Joseph Stephen Kimani Nganga Maruge, a farmer in Kenya, died on Friday. Most Americans won’t recognize his name, but his story is worth telling.
Maruge, 89, was listed by the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the oldest elementary school student on the planet. Slight and stooped, his bald head framed by gray whiskers, Maruge did not begin his primary school education until 2004, one year after the Kenyan government made primary education free and compulsory.
Maruge was not required to attend, of course. He went because he wanted to be able to read his Bible.
He saw schooling not as a burden, but as a privilege. He continued attending even after his home in Kenya’s Rift Valley was burned down in post-election violence last year. He lived in a refugee camp, but didn’t let that disrupt his studies. A move later into an old-age home didn’t stop him either.
Maruge stopped going to school in January, too weak from stomach cancer. By then, though, he had long since met his goal of reading the Bible.
This nation is in a long debate about education, about better teachers, school choice, higher standards.
But don’t forget motivation.
“Liberty is learning,” Maruge once said. There’s a lesson for kids all over the world.
