Spot on
"Three Cups of Tea" author speaks for peace, education.By DAN SCHNEIDER, DMG Writer
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HOUGHTON - Education is the key to achieving peace.
Greg Mortenson, co-author of "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" delivered that message to a group of students Wednesday at Michigan Technological University.
Since 1996, Mortenson has built more than 60 schools in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said an educated population in those countries presents a greater threat to the machinations of terrorist leaders than does military force.
"They don't really fear the bullet, but they fear the pen," Mortenson said.
He's not the only one who feels that way. In his presentation to students from Finlandia University; Bay College; Conserve School in Land O' Lakes, Wis.; and Tech, one of Mortenson's slides displayed the text of a letter from an Army officer stationed in Afghanistan.
"I am convinced that the long-term solution to terrorism in Afghanistan, specifically, is education," Lt. Col. Christopher Kolenda wrote to Mortenson.
Mortenson said terror groups target uneducated youth because it is easier to indoctrinate those youth with extremist ideologies. He said educated mothers are less likely to let their sons join jihadi groups.
It is clear that terror groups do not want schools to succeed. By bombing or other means, the Taliban and other jihadi groups have destroyed more than 480 schools since 2007, Mortenson said. Most of those were girls' schools.
Despite this, schools are gaining traction in central Asia. In Afghanistan in 2000, Mortenson said, there were only 800,000 children in school and these students were predominantly boys. Now, he said, there are 6.4 million children in school in Afghanistan and about 2 million of these students are female.
"The number of kids (in school) has gone up eight times in eight years in Afghanistan," Mortenson said.
Schools built by the Central Asia Institute, which Mortenson founded, will educate 24,000 students this year.
Mortenson said the schools his organization has built have been successful because the communities surrounding the schools are involved in their construction.
"The main reason our schools have not been attacked, I think, is because the communities are so invested in them," he said.
Education and literacy yield other benefits for poor communities, Mortenson said, such as reducing the number of deaths during childbirth and reducing the rate of population expansion.
Mortenson said educating poor children is not an expensive proposition.
"First grade is $20 a year, fifth grade is like $40 a year and if we don't invest in education, the problem is going to go on and on," he said.
"Three Cups of Tea" was 2008's summer reading book at Finlandia University and Conserve School. At Tech, it was the 2008 Reading As Inquiry selection and all first-year students were required to read it before arriving at Tech.
Finlandia student Rebecca Langlais had read as far as page 142 before Wednesday morning's presentation. She said she found the book inspiring as it depicted a life vastly different from her own.
"I feel really blessed to be here (in the United States)," Langlais said. "I've never experienced poverty, but I do want to experience it and help people."
The book recounts Mortenson's experiences building schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, his life's passion that began in the tiny village of Korphe, Pakistan after Mortenson's descent from a failed attempt to summit K2.
In addition to Wednesday morning's presentation, Tech hosted Mortenson for a question and answer session Wednesday afternoon and a larger public address Wednesday evening at the Rozsa Center.
Dan Schneider can be reached at dschneider@mininggazette.com
