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April 18, 2006

Brown president: Learning is key to empowerment

PROVIDENCE -- Brown University President Ruth Simmons today defined empowerment as the ``accumulation of self-confidence and fearlessness'' that flows naturally from learning. With it, people have created societies and solved the most intractable of problems.

But children today are not being given an equal chance to learn, an equal chance to know that sense of empowerment, Simmons said. In fact, the gap between those who learn and those who don't is widening along socioeconomic lines, she said, a reality that threatens everyone.

``My God, that was the reality I grew up in decades ago,'' Simmons said, speaking to about 300 people at the annual corporate luncheon of the Urban League of Rhode Island, ``and we're talking about it again.''

Simmons said it is commonly understood ``that empowered people will move ahead, will lead, will innovate, will help build and repair society. It is a commodity that everyone wants. Parents want it for their children.''

Read Simmons' entire speech.

-- Journal staff writer Tom Mooney

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 4:44 PM | Permalink

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