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This is a song that has had a great impact on me, and I hope it inspires you, too!

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Would you choose your convenience over doing what's right?

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My heart breaks to see all these people suffering, our pampered life is like a dream to them. Please don't just sit here, feeling sorry for them, do something about it!

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Joel Osteen is the pastor of the biggest church in America, but not everyone is convinced he's got a good handle on the Gospel.

Like many online criticism that high profile individuals run into, much of what Osteen says online is what has been used to question his theology-or the lack thereof.

Third World Osteen is one website that is taking him to task in a very thought provoking way. No matter what your perspective on Osteen may be, this is certainly some food for thought:

From the Third World Osteen about page:

"Where Third World poverty and Joel Osteen tweets collide

A website exposing the Christless, gospel-less, fortune cookie-esque, "therapeutic moralistic deism"of Joel Osteen's ministry, manifested by one of many sources: his Twitter feed. Joel's blend of quasi-"name it and claim it/prosperity" theology is ruinous. It's not good news to the poor, the disenfranchised, the desperate, the sick and the struggling.

Rather it is enslaving. It is mocking. It is damning. And it must be exposed for the false gospel it is."

Seeing Osteen's quotes along side these images is certainly thought provoking.
What do you think?
To see more of these, visit the Third World Osteen website.

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Joel Osteen is the pastor of the biggest church in America, but not everyone is convinced he's got a good handle on the Gospel. Like many online criticism that high profile individuals run into, much of what Osteen says online is what has been used to question his theology-or the lack thereof.

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Imagine your life without education, not being able to read or write. Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

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Even after 3,000 years, we're still using ancient Greek ideas in maths, science and art. Our alphabet is based on the Greek one. Check a dictionary and you'll find hundreds of words that come from the Greek language.

How did Greek ideas spread so far? It's down to Alexander, the young king of Macedon. He led his army to take over Greece, Persia, Egypt and even part of India. He ruled so much of the world they called him 'Alexander the Great'.

Wherever he went, Alexander took Greek ideas. When he died in 323BC, the Romans took over. They admired the Greeks' way of life and carried Greek ideas to even more countries - including ours!

In ancient Athens, citizens would gather together on a dusty hill called the Pynx. Here they would decide the city's laws and who should sit on its ruling council. This was 'democracy' or 'rule by the people'.

All 30,000 citizens were men. Women and slaves didn't get a say. A citizen could speak for the time it took water to run from one jar into another. When this water clock ran out, it was someone else's turn.

A jury of 500 citizens decided if someone was guilty of law-breaking. Punishments included death. Citizens could also vote to get rid of people they disliked. Each man wrote a name on a broken bit of pottery called an 'ostracon'. Anyone named more than 600 times got kicked out of the city.

Today, we also live in a democracy. Unlike in ancient Greece, women get to vote, too. Juries of 12 people decide if someone is guilty of a crime - we don't use ostracons anymore!

The Greeks loved sport as much as we do. They enjoyed the discus, javelin, long jump, boxing and horse racing. Athletes prayed to Nike, the goddess of victory - she's still a big name in sport today!

Greek men and boys trained in a gymnasium. We also go to the gym, although today women and girls are welcome too. The Greeks loved to watch races in a big, open-air 'stadion', very like a modern sports stadium.

Every four years the Greeks held a special sporting festival at Olympia - the Olympic Games. These inspired the modern Olympics which began in 1896. Some of the events were very similar. Like the Greeks, we also hold the Olympics every four years.

Legend tells of Pheidippides, who fought at the battle of Marathon in 490BC. When the Greeks won, he ran 26 miles (42 km) to Athens with the news - and then fell down dead. Modern marathon races cover the same distance as his epic run.

Ancient Greek thinkers made big discoveries. Pythagoras found ways to measure and describe shapes that we still use in maths today.

Aristotle studied plants, animals and rocks. He devised experiments to find out about the world we live in. Modern scientists do the same kind of thing.

Herodotus wrote a history of the Greeks. He based this on eyewitness reports, something today's historians also try to do. Socrates and Plato were philosophers. They asked, "What is a good life?" and "How do we think?" Philosophers in our time also try to answer these questions.

Ancient Greek stories are still told today. We love films about superheroes and monsters. Our TV soaps are full of stories about long-lost children returning to find their parents - just as ancient Greek plays were.

