

But what is most fundamental, as well as most important, is the concept that the knowledgeable segments of our world owe an obligation to impart their knowledge to the rest of the world.  It is comparable to the idea that a person who possesses food in abundance is obligated to pass some of it on to a starving, or even undernourished, person whom he happens to encounter.  And knowledge being infinitely available to the possessor (i.e., none is lost when it is passed on to others), continues as well to be, in full measure, in the possession of the original giver.

Therefore, there is no reason why all children throughout the world should not be afforded the opportunity to obtain, and thereby forever possess, what is actually their birthright: an education of appropriate quantity and quality to enable each to live a life of service, productivity, fulfillment, and consequent happiness.

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