Dads and daughters... and educating us girls

First things first, my dad is awesome and an ode to him would almost be superfluous because just about every one of my friends who's ever met my dad immediately comments on his awesomeness and so, duh, it must therefore be true. Happy Father's Day, Dad! Thanks for being a truly great, awesome, supportive, stable, reliable, fun, charming dad... and for not making us take the dog back when Mom showed up with Tibbie.

I have a love-hate relationship with gift-giving. Every time a holiday or birthday rolls around, I dread gift-buying because I hate the idea of giving someone something that may/might/could/would just end up as some tchotchke they have to worry about getting rid of or finding a place for or it's the wrong size or they've already got one or they're allergic, etc. My dad is impossible to shop for because he has the annoying/convenient habit of just buying whatever techie gadget or opera DVD he wants when he wants it, unless we've specifically warned him to set stuff aside for us to buy him for Christmas or his birthday.

This year, instead of buying him a thing that he'll have to cart back to the States, I bought him $59 of legacy. I donated $59 (the combined total number of years he's been a dad to my sister and me) plus 15% to cover administrative costs in my Dad's name to a group in Ethiopia that pays families to keep their daughters in school. I donated through the Global Giving website, where I looked at the charities that one of my favorite organizations, The Girl Effect, supports.

My dad has always been very supportive of any educational endeavor I or my sister have made. He's always believed that our education (both formal and informal) is the most important thing in our lives and always took an X is no object (whatever X may have been: money, time, etc.) attitude when it came to finding ways to make our education happen. For as long as I can remember, my parents were saving for my sister's and my college educations and they told us they were doing that so that we understood what college would mean. If it meant quizzing us during dinner ("Miki, what's 27 times 14?" It wasn't fair that my dad is a human abacus.), we studied and chewed at the same time. Vacations were educational in terms of life experience and exposure to other cultures, not just beach time (though that was good, too). As soon as I was out of college, my dad started talking to me about planning for my retirement, educating me himself on investing and personal finance (I've since taught him a couple things, too!). And it's never, ever, ever, ever been any question that just because his kids are girls that we deserved anything less than whatever the best he and my mom could provide us to make sure we received the education that would help us to succeed in life. It may not have seemed like it, Dad, but I definitely recognized that early on and have always appreciated it.

Unfortunately, not every girl in this world is so lucky. A lot of parents don't believe that investing in educating their girls is a worthwhile cause. As a result of my parents' great support of education, I've come to understand that education is a human right and something that everyone should have access to. There is a lot of evidence that points to educating girls and physically keeping them in school as being one of the most effective ways to:

• elevate women and children out of poverty
• increase the age of marriage for girls
  
• reduce maternal/pregnancy-related health risks and death due to giving birth too young
• reduce population growth
• reduce the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases
• increase overall economic development by allowing women to be fully incorporated into the labor force
• improve children's health and mortality rates

If you're interested in learning more about how great an effect educating girls and women and supporting women's development can have on global development, the book, Half the Sky, is a great introduction to the topic.

For other great charitable giving ideas for Father's Day, check out Nick Kristof's column on the subject (the rat thing sounds very cool).


So, thanks, Dad and Mom, for always believing in the importance of educating your girls (even though that meant we got better at being argumentative pains in the butt).

My dad's favorite (i.e., most irritating because he was right!) thing to remind my sister and I about was whether or not we were meeting our potential. A "B" was fine if I'd worked my butt off for that "B" (hello, Algebra II). So, to all my ones of readers out there, where are you on your potential? Are you out meeting it every day in your work? In your schooling? In your support of causes that are important to you?

By the way, the touching post about dads and daughters that inspired me to write this post can be found here.