Peace, education central to Mortenson's life

The best way to promote peace is through education, said Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, during his Ubben Lecture in Kresge Auditorium Thursday.Mortenson spoke about his mission to promote peace with education. Many of the people in attendance said they had had read the book.

Mortenson spoke of his mission to bring education to rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to promote peace - a mission made clear by his book's subtitle: "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace." Mortenson's publisher altered the subtitle for the hardback edition of the book so it read "One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism."

After the hardback edition flopped, the paperback edition was released with Mortenson's original subtitle and it enjoyed a 92-week stay on the New York Times' bestseller list, in addition to becoming required reading for several high schools, universities and military personnel.

"Fighting terrorism is based in fear. Promoting peace is based in hope," Mortenson said.

Mortenson's mission started with an earnest promise to build one school in the Pakistani village of Korphe after developing an intimate friendship with several of its residents. Since then, some 28,000 students have gone through one of Mortenson's 78 schools and 18,000 of them have been female.

Mortenson quoted a proverb he learned throughout his youth in Africa: "If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a community." This proverb is an integral part of the philosophy of his schools, which focus primarily on the education of young females.

"I really think a key to many solutions in impoverished and war-torn societies is the girls' education," Mortenson said.

Mortenson also said that if women are educated to at least the fifth-grade level, it can do three things: reduce infant mortality, reduce population explosion and improve the basic qualities of health and life.

Freshman Emma Lanham, who attended the lecture with her mother Sally Lanham, said the discussion of women's education was the part of the lecture she found most compelling.

The curriculum in Mortenson's schools is fairly standard with reading, writing and mathematics, but it is different in that by fifth grade the students will know five languages. It also includes a unit on health, hygiene and sanitation, as well as a story-telling section in which the village elders come in two or three times a week to tell stories and folk tales.

"I think it's a tragedy that we don't have that rich oral tradition [in America] where we can learn from our elders about the folklore and heritage or culture," he said.

His speech included several anecdotes that detailed his quest to raise money for the school, which started with selling the majority of his possessions, writing 500 letters by hand to celebrities, receiving a $100 check from Tom Brokaw and the stories of inspiring young people that had taken up some philanthropic causes of their own.

Mortenson had both good news and bad news to share with the audience as his speech drew to a close.

"The bad news is that since 2007, the Taliban and other groups have destroyed or shut down over 400 schools," Mortenson said.

However, Mortenson's good news was that in Afghanistan, 6.4 million children now attend school, a massive improvement from the 800,000 that attended school just a few years earlier.

"I would love to print that in big red letters at the top of every US newspaper," said Shannon Gross, a visitor from Indianapolis.

Some members of the audience said that they felt inspired by the presentation.

"I felt very emotional at the end of it," Sally Lanham said. "I think he's inspiring another generation of people."

Mortenson's speech was followed by a book-signing. The line stretched the entire length of the Great Hall of the Green Center for the Performing Arts.

Like many other Ubben lectures, Mortenson drew a crowd not just of DePauw students, but also of people from the surrounding area, including a group of students from Hanover College.

Hanover's incoming freshman class read the book as part of its freshman orientation, and about 20 students boarded a bus for a five-hour round trip in order to hear the author speak.

"I think we're all really inspired by his story," said Hanover freshman Erin Huckabone, "We wanted to come hear more about it.