Joshua Kennon

Lindsay Lohan, 24, gets her name and face all over the news because she went to jail.

Justin Allen, 23, Brett Linley, 29, Matthew Weikert, 29, Justus Bartett, 27, Dave Santos, 21, Chase Stanley, 21, Jesse Reed, 26, Matthew Johnson, 21, Zachary Fisher, 24, Brandon King, 23, Christopher Goeke, 23, and Sheldon Tate, 27, all gave their lives for you this week.

- Courtesy of Devon Thorne Kariker

According to a new research article by the Associated Press, nine out of ten soldiers in the Afghanistan army are illiterate.  That statistic shocked me and, frankly, made me realize that there isn’t a lot of hope (at least in the short term) for many of the countries in the world.

How can we expect a nation of millions of people, who act no different than animals promoting a superstitious belief that God will punish them if a woman dresses a certain way or they perform certain sexual acts, to sit down and rationally examine the failings of their own political system when they can’t even set down and have an internal dialogue for progress that requires a lot of reading.  The United States of America was founded by one of the best educated and literate groups of men in the world and we are far richer for the wisdom and legacy they handed us as part of our cultural heritage.

Why Illiteracy in Afghanistan Is a Problem

Years ago, I read a book called A is for Ox that detailed specific structural changes in the brain that were caused when someone learned to read.  One of the most powerful was the ability for advanced abstract thought.  According to research, illiterate adults often had a harder time identifying intangible concepts such as spheres, instead likening everything to objects with which they had contact and familiarity, such as an orange.  The authors go on to document the significant social ramifications of this phenomenon, explaining that language development in humans does far more than give us the ability to speak and communicate.  It stimulates the necessary internal brain functions that serve us for the rest of our lives and help us progress in every discipline including science, the arts, philosophy, and politics.

For countries like Afghanistan, I’m reminded of an IMF report that I read in my early twenties that provided documentation proving that the single most important determinant of a nation’s economic and educational growth was the length of time that it experienced domestic tranquility.  In other words, entrepreneurs aren’t going to risk everything their family has to open a bakery on the town square when men and women are blowing themselves up outside his windows each morning.  The result is economic expansion remains illusive and, as a result, the education system fails to produce rational, well balanced adults.  It’s a cycle that can be difficult, if not impossible, to break.