MOTHERHOODS MATTER

On January 21, 1901, 124 years ago today, R.A. Kartini wrote these thoughts:

“We went at midday to the shore with Mevrouw Conggrijp to bathe. It was splendidly calm, and the sea was all one colour. I sat on a rock with my feet in the water, and my eyes on the distant horizon. Oh! the world is so beautiful! Thanksgiving and peace were in my heart. If we go to Mother Nature for consolation she will not allow us to go away uncomforted.

I have thought so long and so much about education, especially of late, and I think it such a high, holy task …………..

Education means the forming of the mind and of the soul.

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I subscribe warmly to Mijnheer’s idea, which is set forth so clearly in his paper on the “Education of Native Girls,” “Woman as the Carrier of Civilization!”

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Man receives from woman his very earliest nourishment, at her breast, the child learns to feel, to think and to speak; and I see more and more clearly that the very earliest education has an influence which extends over one’s whole after life.”

Geoff Fox, January 21, 2025, Australia