A reader from Belgium took issue with some of my comments about Oprah’s leadership Academy in South Africa in last month’s column. The entire letter I received can be read in this month’s Letter to the Editor.
For the record, I think Oprah’s Leadership Academy is a good thing. Any investment that’s made in educating a person anywhere in the world is a good thing. Investing in education is one investment that pays dividends many times over.
A man from Vietnam, who suffered atrocities during the war and spent time in refugee camps before finally fleeing with nothing to America, once told me that his education was the one thing no one was able to take from him. And though he could bring nothing else with him to America, he still had his education and because of that he went on to success in business.
I am very grateful that when I was a just a lad in primary school, my teacher, Mrs. Welds, started a scholarship preparation class a year before I sat the common entrance exam. A whole classroom of kids stayed on for an extra class after regular school and we wrote an essay and did mathematics every day.
That investment paid off. I won a free place to Kingston College a year later. I would later go onto earn a bachelor and master’s degrees. But I still think of that year of extra work in primary school as the investment that made all the difference.
In the United States, many medical students borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for their education. They do so unhesitatingly, for they know the payoff will come later in a big way.
Those counties that invested heavily in education go on to collect huge dividends later. Those that made no investment in education will know the fate of those seeking to reap where they have not sown.
As the saying goes, “if you think education is expensive… try ignorance.”