Click on each of the famous Greeks below to find out about their lives. Who would you choose as your greatest Greek?

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How did the ancient Greeks change the world?

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Even after 3,000 years, we're still using ancient Greek ideas in maths, science and art. Our alphabet is based on the Greek one. Check a dictionary and you'll find hundreds of words that come from the Greek language. How did Greek ideas spread so far? It's down to Alexander, the young king of Macedon.

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This is just an article for reference, not anything that should change your opinion on this topic. Please tell me what you think, and answer honestly!

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Editor's note: Etta Kralovec is associate professor of teacher education and director of graduate teacher education at the University of Arizona South. She is the author of "The End of Homework," "Schools That Do Too Much" and "Identity in Metamorphosis." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- With a new school year starting, homework is front and center in many homes. Parents worry if their kids are completing the assigned work while kids wonder why they have to work when really they prefer to play in the sun.

There's good news for some families in Quebec.

The College de Saint-Ambroise, an elementary school in Quebec, has banned homework for kids in grade one through six for a year. The Canadian media exploded with blogs, tweets and radio talk shows questioning the decision or applauding the action.

Attempts to ban homework aren't new. In 2012, President Francoise Hollande of France proposed banning homework for all primary and middle school students, which was roundly ridiculed by The Wall Street Journal. In the same year, a school in Germany decided to actually do away with homework for students in grades five to nine.
German high school bans homework Meet self-made millionaire ... teacher? School flips the script, improves grades
Oddly, when schools decide to ban homework, it is big news, but we know little about what happens afterward. What we do know is that Finland assigns little homework and its students have some of the highest test scores in the world.

Los Angeles Unified School District -- America's second-largest school system -- took a different tact.

In 2011, it set a policy that homework could not count for more than 10% of a student's grade. The decision caused such an outrage that a 15-member panel was formed and subsequently changed the policy so that homework accounted for 20% of a student's grade.

This kind of intense debate about homework has a long history. For example, in the 1920s, some physicians were concerned about the impact of homework on children's health.

They argued that children need between six to seven hours a day of fresh air and sunshine. In the 1930s, editor Edward Bok of the Ladies Home Journal also called for an end to the practice. For the rest of the 20th century, different research reports were used to support or dismiss the practice, yet it persists despite the lack of clarity on its educational value.

What is clear is that parents and kids don't live in the world of academic research; they live in the real world where there are piles of homework on the kitchen table.

The experience of homework is very different depending on which side of the economic divide you sit. The unequal distribution of educational resources means that some students go home to nannies, well-stocked home libraries, tutors, well-educated parents and high-speed Internet. Others students go home to caring for siblings in crowded apartments and often-absent parents who barely make ends meet. The issue of inequality was a main reason that the French President proposed banning homework.

What about parents' educational hopes for their kids?

Homework forces families to follow the state's educational agenda. Most parents are willing to turn their kids over to the state for the seven to nine hours of the school day for educational enrichment. But then they want to build a rich family life with their kids, and homework can interfere with that. For example, if parents want their children to be actively engaged with grandparents or church activities in the evening, those things would compete with homework time.

Who controls a child's time has tremendous implications for the debate on homework. Should children be in school nine hours only to come home to two hours of homework? Could the intense pressure on children to achieve academically have negative health impacts down the road, in addition to the increased childhood obesity we are seeing?

When schools ratchet up the pressure for higher academic achievement, one of the first things to go is recess even as homework is piled on.

While scholars debate the value of homework -- and pundits, politicians and educators call for increased educational choices, greater standardization and accountability for schools -- many parents and students feel overwhelmed. The pressure of longer school days and more homework don't help matters.

Parents who want to connect personally in meaningful ways with their children after a long day at their job would do well to remember that they have a right to family time uninterrupted by homework. They would do well to listen to what their kids have to say about the impact of homework on their lives.

Too much homework may not be a good thing, especially for younger children. For families interested in clearing the kitchen table they can find support and advice from the growing Healthy Homework movement.

At the end of the day, it's about how one wants to balance work, family, educational goals and happiness.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.

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Editor's note: Etta Kralovec is associate professor of teacher education and director of graduate teacher education at the University of Arizona South. She is the author of "The End of Homework," "Schools That Do Too Much" and "Identity in Metamorphosis." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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Inspirational Quote of the Week - March 6th, 2017

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Inspirational Quote of the Week - March 6th, 2017

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Every week, I will post an inspirational quote in case life is tough or hard. Hope it makes your day!

