Jane Franklin Mecom: “I Read as much as I Dare”

Erin, of the excellent Alice Martin Bishop blog, has started me off on a good, brain-awakening note on this sunny Edinburgh morning by posting a link to this NYT op-ed piece by Harvard professor Jill Lepore. It contrasts the fortunes of Benjamin Franklin with those of his sister Jane.

[The] story of Jane Mecom is a reminder that, especially for women, escaping poverty has always depended on the opportunity for an education and the ability to control the size of their families.

The latest budget reduces financing for Planned Parenthood, for public education and even for the study of history. At one point in the budget discussion, all money for Teaching American History, a federal program offering training to K-12 history teachers, was eliminated. Are we never to study the book of ages?

(c) Gregory Nemec