(3-97) Presenting his program for his second term in office, President Clinton also announced an educational offensive. He did not mean to enforce higher education or furthering computer literacy, he spoke about fighting the growing analphabetism. For a leading industrial nation, this is bad news. So where did we go wrong?

Shenjee, who is so kind to host this essay, wrote an article about her co-worker Jane. It contains the statement "Her husband does not value education." And from what I have seen and heard where I live, this seems an explanation.

General and mandatory education was introduced in the West only during the last 200 years, approximately. And although science and technology thrived since then, the value of education never has found real roots. If valued at all, it had to be of immediate and practical use, such as furthering a career, for example. Other, more heroic, activities were and still are, valued higher, look at the sports pages in the newspapers.

Later in her article, Shenjee comments on Jane's efforts to provide her children with good education "This is so Chinese". And, indeed, I know of only two cultures, in which education has had a high value for many centuries. These are the Chinese and the Jewish culture. Both have their tales of war and combat and the heroes to go with them, but not only in literature and depicting arts, scholars take a prominent place in these cultures. In China, for a long time, education was the key to achieve rank and power. In contrast to the West, China developed an administration not based on hereditary nobility, but on merit and education. Anyone having the means to obtain education and being capable enough to pass the examinations necessary, could get a post in the administration. And even people having failed the examinations, were highly regarded. Some became famous poets, writers or painters. For Jews, abiding the laws laid down in the torah was, and still is, of utmost importance. To understand these laws and to understand the Talmud, the commentaries on these laws, one had to study very hard. In the changing environments the Jewish communities lived in, the laws always had to be interpreted anew. This was not left to rabbis, the professional teachers and scholars, alone; many, or even all, members of a community participated in such discussions.

There is a recurring topos in the literature of both cultures: the family, who wants a scholar as a husband for a daughter. Scholars were thought to be gentle, wise and always with their heads in the clouds. They would treat their wives well and might reach a position of rank and wealth. So an educational offensive is not a bad idea. Important is that it is not restricted to provide short-term results, there should be a long-term investment to teach the value of education.