No Girls Left Behind

Much discussion is taking place in how to best provide sound, quality education for young girls growing up around this world. While in the United States strides have been made in the past 25 years creating improved opportunities for education in topics traditionally taught more to boys, there are too many countries where education is denied, even against the law in some countries. In Afghanistan, the Taliban forbade girls from learning to read or write. In many improverished nations girls usually are kept to home and provided little or no formal education. Education is the key to liberation and true freedom. Girls must be provided the same rights to learn, to explore, to become all they can be and much more. Denying any education to young girls and women in other countries must be treated as a human rights abuse. If they could learn to read, they could read safety labels, food labels, instructions, protections from illnesses. Illiteracy is still rampant in many parts of the world. Being able to read would empower young women to work in higher-paying jobs. Many Hispanic immigrants who are here in the United States have little or no literacy training. If they could read and write, they could do better. Girls have dreams to be fulfilled--not all want to be mothers or stuck in the home for their lives--just as boys don't want to be. We can, and must, work to end illiteracy, to help people overcome the lack of these very important life skills. What you can do is if you know of people who cannot read to encourage them to contact the local school where they live so they can be connected in to community-based programs. There is one woman who recently won a nationally-televised contest, and admitted her own personal inability to read. There is no shame on this person--there is much we must do to eradicate this in our country. Please let's get girls worldwide into schools, and let's help them become the strong vibrant women leaders of tomorrow.