Writing Analytically (Three Cups of Tea)

SEMINAR 4

Words I had to look up

Pantheon= a public building containing tombs or memorials of the illustrious dead of a nation.

Tenacity= the quality or state of being tenacious; as, tenacity, or retentiveness, of memory; tenacity, or persistency, of purpose.

Monetary= of or pertaining to the coinage or currency of a country

Phantasmagorical= a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

Kowtowing= to kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in expression of deep respect, worship, or submission, as formerly done in China.

Theme: Start them Young

“Mortenson decided CAI schools should educate students only up to fifth grade and focus on increasing the enrollment of girls. Once you educate the boys they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities. But the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they’ve learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight infant mortality, the answer is to educate the girls.” Pg 209

In this quote Mortenson was trying to come up with a solution to Pakistan’s healthcare problems because babies were dying. The women of the villages didn’t know how to properly care for their babies when it came to hygiene. Mortenson believes that if he can educate the people of Pakistan up to fifth grade everything will change. The boys won’t have to tend to the sheep and the girls will have the knowledge to keep their people alive and not die because of sanitary ignorance. Then the girls will teach other girls what they know. If the children are educated young at least they will have a fighting chance.

“Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen’s idea that you can change a culture by giving its girls the tools to grow up educated so they can help themselves.” pg 234

Once again this is another quote expressing the need for children especially girls to be educated at a young age. It is Mortenson’s own experience that this is true. Mortenson has heard of a girl from Pakistan that went to school and afterward is accepted into college and has dreams of being a doctor. Educate them young and they will change the world.

“From the age of twelve, she said, she felt a calling to work with the poor, and began training for missionary work.” Pg 236

This is the perfect example of the young being educated and changing the world. Mother Teresa started her lifetime work at age twelve. Most little girls at this time are just learning their how to divide and in America these little girls are in 6th grade so they have a little over the same education Pakistan children that go to a CAI school. However, in Pakistan the average fifth grader is fifteen. At the age of twelve Mother Teresa feels this tugging on her heart and sets to work at a young age and she did change the world. When people think of a good person to the core, they contrast it to her. It is because Mother Teresa started out so young that she accomplished so much.

Hey I noticed that some people were on the same line as me. The theme for chapters 16 through 20 is obviously education is the answer. I thought it was particularly interesting that Mortenson thought once someone reaches fifth grade level. In America children aren’t allowed to be alone in the fifth grade, yet Mortenson believes people can stand on their own. America and Pakistan are so different it is scary to see the responsibilities that they in the small hands of children in Pakistan when ours are so protected. Does anyone else believe the same?