SPEAK FOR THE GIRL CHILD by JAMES OFEM

SPEAK FOR THE GIRL CHILD by JAMES OFEM

If our mothers got education lots of sufferings today will had been long averted

Our forefathers had had serious bouts with the confusion arising from the problem of whether, girls should have the same type of education as boys.

It was a difficult situation to contend with, not inherent in them though, but which they learned from preexisting idiosyncrasies.

There is no harm in giving girls the same education as boys, for one of the innocuous and priceless benefits of education is to liberalize the mind, the consciousness in human nature which gives the ability of rational thoughts inherent in both boys and girls.

Perhaps a society inundated with prejudices as it is, the liberalization of the feminine mind is even more urgent because research has shown that girls are more gifted in solving certain psychological and emotional problems due largely to their intuitive abilities than boys.

While our forefathers did not forget that, girls will be the guardians of home-life, the mother of future generations, they also believed that a woman has no other life than rearing a family. “Back to the kitchen” is as meaningless a cry as “back to the village”-the cry of every housewife.

But, in our generation today, we must have a clear idea about the goal that we have in view of the rationale behind education.

Since the resultant generality of education is to liberalize the mind, an education that does it for boys will also do it for girls as well.

Restriction of women within a narrow sphere of duties make them narrow-minded, and petty things can never be mentally healthful.

Our constitution is clear on the issue of equal opportunities for men and women. Hence we should throw the gates of education wide open for all alike.

The uplift of society depends on the harmonious development of all its constituent elements.

Man’s progress depends on women and is part of it. “The woman’s cause is man’s, says the poet. They rise or fall together; whether they are to be godlike and free, or slaves, depends in a large measure on their ability to go hand in hand. This is the central truth of the matter.

Therefore let us educate our women as we educate our men. Let us light up their intelligence with knowledge; out of that will come nothing but wellness.

It is no more news therefore that, in our modern complex social organization, only the educated can adjust themselves to their duties and obligations in a complicated pattern of life and the feminine gender is no exception.

Men must stop treating women as second class citizens.