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”
― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Make a difference - Every little bit counts!

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Middle grades educators would have to live on another planet not to be aware of initiatives involving the Common Core State Standards, teacher accountability, and PreK-12 state achievement tests.

How do we sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly to provide optimal educational experiences for our students, manifest the values of This We Believe, and use what we know "works" for our kids?

The Common Core State Standards, a result of several years of development by content and education experts, began to be adopted by individual states in 2010. As of this writing, 45 states and three territories have adopted the Common Core English/Language Arts and Math standards.

The National Governors Association for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers are leading the development of the standards, with the involvement of parents, teachers, and school administrators. The stated rationale for this initiative is "to ensure that all students, no matter where they live, are prepared for success in postsecondary education and the workforce ... . They are benchmarked to international standards to guarantee that our students are competitive in the emerging global marketplace."

What are the implications of these new standards for middle grades educators and students? Are these standards a "good thing" or a "bad thing"...and for whom?

On the Bright Side

First, let's consider some of the pluses of the Common Core State Standards.

1. If we look at the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) idealistically, we see a set of mutually agreed-upon standards based on valuable knowledge and skills that can lead to improved instruction and assessment.

2. The development of reliable and valid national criterion-referenced assessments (which I believe will be a logical next step) may save many states money that they can then use to target specific instructional needs.

3. Teachers across the nation could work together to develop creative and engaging integrated lessons and units to share using cutting edge technology and e-tools.

4. This "common" core will be beneficial for students in our increasingly mobile society. A student who moves from seventh grade in Toledo, Ohio, to seventh grade in Omaha, Nebraska, or Syosset, New York, may not have to adjust to new learning expectations.

5. Clear grade-level standards in each content area will make it easier to accelerate the few exceptionally gifted students and to compact curriculum for other advanced students. (For more information on how to use the Common Core with gifted students, check out www.nagc.org/index2.aspx?id=8980.)

6. It also will be easier to target the skills that struggling learners are missing and help them progress toward mastery using Response to Intervention (RTI) or other supportive approaches.

7. One of the goals of CCSS is to prepare all students to be college and career ready. The standards should help teachers ensure their students have the skills and knowledge they need to succeed by providing clear goals for student learning.

8. From the perspective of higher education, college instructors will have a clear idea of what high school graduates should have mastered. Teacher educators will better understand how to prepare teachers for the content they'll be expected to teach in the various grade bands (early childhood, middle grades, secondary/high school).

9. One particularly promising element of the English/Language Arts standards is the addition of the standards component of Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects.

For a long time, English teachers, particularly in the middle grades, have been faulted for teaching too much fictional literature, poetry, mythology, and drama. As a result, many students entering high school were deemed unprepared to cope with textbook reading and to apply the critical understanding required to succeed.

Of course, the reduction in substantive textbook use and reading in science and social studies classes in favor of short passages and test-prep materials has also contributed to this dilemma. But if we use an integrated approach and realize that these literacy skills can be taught and nurtured throughout the middle grades by all teachers, English teachers will be seen as part of a school-wide team working in students' best interests rather than as the "fall guys."

On the Dark Side

On the other hand, these aspects of the Common Core State Standards may not be so positive:

1. The CCSS could be just another attempt to "teacher-proof" curriculum. Purchased materials, prescribed instructional approaches, test prep packets, and inflexible approaches to student learning may maximize corporate profits of the producers of educational materials and software.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, in their May 2012 report, Putting a Price Tag on the Common Core, estimates the national cost for compliance with Common Core will be between $1 billion and $8 billion, and the profits will go almost directly to publishers.

2. High-priced consultants may recommend pre-packaged one-size-fits-all professional inservice programming that might be attractive to some schools and districts. This option could ignore the clear Standards for Professional Learning put forth by Learning Forward (formerly the National Staff Development Association, www.learningforward.org/standards/index.cfm), which emphasize job-embedded, site-specific, sustained, and supported professional development.

3. We may find ourselves so standards- and test-driven that all the activities we use to develop healthy, balanced middle grades students are eliminated.

4. We could end up being forced to focus on low-level learning (though the Math and Reading/Language Arts standards offer plenty of opportunities for critical and creative thinking at higher levels) because it's easier to assess. If this happens, we would be ignoring the entire 21st Century Skills perspective with its essential emphases on technology, innovation, life and career skills, critical thinking, and collaboration.

