I finished The Earth Hums in B Flat last night. I loved it, and will be writing a post on it very soon. The book I started next, though, is a bit of a 20th century classic, and I can’t believe I’ve never read it before: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark.

It’s one of those books that has been hanging around my head for a little while, but until a few weeks before Christmas I didn’t even own a copy. I eventually stumbled across an old Penguin edition in the same second-hand books section in which I found Penelope Lively, so of course I bought it. Then, a week or so ago, I posted this article about Muriel Spark on OUPblog, by Martin Stannard. He wrote the recent acclaimed biography of Spark, as well as the DNB entry about her, which went online this month. This put it back at the front of my mind. THEN, because of the reading block, short books are looking particularly appetising at the moment, and this is a very short book. So The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie it was.

Things all link up. Today, the day after I decide to finally read this extraordinarily well-known book, The Guardian published this article on inspirational teachers. They asked lots of famous people to name the teachers that most inspired them, and the public can nominate their own. (There is also an excellent article on the current Tory plans to make teaching something one can only do with a very high degree). Of course, the article was illustrated with a picture of Maggie Smith (I ♥ her) as Miss Brodie herself. It’s odd how these things all come together.

My own inspiring teacher was my CSYS English teacher, Mrs Morning. She made me think about literature in a way that no one else had at that point. She also listened to all my teenage angst with good grace, took me seriously, and instilled in me an even bigger love of literature and learning and reading than I already had. She also recommended I read The Handmaid’s Tale, and you already know how much I now adore Margaret Atwood.

I also read something recently that made me realise how lucky I am to have access to education and learning. The Afghan Women’s Writing Project:

The Afghan Women’s Writing Project began as an idea during novelist Masha Hamilton’s last trip to Afghanistan in November 2008. Her interest in Afghanistan was sparked in the late 1990s during the Taliban period, when she understood it was one of the worst places in the world to be a woman. Masha first visited the country in 2004, and was awed and inspired by the resolute courage of the women she met. When she returned, she saw doors were closing and life was again becoming more difficult, especially for women. She began to fear we could lose access to the voices of Afghan women if we didn’t act soon…

The project reaches out to talented and generous women author/teachers here in the United States and engages them, on a volunteer, rotating basis, to teach Afghan women online from Afghanistan. We use women teachers due to cultural sensitivities in Afghanistan. The writing workshops are taught in three secure online classrooms.

Submissions are edited in a back-and-forth process for grammar and clarity, but remain the work of the original author. The goal of the project is to encourage the women to develop their voices and share their stories, something that was not permitted during the years when Afghanistan was Taliban-held.

Yesterday they posted an article about a girl who has spent much of her young life trying to convince her father to let her go to school. It’s really incredibly moving stuff, and I urge you all to read it in full. Here is just a taster:

The thing that makes me saddest is seeing the difference between girls and boys. From childhood, my father always told me: “You are a girl. You have to work and have no need to study.” But I didn’t listen. I studied and hid that from my father and my mother. I can’t forget the day when I saw my father encourage my brother to study even though he didn’t have talent in this area. I felt my father and mother both loved their sons more than their daughters. When I observed these things, it really made me sad and at the same time, it made me strong, determined that one day I will prove women can work in the home and study at the same time.

These women are every bit as inspirational as a great teacher. They don’t just inspire me to read and learn more, but they inspire thankfulness and humility that women in this country have much easier access to education than many people in the world. I’m glad that the Afghan Women’s Writing Project is there to give these brave women a voice.