Issue 9/10

I decided to choose the topic of education as the issue for chapters 9 and 10. The issue of girls in schools came up quite frequently in chapter 10 and their was little to no motivation for females to go through school and become educated. In words of many people, why should women go to school and waste their time if they are going to hoe fields? In chapter 10 the chapter starts out following a newly married couple from China in the 1980's. The parents dropped out of elementary school and were barely literate. The fee was $13 a year and seemed like a waste of money. In their minds, it could go to some things that are so much better, like rice and food. On the girls first day of school, she couldn't afford basic supplies and was very nervous. The teachers were helpful and gave Dai Manju scraps of paper and old pencil bits. Because this girls story was written by the authors, they were given $10,000 to pay for Dai Manju's education and the school used it for every student and even wanted to build a new school. However, the bank, Morgan Guaranty Trust company made an error and the sympathetic person who donated, meant to only give $100, not $10,000. However, when things turned awful and it seemed that the money would be taken back, the bank owned up and donated the difference so that they did not have to force children to drop out of schools. Because of all the scholarships funded by Morgan Guaranty, many other girls on the hillside had also enjoyed an unusual spurt in education and had found jobs in factories. The power of education is important and by just one simple person helping out, it changed many, many people.