5. These standards could be just another weapon with which to attack teachers of students from poor urban and rural communities who don't have the resources to help students reach these standards when they come to school already two or three years behind their middle and upper class peers.

6. I'm leery of any movement that causes kids to flee the public schools, and the Common Core may contribute to this if it is not used in ways that meet students' unique individual needs as well as the collective needs of the society or the school district.

7. As a former middle grades teacher of gifted students, I worry that above-grade-level standards will not be part of the formative and summative assessment process, leaving these students to languish unchallenged while their classmates struggle with materials and activities advanced students could have completed successfully years earlier.

We are seeing more and more of these students leaving public middle schools for the private, parochial, and charter schools that they and their parents believe will better accommodate their needs. Our schools cannot afford to lose these bright minds as we continue to nurture the intelligences of all our students.

The Devil in the Details

So, as with other educational initiatives, it is up to us to decide whether the Common Core State Standards will be "good" or "bad," a contribution or a detriment to our students' growth and development. Here are some guiding questions that might help us fill in the details as we wrestle with how we approach these standards:

1. Do we know and understand the standards? Once we've looked at them carefully (www.corestandards.org), we need to have collaborative conversations among grade-level teams and subject departments, compare them with our existing curriculum maps, and decide what revisions, additions, and improvements would benefit our students.

2. In what ways might we embed these standards in substantive integrated curriculum units rather than teaching them in isolation? For some guidelines, check out "Standards-Based v. Standards Embedded Curriculum" in the Winter 2008 issue of Gifted Child Today.

3. In what ways might we combine the Common Core State Standards with best practices in technology and the nurturing of creativity and innovation? Great information is available in these areas at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website: www.p21.org. The Middle School Portal (www.msteacher2.org/events/ipad-and-apps-go-to-middle) emphasizes math and science and is another great resource in this area.
Be sure to include faculty members from art, PE, music, and areas beyond the four main content areas in these discussions. Look for free online resources for middle grades students and teachers.

4. How might we identify a few realistic SMART goals for the upcoming year, realizing that substantive change takes time? Common wisdom is that it takes three to five years to fully implement a systemic change. Everyone involved will need to evaluate progress thoughtfully, regularly, and with integrity.

5. Using the guidelines of This We Believe, how might we ensure that we are using developmentally appropriate practices and content that addresses not just the cognitive needs but the affective needs of our students as well?

In the end, the Common Core State Standards are neither good nor bad. How we decide to use them will determine their impact and meaning. The choice is ours.

Previously published in Middle Ground magazine, October 2012

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The Common Core: The Good, the Bad, the Possible - AMLE

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Middle grades educators would have to live on another planet not to be aware of initiatives involving the Common Core State Standards, teacher accountability, and PreK–12 state achievement tests. How do we sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly to provide optimal educational experiences for ou…

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 Person of the Week - Malala Yousafzai: Girl Rights Activist

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 Person of the Week - Malala Yousafzai: Girl Rights Activist

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I will try to post a person who has helped the world become a better place each week. Don't just sit here, admiring these people, do something that changes your community, even if you don't get recognized.

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One year ago schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen - her "crime", to have spoken up for the right of girls to be educated. The world reacted in horror, but after weeks in intensive care Malala survived. Her full story can now be told.

She is the teenager who marked her 16th birthday with a live address from UN headquarters, is known around the world by her first name alone, and has been lauded by a former British prime minister as "an icon of courage and hope".

I didn't want my future to be imprisoned in my four walls and just cooking and giving birth
Malala Yousafzai

She is also a Birmingham schoolgirl trying to settle into a new class, worrying about homework and reading lists, missing friends from her old school, and squabbling with her two younger brothers.

She is Malala Yousafzai, whose life was forever changed at age 15 by a Taliban bullet on 9 October 2012.

I have travelled to her home town in Pakistan, seen the school that moulded her, met the doctors who treated her and spent time with her and her family, for one reason - to answer the same question barked by the gunman who flagged down her school bus last October: "Who is Malala?"

The Swat Valley once took pride in being called "the Switzerland of Pakistan". It's a mountainous place, cool in summer and snowy in winter, within easy reach of the capital, Islamabad. And when Malala was born in 1997 it was still peaceful.

