Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The inspiring sequel to "Three Cups of Tea" ... (12/21/09)
Stones Into Schools
The inspiring sequel to "Three Cups of Tea" follows Greg Mortenson into remote Afghanistan where he continues his quest to build schools.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Greg visits students at Bosque School - Alburquerque NM (12/08/09)
Greg Mortenson greets students at Bosque School, Alburquerque NM on Dec 8th, 2009. Photo: Jeff McMillan. Greg visits over 200 schools a year in the U.S., from public to private, and rural and urban schools, and says it is his favorite thing to do, and is very inspired by children.
To check out Greg's book tour, visit:
www.stonesintoschools.com/events/calendar
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Fighting Terrorism With Schools (11/22/09)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
AMERICA'S BEST TWENTY LEADERS (10/22/09)
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A Peace Prize to Share (10/15/09)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Teacher, Can We Go Now? NO (07/19/09)
NEW YORK TIMES
Sunday, July 19, 2009
By Thomas Freidman
Teacher, Can We Go Now? NO
I confess, I find it hard to come to Afghanistan and not ask: Why are we here? Who cares about the Taliban? Al Qaeda is gone. And if its leaders come back, well, that’s why God created cruise missiles.
But every time I start writing that column, something stills my hand. This week it was something very powerful. I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of “Three Cups of Tea,” open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, “Let’s just get out of here.” . . .
Which is why it was no accident that Adm. Mike Mullen, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — spent half a day in order to reach Mortenson’s newest school and cut the ribbon . . . .
Read more at:
www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/opinion/19friedman.html
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Good Housekeeping (June 2009)
Sailors & U.S. Marines hear unique viewpoint from best-selling author (06/26/09)
| NAVY COMPASS Sailors & U.S. Marines hear unique viewpoint from best-selling author |
| By MCC Bill Gowdy |
| Friday, 26 June 2009 |
SAN DIEGO (June 25, 2009)-- Individual Augmentee (IA) and Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) Support Assignment (GSA) sailors currently assigned to the Navy Mobilization and Processing Site (NMPS) at Naval Base San Diego (NBSD) were treated to a presentation on life in the rural hinterlands of Afghanistan and an interesting perspective on the war by a best-selling author.
Greg Mortenson, author of the N.Y. Times best-seller Three Cups of Tea, offered stories of his experiences and unique views that are increasingly being shared by senior military leaders.
Many of his views run counter to what is considered conventional wisdom.
Read more - click here . . .
http://www.navycompass.com/index.php/top-stories/1623-mccawsw-bill-gowdy-
Saturday, May 30, 2009
'Tea' author speaks to NC special op Marines (05/28/09)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
ABC News Person of The Week (03/27/09)
'Three Cups of Tea' Author Never Gave Up on His Peacebuilding Efforts To Establish Girls Schools
By ALICE MAGGIN
To view ABC News video clip, click here:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7193877
By ALICE MAGGIN
Friday, March 13, 2009
Mortenson @ West Point (03/13/09)
Times Herald-Record (Hudson Valley, NY)
Mortenson tells West Point Army cadets how to win in Afghanistan
Friday March 13, 2009
By Alexa James
WEST POINT — Author and Greg Mortenson introduced himself to an auditorium of Army cadets, then told them how to win in Afghanistan: "Drink more tea."
Mortenson met with students in West Point's Counterinsurgency Operations class on Tuesday to discuss his humanitarian work in Central Asia and his best-selling book, "Three Cups of Tea."
The Army veteran explained: "First cup you're a stranger, the second cup a guest. On the third cup you become family."
"That doesn't mean you just go around drinking tea and having peace and freedom in the world," he said. "What it means is, you have to build relationships."
For complete article, please click below:
www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090313/NEWS/903130339/-1/NEWS
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Author Greg Mortenson to speak at West Point (03/09/09)
Times Herald Record (Middletown - Hudson Valley, NY)
Author Greg Mortenson to speak at West Point
WEST POINT — Best-selling author Greg Mortenson will deliver a public lecture on Tuesday night to Army cadets taking a Military Science Counterinsurgency Operations course at West Point.
