Themes from Stones into Schools
The institution of education in many regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan is virtually nonexistent. Many girls don’t have access to schools (Stones into Schools p.4) and those that do usually don’t graduate from high school. While Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools and the documentary The Miseducation of Pakistan deal with two different areas, they both show many similar themes. One major recurring theme that is evident in both Stones into Schools and The Miseducation of Pakistan is the suppression of women. Both works discussed how women in the region had traditionally been discouraged from attending school or entering the workplace. The Taliban was especially opposed to women’s rights. When the Taliban
Mortenson told about how when he was in Korphe that he saw eighty-two school children drawing their lessons with sticks in the dirt and that there was no teacher anywhere in the school (Stones into Schools p.8). This theme was very evident in the Miseducation of Pakistan as well. The video discussed how many teachers never showed up, but were still on the government payroll. Many times a student would be the one teaching the class (The Miseducation of Pakistan). On one occasion there was a single teacher who had to teach the children many subjects including ones that he didn’t know how to teach. As a result, the students performed poorly in English and many other subjects. While both works have many common themes, there were many differences as well. A theme that was depicted in The Miseducation of Pakistan was corruption in the school system. Many administrators for schools in Pakistan were secretly taking many of the schools’ funds. One of the schools shown had a large scientific laboratory, however students didn’t use it as all of the funds that were meant to go to the lab for experiments were diverted to the administrator’s pockets. A theme that was addressed in Stones into Schools addressed in the documentary was cultural conflicts in the region. On numerous occasions it was discussed how the three rival sects of Islam, the Sunnis, Shias, and