Just a few hours' driving from Islamabad brings you to the foot of the Malakand pass, the gateway to the valley. The winding road up to the pass leaves the plains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province, far below.

I remember it well from childhood holidays in Pakistan. But my latest trip felt very different - the BBC crew made the journey with a military escort. Although the Pakistan army retook control of Swat from the Taliban in 2009 and it is arguably now safer for foreigners than some other areas, the military clearly didn't want to take any chances.

Historically, the north-west has been one of Pakistan's least developed regions. But Swat, interestingly, has long been a bright spot in terms of education.

Find out more

Watch Mishal Husain's Panorama special on Malala on Monday 7 October at 20:30 BST on BBC One
Malala: Shot for Going to School
Until 1969, it was a semi-autonomous principality - its ruler known as the Wali. The first of these was Miangul Gulshahzada Sir Abdul Wadud, appointed by a local council in 1915 and known to Swatis as "Badshah Sahib" - the King. Although himself uneducated, he laid the foundation for a network of schools in the valley - the first boys' primary school came in 1922, followed within a few years by the first girls' school.

The trend was continued by his son, Wali Miangul Abdul Haq Jahanzeb, who came to power in 1949. Within a few months, he had presented the schoolgirls of Swat to the visiting prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, and his wife Raana. As his grandson Miangul Adnan Aurangzeb says: "It would have been unusual anywhere else in the [North-West] Frontier at that time, but in Swat girls were going to school."

The new Wali's focus soon turned to high schools and colleges, including Jahanzeb College, founded in 1952, where Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, would study many years later. Soon, Swat became known across Pakistan for the number of professionals it was producing - especially doctors and teachers. As Adnan Aurangzeb says, "Swat was proud of its record on education... one way to identify a Swati outside of Swat was that he always had a pen in his chest pocket, and that meant he was literate."

Against this backdrop, the fate that befell the schools of Swat in the first years of the 21st Century is particularly tragic.

By the time Malala was born, her father had realised his dream of founding his own school, which began with just a few pupils and mushroomed into an establishment educating more than 1,000 girls and boys.

It is clear that her absence is keenly felt. Outside the door of her old classroom is a framed newspaper cutting about her. Inside, her best friend Moniba has written the name "Malala" on a chair placed in the front row.

This was Malala's world - not one of wealth or privilege but an atmosphere dominated by learning. And she flourished. "She was precocious, confident, assertive," says Adnan Aurangzeb. "A young person with the drive to achieve something in life."

In that, she wasn't alone. "Malala's whole class is special," headmistress Mariam Khalique tells me.

Malala's diary: 3 January 2009

I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taleban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat.

My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taleban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools

Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taleban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict.
Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl Faces of the year: Malala and others Schoolgirls in Birmingham on Malala
And from the moment I walk in, I understand what she means. Their focus and attention is absolute, their aspirations sky-high. The lesson under way is biology, and as it ends I have a few moments to ask the girls about their future plans - many want to be doctors. One girl's answer stops me in my tracks: "I'd like to be Pakistan's army chief one day."

Malala's diary: 18 January 2009

My father told us that the government would protect our schools. The prime minister has also raised this issue. I was quite happy initially, but now I know but this will not solve our problem.

"Here in Swat we hear everyday that so many soldiers were killed and so many were kidnapped at such and such place. But the police are nowhere to be seen.

"Our parents are also very scared. They told us they would not send us to school until or unless the Taleban themselves announce on the FM channel that girls can go to school. The army is also responsible for the disruption in our education.
Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (ii)
Part of the reason for this drive to succeed is that only white-collar, professional jobs will allow these girls a life outside their homes. While poorly educated boys can hope to find low-skilled work, their female counterparts will find their earning power restricted to what they can do within the four walls of their home - sewing perhaps.

"For my brothers it was easy to think about the future," Malala tells me when we meet in Birmingham. "They can be anything they want. But for me it was hard and for that reason I wanted to become educated and empower myself with knowledge."

I was surprised that there is a little girl in Swat who can speak with a lot of confidence, but I was concerned about her security
Hamid Mir

It was this future that was threatened when the first signs of Taliban influence emerged, borne on a tide of anti-Western sentiment that swept across Pakistan in the years after 9/11 and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Like other parts of north-west Pakistan, Swat had always been a devout and conservative region, but what was happening by 2007 was very different - radio broadcasts threatening Sharia-style punishments for those who departed from local Muslim traditions, and most ominously, edicts against education.