Mortenson wrote “Three Cups of Tea,” a story about his effort to fight terrorism and promote peace by building schools in impoverished parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. As of 2008, he's established more than 78 schools for roughly 28,000 children.
Mortenson's work has been rife with conflict. In 1996, he survived an eight-day armed kidnapping in Pakistan. In 2003, he escaped a firefight between feuding Afghan warlords by hiding under animal hides in a truck heading for a leather-tanning factory.
After 9/11, he received hate mail and death threats from Americans who were angry about his education efforts for Muslim children.
In August 2008, Pakistan's government gave Mortenson its highest civil award, the Sitara-e-Pakistan (Star of Pakistan) for his humanitarian efforts. Pakistan's president will confer the award on March 23 in Islamabad.
“Mortenson’s involvement in central Asia is critical to a holistic approach to assisting other countries,” said Maj. James Spies, the Counterinsurgency Operations course director at West Point.
“The military has re-learned the lessons of counterinsurgency that point out the need to build up the whole of a society to assist them in solving the core problems that created an insurgency.”
The lecture will take place in Thayer Hall’s Robinson Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Attendees should enter West Point through Thayer or Stoney Lonesome gates and bring valid identification. Vehicles are subject to search. Visitors may park in Clinton Lot or other available spaces.
www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090309/NEWS/90309037
(c) 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Friday, February 27, 2009
To The Point (02/27/09)
Greg Mortenson featured live on NPR "To The Point", hosted by Warrn Olney. Other guests are renowned Pakistan author, Ahmed Rashid ("Taliban", "Descent into Chaos") and Harlan Ullman at the Atlantic Council and National Defense University in DC.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Helping Kids for Peace (02/11/09)
Helping Kids for Peace
Kindness Saved Greg Mortenson's Life. Now He's Passing It On.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
by Valerie Strauss
Imagine that you are climbing down the world's second-largest mountain, and suddenly you realize you are lost and alone. You have no water and only one protein bar. And you haven't taken a shower for three months!
That's what happened to Greg Mortenson.
At that moment, he began an adventure that changed his life -- and the lives of countless people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021003591_pf.html
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
NY Times Best Seller List 02/15/2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
At Mills Lawn School, a penny saved is a penny learned (01/29/09)
January 29, 2009
At Mills Lawn School, a penny saved is a penny learned
By Susan Gartner
McKenna Banaszak-Moore began the meeting by stating that the money being raised will be used to assist people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, “to help build schools and let girls have an education.”
...
click here for complete article: www.ysnews.com/stories/2009/01/012909_pennies.html
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Three Cups of Tea for children (01/27/09)
Three Cups of Tea for children: Greg Mortenson writes new books for kids by Karen Deerwester
With our small fingers we wedged tiny slivers of stones into the cement to make our walls stronger. Our school grew each day, up from the high, flat ground where we used to write with our sticks. Mortenson's books give parents and teachers a wealth of ideas and activities to construct lifelong meaning from the words and images on these pages: children can reenact the building process from carrying supplies across treacherous landscape to erecting walls; they can compare how people in far away places dress, what they eat or recreate the style of home; children can take up the cause of helping Dr. Greg by getting involved with Pennies for Peace. The Young Reader's Edition retells Dr. Greg's original story with breathtaking clarity for his new audience. The foreward by Jane Goodall connects Dr. Greg's work to another extraordinary role model for young children. The lessons of this book are personal and inspiring. Children, like Dr. Greg's many adult readers, will be forever changed by meeting a real-life, get-dirty, break-few-rules adventurer like Dr. Greg. And meeting the children whose lives he touches. These are must-have books for your at-home or school library.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Reaching young minds (01/21/09)
Reaching young minds
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
By GAIL SCHONTZLER
Greg Mortenson has spoken to thousands of U.S. university and high school students about his bestselling “Three Cups of Tea,” the inspirational story of his work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan to “promote peace, one school at a time.”
