Juxtaposition of two television programs

These lucky ones survived to go to school, look healthy,

are allowed to go to school rather than work, and

even have a roof to protect them from the rain.

Charlie Rose has been doing a series of discussions on public broadcasting on the human brain. The fifth of these discussions focused on the cognitive and neurological research that is illuminating brain development and functioning in young children. The program ends with a statement hoping that our new knowledge of the brain and cognition will soon allow us to improve educational services.

Frontline this week did a segment on primary education in Pakistan. Of the 67.5 million kids of what we in the developed world would consider school age, only about 30 million are in school there. While 20,000 schools are held outside for lack of a school building, other schools are closed -- because their teachers stopped teaching and their neighbors looted the unoccupied buildings. The madrasas teaching the Koran are occupied and thriving, while the public schools are criticized as working from books and curricula that lead to hate of the West and Christians.

The new Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2010 focusing on marginalization) makes the point that not only are far too many marginalized kids denied schooling but even when they do get to school, their potential has too often been reduced by malnutrition, illness, and lack of intellectual stimulation as infants and preschoolers.

If poor countries do not raise generations of children to get them out of poverty, they will remain poor. That seems pretty obvious. Unfortunately, Pakistan is not alone in under-investing in kids. Yet it is difficult to see how to deal with a cultural melange that includes so many who undervalue education, so many who would not educate girls and women, who believe that education beyond the articles of faith is unimportant or even counterproductive, or who believe that corruption is acceptable.