The worst period came at the end of 2008, when the local Taliban leader, Mullah Fazlullah, issued a dire warning - all female education had to cease within a month, or schools would suffer consequences. Malala remembers the moment well: "'How can they stop us going to school?' I was thinking. 'It's impossible, how can they do it?'"

But Ziauddin Yousafzai and his friend Ahmad Shah, who ran another school nearby, had to recognise it as a real possibility. The Taliban had always followed through on their threats. The two men discussed the situation with local army commanders. "I asked them how much security would be provided to us," Shah recalls. "They said, 'We will provide security, don't close your schools.'"

It was easier said than done.

By this time, Malala was still only 11, but well aware of how things were changing.

"People don't need to be aware of these things at the age of nine or 10 or 11 but we were seeing terrorism and extremism, so I had to be aware," she says.

She knew that her way of life was under threat. When a journalist from BBC Urdu asked her father about young people who might be willing to give their perspective on life under the Taliban, he suggested Malala.

The result was the Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl, a blog for BBC Urdu, in which Malala chronicled her hope to keep going to school and her fears for the future of Swat.

When I saw the blood on Malala, I fell unconscious
Fellow pupil Kainat Riaz

She saw it as an opportunity.

"I wanted to speak up for my rights," she says. "And also I didn't want my future to be just sitting in a room and be imprisoned in my four walls and just cooking and giving birth to children. I didn't want to see my life in that way."

The blog was anonymous, but Malala was also unafraid to speak out in public about the right to education, as she did in February 2009 to the Pakistani television presenter Hamid Mir, who brought his show to Swat.

"I was surprised that there is a little girl in Swat who can speak with a lot of confidence, who's very brave, who's very articulate," Mir says. "But at the same time I was a bit concerned about her security, about the security of her family."

At that time it was Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala's father, who was perceived to be at the greatest risk. Already known as a social and educational activist, he had sensed that the Taliban would move from the tribal areas of Pakistan into Swat, and had often warned people to be on their guard.

Malala herself was concerned for him. "I was worried about my father," she says. "I used to think, 'What will I do if a Talib comes to the house? We'll hide my father in a cupboard and call the police.'"

No-one thought the Taliban would target a child. There were however notorious incidents where they had chosen to make an example of women. In early 2009, a dancer was accused of immorality and executed, her body put on public display in the centre of Mingora. Soon afterwards, there was outrage across Pakistan after a video emerged from Swat showing the Taliban flogging a 17-year-old girl for alleged "illicit relations" with a man.

Ziauddin Yousafzai must have known that Malala's high profile in the valley put her at some risk, even though he could not have foreseen the outcome.

"Malala's voice was the most powerful voice in Swat because the biggest victim of the Taliban was girls' schools and girls' education and few people talked about it," he says. "When she used to speak about education, everybody gave it importance."

By the time Malala was shot in 2012, the worst days of Taliban power in Swat had receded. A high-profile military operation had cleared out most militants but others had stayed behind, keeping a low profile.

"Life was normal for normal people, but for those people who had raised their voice, it was now a risky time," says Malala.

She was one of those people.

On the afternoon of 9 October, she walked out of school as normal and boarded a small bus waiting outside the gates. These vehicles are seen everywhere in Mingora - a little like covered pickup trucks, open at the back, with three lines of benches running the length of the flatbed. Each could carry about 20 people and would be waiting to take the girls and their teachers home at the end of the school day.

In Malala's case, it was only a short journey, past a small clearing where children played cricket, and along the canal bank to her house. Once she had walked, but then her mother, Tor Pekai, intervened. "My mother told me, 'Now you are growing up and people know you, so you must not go on foot, you must go in a car or a bus so then you will be safe,'" Malala says.

That day, she was in the middle of her exams, and had a lot on her mind. But there was still the usual after-school chat and gossip to share with Moniba, who was sitting next to her. But as the bus progressed along its route Malala says she did notice something unusual - the road seemed deserted. "I asked Moniba, 'Why is there no-one here? Can you see it's not like it usually is?'"

Moments later, the bus was flagged down by two young men as it passed a clearing, only 100 yards from the school gates. Malala doesn't recall seeing them but Moniba does. To her they looked like college students.

Then she heard one ask: "Who is Malala?" In the seconds between that question and the firing beginning, Moniba at first wondered if the men were more journalists in search of her well-known friend. But she quickly grasped that Malala had sensed danger. "She was very scared at that time,' she remembers. The girls looked at Malala, thereby innocently identifying her.

Malala's story is just the beginning in the BBC's 100 Women season.

More than a century after women began winning the right to vote, we want to find out what life is like for women today - and what might happen next.

We're planning a unique global event on Friday 25 October. Join in the conversation and tell us what you think on Twitter using #100Women.
Full coverage: BBC 100 Women
The two girls sitting on Malala's other side, Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz, were also injured.

"I heard the firing, then I saw lots of blood on Malala's head," says Kainat. "When I saw that blood on Malala, I fell unconscious."

Moniba says the bus remained there for 10 minutes, before anyone came to the aid of the panic-stricken women and children.

When they reached hospital, it was assumed all four girls were wounded, because Moniba's clothing was drenched in her friend's blood.

News of the shooting spread quickly. Malala's father was at the Press Club when a phone call came to tell him one of his school buses had been attacked. He feared at once that it was Malala who had been targeted. He found her on a stretcher in the hospital.

"When I looked towards her face I just bowed down, I kissed her on the forehead, her nose, and cheeks," he says. "And then I said, 'You're my proud daughter. I am proud of you.'"

The quality of the intensive care was potentially compromising her final outcome
Fiona Reynolds

Malala had been shot in the head and it was clear to everyone, including the Pakistan army, that her life was in danger. A helicopter was scrambled to airlift her to the military hospital in Peshawar - a journey that would eventually take her not just away from Swat but away from Pakistan.

The Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar is the best medical facility in the region, treating not just military personnel but their families too. As he flew in with Malala, Ziauddin Yousafzai was braced for the worst, telling relatives at his family home in rural Swat to make preparations for a funeral. "It really was the most difficult time in my life," he says.

From the helipad, Malala was brought in by ambulance and placed in the care of neurosurgeon Col Junaid Khan.

"She was initially conscious, but restless and agitated, moving all her limbs," he says. The entry wound of the bullet was above her left brow. From there it had travelled down through her neck and lodged in her back.

Malala was treated as a severe head injury case and placed under observation. After four hours, she deteriorated visibly, slipping towards unconsciousness. A scan revealed a life-threatening situation - her brain was swelling dangerously and she would need immediate surgery.

"The part of the brain involved was concerned not only with speech but also giving power to the right arm and leg," Khan says. "So contemplating surgery in this very sensitive area can have risks. The person can be paralysed afterwards."

Nevertheless, he told Malala's father that surgery was vital to save her life - a portion of her skull had to be removed to relieve pressure on the brain.

The procedure began with shaving part of Malala's hair, and then cutting away the bone, before placing the portion of removed skull inside her abdomen in case it could be later replaced. Blood clots and damaged tissue were extracted from inside the brain.

Before that day, Khan says, he had never heard the name Malala Yousafzai, but he was soon left in no doubt that he was treating a high-profile patient. Camera crews besieged the hospital compound as a tide of shock and revulsion spread through Pakistan.

TV presenter Hamid Mir looks back on the attack and the country's realisation that the Taliban were capable of shooting a young girl as a defining moment. "It gave me a lot of courage and strength [a sense] that enough is enough, now is the time to speak against the enemies of education," he says. "If they can target a little girl like Malala, they can target anyone."

From Adnan Aurangzeb, so closely connected to Swat and its people, there was anger - not just at the Taliban but at the government of Pakistan, which he held accountable for failing to protect Malala.

"She should have been under the protection of Pakistan," he says. "Not left to go unescorted like any normal student in an area infested with militants and Taliban."

Inside the intensive care unit in Peshawar, Malala appeared to respond well to the surgery. Her progress was by now being followed not just in Pakistan but around the world. In Islamabad, the army chief General Ashfaq Kayani was taking a keen interest, but wanted a definitive and independent opinion on Malala's chances.

As it happened, his officers were looking after a team of British doctors at the time - a group from Birmingham who had come to Pakistan to advise the army on setting up a liver transplant programme. The multi-disciplinary team was led by emergency care consultant Javid Kayani, a British Pakistani who maintains close links with the land of his birth.

