Shares insight into mother’s work in education, role of public sector in education.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: The latest buzz on the former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is all about her plans to get pregnant, and the “unapologetic” pressure from her parents, Hillary and Bill Clinton, to be made grandparents, but last week, she revealed the deep reverence her entire family has for education, an insight into her mother’s commitment to early childhood education, and an opinion on the role of government in the sphere of public education.
“My parents are at their Yale law school reunion this weekend,” said Chelsea Clinton, speaking at the annual Pratham gala held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, last week. “And I was thinking that my father was the first person in his family to go to college. My mother was the first woman in her family to go to college, and they certainly were the first people to go to graduate school in their families. So believing in the power of education is not rhetorical in my family, it is very much part of our reality.”
Clinton also dwelt on her mother, Hillary Clinton’s commitment on early childhood education, and the work she is doing in that direction with the organization Too Small to Fail.
“My mother’s kind of re-emphasis on early childhood education in this country which she watched in a partnership called Too Small to Fail, is hopefully one where we can learn from Pratham,” she said. “We have a lot to learn in the United States from what is working around the world.”
Too Small to Fail is a joint initiative of Next Generation and The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, with the goal to improve the health and well-being of America’s children ages zero to five. Sendhil Mullainathan, Professor of Economics, Harvard University, and the Founder of ideas 42, is an advisory council member.
Clinton also admired Pratham’s work in India, saying that one of the things that had earned respect for them was their “focus on education” that “tries to fill the gap between what the public sector can currently produce and the aspirations of families in India.”
She added: “And it (Pratham) tries to augment the capacity of the public sector, not work around it, not undermine it. But to share with state governments, local governments, what learning is working, how it’s doing its work, ensuring that teachers are able to be as happy, well equipped, and successful as we saw in the (introductory) video (on Pratham).”
Clinton also gave an insight into what she thinks of the role of government in public sphere.
“I think too often public sector is deliberated or worked around but ultimately it is the public sector’s responsibility to provide education for children, whether it is in this country, or in India, and I couldn’t emphasize more how much I appreciate Pratham’s commitment to ensuring that it is part of the solution and as we say in our family it’s trying to work itself out of a job, but it is a very big job.”
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar).