Baha’i Perspectives

Archive for the tag 'knowledge'

The Oldest Schoolboy on the Planet

nadim March 20th, 2008

Meet the oldest schoolboy on the planet, 88-year old peasant farmer Kimani Maruge. Displaced by the recent Kenyan crisis and living in a refugee camp, Mr. Maruge still rises each morning, puts on his uniform and walks 4km to his primary school. His perseverance is astonishing. In his quest for knowledge, neither his advanced age nor his limp prevent him from making the daily journey to and from school:

“It is hard. There is no one to help me walk. I go alone. But the urge to learn keeps me going.”

Most of us have acquired an education with comparatively little personal sacrifice, and it is difficult to comprehend, entirely, the social and psychological consequences of being illiterate. Human lives become defined by a lack of opportunity and a lack of freedom to shape one’s own destiny (in a sense, the loss of free-will), which in turn leads to deep feelings of inferiority and worthlessness. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, there is even a direct correlation between illiteracy and poor health.

I would highly recommend reading the entire story. Reading through it, I was struck by the example he is setting for those around him, particularly with respect to his unselfish attitude towards education. He does not seek education for material gain. Rather, he finds that the process of learning is, in itself, the greatest reward:

Arts, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being, and are conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man’s life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone… In truth, knowledge is a veritable treasure for man, and a source of glory, of bounty, of joy, of exaltation, of cheer and gladness unto him. Happy the man that cleaveth unto it, and woe betide the heedless.

(Baha’u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 26)

Of course, Mr. Maruge would never been able to pursue an education were it not for the free primary schooling introduced by the Kenyan government, for which they should be commended.

Among other teachings and principles Bahá’u'lláh counsels the education of all members of society. No individual should be denied or deprived of intellectual training, although each should receive according to capacity. None must be left in the grades of ignorance, for ignorance is a defect in the human world. All mankind must be given a knowledge of science and philosophy — that is, as much as may be deemed necessary. All cannot be scientists and philosophers, but each should be educated according to his needs and deserts.

(Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 108)