Greg Mortenson, with his son Khyber and daughter Amira, visit with students at the Gultari war refugee girls school built in the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan in 2007. But when Mortenson visited a fourth-grade class in Houston, he realized the kids were struggling with the adult-level book. That prompted his wife, Tara Bishop, to suggest once again that he write a version for children.“Kids are so excited,” Bishop said, especially about Mortenson’s Pennies for Peace program, which allows children here to raise pennies that will buy pencils and school supplies for students in Pakistan. “It would feel empowering if kids could read it themselves.”Two years later, her idea is being realized.Two children’s books based on Mortenson’s story are being released today. One is a half-length version for young readers, entitled “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World One Child at a Time.” It has a forward by famed primatologist Jane Goodall, plus photos, maps, a timeline, glossary and list of who’s who, as well as information about how kids can get involved and help Pennies for Peace.
Advertisement The second is a picture book illustrated by artist Susan Roth called “Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea.”Mortenson and his 12-year-old daughter, Amira, are set to appear this morning on NBC’s “Today” show to talk about the books. It’s the first stop in a national tour that will include the United Nations Children’s Forum and a book expo in Los Angeles.Amira, who has traveled to Pakistan with her family three times, discusses what life is like for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan from a kid’s point of view in a 30-page question-and-answer interview in the young-readers book.“I think it’s important for kids to know, no matter how small you are, you can make a difference in the world,” Amira said.Chatting with the seventh-grader Tuesday, as she sat next to her dad in the family’s Bozeman home, it quickly became clear that she has a confidence and self-possession far beyond her years. When they speak to groups, it’s her dad who is more introverted and Amira - a taekwando champ and Equinox Theatre alum - who is naturally outgoing.Still, she admitted the “Today” show, though “a huge adrenalin rush,” was making her nervous.Mortenson’s mission began in 1993, when he was saved by Pakistani villagers after his failed attempt to climb K-2. Seeing village kids learning by sitting on the ground and scratching in the dirt with sticks, he made a rash promise to build a school.Back home, he struggled to raise a few thousand dollars to keep his promise. One big break came when children in his mother’s Wisconsin school raised $623 in pennies. Mortenson built the first school, and that snowballed into working with other villages to build more schools, aimed especially at educating girls, in remote areas where the Taliban has attacked hundreds of government schools.“I think their greatest fear is not the bullet but the pen,” Mortenson said. “The real enemy is ignorance n ignorance that causes hatred. To overcome it we need compassion and education.”So far, he said, his nonprofit Central Asia Institute has built 78 schools, and runs another four dozen, educating 28,000 children.Thanks largely to word of mouth and book groups, his book, co-authored with David Relin, has sold more than 2 million copies in paperback and been on the New York Times bestseller list 102 weeks. It has become required reading from Montana universities to the high school population of New Hampshire. He has gotten e-mail from such notable readers as Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.Pennies for Peace, meanwhile, has mushroomed among students, growing from 270 schools last year to 3,200 today.One stop on the Mortensons’ tour will be the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., which President Obama’s daughters now attend. Mortenson said his mother-in-law, Lila Bishop, taught there for 20 years. He and Amira have a chance to share their story with Sidwell students, and possibly First Lady Michelle Obama, he said.Mortenson said he is “very excited” about the new president, but concerned about Obama’s “brazen statements” about hunting down Osama bin Laden and plans to beef up the U.S. military in Afghanistan. He’d rather see something like the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II.“They’re all thinking firepower, and what we really need is brain power,” he said. “It’s education that will determine if the next generation (in Pakistan and Afghanistan) is educated, or illiterate fighters. The stakes could not be higher.”
Gail Schontzler is at gails@dailychronicle.com.
www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/01/22/news/000cups.txt
