Already got it covered

“But Madam,” Suzane is saying to me during tonight’s Girls Club meeting, “there are plenty of people who sell at the market or sell food who make more money than people who work at an office.”

And with that one statement Suzane shut down one of my major points of my discussion of the value of education for girls.

I had to stop for a second and regroup. I knew that education was important. I knew it was how these girls would not spend their lives how so many had spent their lives before them: mothers at a young age yielding to the demands of their husbands. But how was I supposed to convince this 16-year-old who lived comfortably on her father’s salary that what she was missing out on (not just materially) was worth not missing out on?

Suzane is smart. She’s driven. And she speaks her minds. I believe if she continues her education, she will be successful. The question is how I convince her it’s necessary when she sees people being what is generally successful everyday, without a high school degree.