From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 12:43:34 -0400

Monica R. Edinger writes: A correction --- I knew plenty of highly educated Sierra Leoneans who read as I do. I had close friends studying at the University there (one of the oldest in that part of the world, I believe) and others studying at teachers' colleges. My boy friend of the time (a Gambian studying at one of the teachers' colleges) came back from the Russian Embassy loaded with books of Marxist thought; clearly he was reading to learn and expand his understanding of the world just as I combed the British Council's library
(the only library in the country) for books on British colonialism in Africa so I could understand better what I was seeing and experiencing.

I was thinking more of others who lived their lives differently from those of us who were so highly educated in the booklearning way. I was trying, clumsily I guess, to celebrate their ways of knowing, that being without the ability to read does not mean intellectual, emotional, or spiritual impoverishment.

Monica



Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 18 Jul 2004 11:43:34 AM CDT