During the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser girls were encouraged to go to school, and women exhorted to join the workforce, as part of the general push for economic development.
Last, if we stirred up our brains and gave children little help, those who did not want to go to school could find other things to do, things many children now do during their holidays.
And if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really want to do.
The girls I went to school with had Prada bag and flat-ironed hair and they spoke with an accent, I who had moved here at age 9 from Connecticut mimicked to fit in.
" Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in going to school."