The Case of Poets, Jukes and Edwards

Today’s article is dense stuff from dense territory. Pure and simple, it is food for thought as we search our national soul regarding the many young people who have descended into hawking or are idle in our villages and towns and cities as school drop-outs, ‘Area Boys’ with no hope for the present, and worst of all, for the future whilst our educational system sits in limbo.

This serious food for thought is based purely on age-old but relevant research that numbs the mind. The two research reports presented below about the long-lasting effects of poor foundations on generations are taken from the same period; one in England and the other in the United States of America.

The first research is taken from an old book, The art of writing, published in 1916 by a renowned professor of literature, the late Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. He analyzed the background of twelve great poets of the nineteenth century (Coleridge, Worsdworth, Byron, Shelley, Landor, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Morris, Ressetti and Swinburne). Only three of them did not have the benefit of university education and/or was not well to do.

His conclusion? Education matters! Financial security matters! Intellectual freedom depends on financial security. With either, or preferably, with both a good education and financial security at ones disposal, a person can have the liberty that gives power and space to contemplate, to think for ones self and to accomplish the utmost best in life. A further conclusion is that genius does not simply blow in any direction. Genius must be nurtured.

And you wonder why Ghana is in a development trap! Hold on for more. This is where the plot really thickens.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch argues further: “These are dreadful facts but let us face them. It is – however dishonouring to us as a nation – certain that by some fault in our commonwealth, the poor poet has not in these days, now has had for two hundred years, a dog’s chance. Believe me – and I have spent a great part of ten years in watching some 320 elementary schools – we may prate of democracy, but actually, a poor child in England has little more hope than had the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom of which great writings are born.”

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was writing about poets because that was the definition of intellectual greatness in those days. But today, we can relate his observations to all aspects of education and progress, and of national development.

Enduring Questions: Does the poor boy and girl child who begins life as a hawker of low-cost made in China products have a ‘dog’s chance’ of becoming anything but a low-cost adult? But look beyond the discarded youth of today to generations of their offspring. What ‘dog’s chance’ do their descendants have of making anything significant of themselves? We may brag of democracy, but does a poor child in Ghana today have more hope than ‘the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom’ of which greatness is made?

Let’s set up another scenario – between Max Jukes and Jonathan Edwards, both American-born who lived in the same period. I first heard of Jukes and Edwards in a sermon by Pastor James Obeng. I’ve done further research over the past few weeks and I present some of the disturbing facts below.

One hundred and ten years ago on July 22, 1900, the New York Times published a fascinating article under the headline, “Jukes and Edwards: Significant statistics about two American families.”Below is the full text of the newspaper publication.

“About the year 1720, one Max Jukes was born. Very little is known about him but his descendants have managed to keep themselves constantly in the eyes of the public. Some expert student of heredity devoted the better half of five years to a study of the family and located about 1,200 of them. Every one of them was either a pauper, an imbecile or insane. Only twenty of the number ever learned a trade and ten of the twenty learned trades in a state prison. Twenty years ago, his progeny had cost the public more than $1,250,000.

“In 1703, Jonathan Edwards was born and the history of 1,500 of his descendants was presented to the American Institute of Instruction at its meeting in Halifax N.S last week. There were only six criminals in the whole number and not one pauper or imbecile. In education, literature, statesmanship, mining and railroading, law, medicine, and theology, the descendants of Edwards have filled the highest places.

“Among their number were 283 college graduates and thirteen college Presidents. It may or may not be true that the law of heredity is as constant a factor as the law of gravitation, but the vital interest of the general public in the regeneration of the descendants of Max and all his kind is shown in these luminous figures.”

Beyond the New York Times publication, here is a further break-down of what became of the descendants of Jukes and Edwards. In the 1900s, the descendants of Max Jukes comprised of 680 Alcoholics, 300 Prisoners and 190 Prostitutes. In sharp contrast, Jonathan Edwards’ descendants comprised of 430 Ministers of God, 86 University Professors, 75 authors of good books and seven Congressmen.

Foundation matters! Poor and weak foundations echo far into the future. There is a vast difference between children born in the valley as compared with those born on privileged high-ground. For the valley children, our discarded youth – life comes at them as arrows. It is as if they have been washed away by the currents of failed irresponsible educational systems and corrupt governments. Of course, there is luck. But there are no guarantees that luck alone will drag everyone with a weak foundation out of the valley and lift them onto higher ground.
Further Enduring Questions: Since we can’t seem to figure out the how of our matter, we should just take refuge in the why. So therefore considering the way we are going, here are more fast and furious questions to ponder over. Considering the weak foundations we are giving to countless numbers of Ghana’s youth, what would be the fate of the descendants of this segment in the next generation? How many prisoners, armed robbers, alcoholics and prostitutes are we generating? What would be the burden of the social cost of these descendants?
Is Ghana generating a majority of the Max Jukes’ type of descendants with a thin minority of Jonathan Edwards’ types? What can possibly come out of the groin of an armed robber who dies in his twenties while in the line of duty after impregnating a young female adult prostitute? How about the children born of the streets, their mothers impregnated under jute bags in kiosks?
What is the future of the girl child who drops out of school before she knows how to clean herself properly and is sentenced to selling ‘pure water’? What kind of mother and grandmother and wife would she be? How about the boy child into whom Ghana is investing nothing and is left to fend for himself? What kind of father and grandfather and husband would he be?
Who is keeping track?
dorisdartey@gmail.com; dorisdartey.blogspot.com