A million Einsteins

Photo: Roger Burks/Mercy Corps

“How many of the Einsteins that ever existed were allowed to learn physics?” asked Eben Moglen — founder of the Software Freedom Law Center and a staunch proponent of open-source technology — at a conference I recently attended.

In all my years working in international relief and development, through the travels and conversations I’ve had with children in some of the world’s hellholes, I’d never thought of it that way.

Moglen went on say this about young slum-dwellers in Bangalore, India, who are often exploited for child labor: “These children, who are the poorest of the poor, aren’t allowed to own anything — except their brains.” But without an opportunity to exercise those minds with time spent in a classroom, what will become of them?

In the world’s poorest places, families usually don’t have the luxury of planning their children’s future education and employment; energy and effort go to providing food for the family table. Life is about survival. The future is tomorrow or, in the most dire cases, later on that same day.

As a result, children are stationed in fields instead of classrooms. Sometimes they end up in much worse places.

How many Einsteins — or Shakepeares, or Mozarts — become grist for the mills of subsistence economies or fodder for the war campaigns of megalomaniacs? Too many.

I think about some of the kids I’ve spoken with: Charlie. Hu Yan. Bosco. Anita. They all come from much different places and situations — but the one thing that connects them all in my mind is the conversation I had with them. Such articulate dialogue. And, in all cases, such a desire to learn.

They are the Einsteins — and greater — of our time. They come from Congo’s sprawling displacement camps, China’s hulking cities, Nepal’s ravaged villages and Uganda’s blood-soaked countryside. All but one of them are in classrooms today, with assistance from Mercy Corps programs.

They’re allowed — even encouraged — to use their minds. To learn and dream. What would our world be like if every child was allowed to exercise that right?