DROPPING OUT: SLAVERY WITHOUT CHAINS

After a long day yesterday one of my neighbors knocked on my door. She wanted to know if I could speak with her 16 year old daughter because her daughter was seriously considering dropping out of school. The moment my neighbor said the words ‘dropping out’ my ears automatically perched up and I quickly asked, “Where is she?”
Although initially I got the dramatic rolling of the eyes, the young lady gave me enough respect to listen to what I had to say. I told her that certain cultures and societies believe that females shouldn’t be allowed to read books, go to school and get a basic education. And I went on to tell her that this belief is backwards and a society that keeps its girls from reading books and getting an education is only hurting itself  in the long run because that makes their whole society or country weak. “To me”, I continued,”keeping girls from reading books and going to school is a form of slavery, the kind of slavery where you don’t  physically see the metal chains but they are definitely there, keeping you down and in place.” I further explained to her that we often take our public school system for granted when we should be grateful for it.
Today, as I’m thinking about this young lady and her very concerned mother, I wonder if she went to school this morning. I hope so. – Randolph Randy Camp

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