When the request for help came through, Kayani knew which one of the team he wanted to take with him to Peshawar on the helicopter that was standing by. Given Malala's age, paediatric intensive care specialist Fiona Reynolds was the obvious choice. Although she had her doubts about security in Peshawar, she had heard enough about Malala from news reports to feel the risk was worth taking. "She'd been shot because she wanted an education, and I was in Pakistan because I'm a woman with an education, so I couldn't say 'no,'" she says.

What the doctors discovered in Peshawar, though, was not encouraging. Although Malala had had what Reynolds calls "the right surgery at the right time", she was being let down by the post-operative care. A similar patient in the UK would have been having her blood pressure checked continuously via an arterial line - according to Malala's charts, hers had last been checked two hours earlier.

Reynolds' instinct told her that Malala could be saved, but everything depended on how she would be cared for.

"The quality of the intensive care was potentially compromising her final outcome, both in terms of survival and in terms of her ability to recover as much brain function as possible," she says.

That clinical opinion would be vital to Malala's future. An army intensive care specialist was sent to bolster the team in Peshawar, but when Malala deteriorated further, she was airlifted again, this time to a bigger military hospital in Islamabad.

In the first hours after her arrival there, Fiona Reynolds remained very worried. Malala's kidneys appeared to have shut down, her heart and circulation were failing, and she needed drugs to support her unstable blood pressure. "I thought she was probably going to survive, but I wasn't sure of her neurological outcome, because she'd been so sick. Any brain damage would have been made worse."

As Malala gradually stabilised, over the next couple of days, Reynolds was asked for her opinion again - this time on her rehabilitation. She asked what facilities were available, knowing that acute medicine is often far ahead of rehab. That was indeed the case in Pakistan. "I said that if the Pakistan military and the Pakistan government were serious about optimising her outcome... I said that everything that she would need would be available in Birmingham."

On 15 October 2012, Malala arrived at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, where she would remain for the next three months. She had been kept in a medically induced coma, but a day later the doctors decided to bring her out of it. Her last memory was of being on a school bus in Swat - now she was waking up surrounded by strangers, in a foreign country.

"I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was that I was in a hospital and I could see nurses and doctors," she says. "I thanked God - 'O Allah, I thank you because you have given me a new life and I am alive.'"

Malala's parents and brothers were still in Pakistan but Javid Kayani was standing at her bedside.

"When she woke up she had this very frightened look and her eyes were darting back and forth," he says.

"We knew she couldn't speak because she had a tube down her throat to assist her breathing. But I knew that she could hear so I told her who I was and I told her where she was, and she indicated by her eye movements that she understood."

Malala then gestured that she wanted to write, so a pad of paper and a pencil were brought. She attempted to write, but she had poor control of the pencil - unsurprising for someone with a head injury. Instead, an alphabet board was found and Javid Kayani watched her point to the letters one by one.

"The first word that she tapped out was 'country'. So I assumed she wanted to know where she was and I told her she was in England. And then the next word was 'father' and I told her that he was in Pakistan and he'd be coming in the next few days. That was the limit of the conversation."

More "conversations" would take place with one of the few visitors allowed in - Fiona Reynolds, who brought Malala a pink notebook in which to write down her questions.

Malala showed it to me, It is a poignant reminder of her search for answers in that period, especially the page where she simply asks, "Who did this to me?"

Malala's speech to the UN

Speech delivered to 500 young people aged 12-25 from around the world

Malala called on politicians to take urgent action to ensure every child can go to school

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also addressed the session, calling Malala "our hero"

The event, described by the UN as Malala Day, was organised by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now the UN Special Envoy for Global Education

Fanatics fear education, Malala says
For Reynolds, the fact that Malala was able to articulate her questions was a huge relief.

"I was hoping that her cognitive abilities would still be there. I was also hoping that she hadn't lost the power of speech. So the fact that she was mouthing words and writing - I thought she's not lost the ability to speak.

"And remember she was talking in her third language [Pashto is Malala's mother tongue, Urdu her second language], so her speech centre was pretty intact."

Malala would go on to make an outstanding recovery, a tribute not just to the quality of the care she received - but also, her doctors told me, to her own resilience and determination.

Once she was out of intensive care, doctors began to consider what could be done about the paralysis of the left side of her face, which had caused great distress to her parents when they were reunited with her in Birmingham. Malala's father felt she had lost her smile.

"When she used to try to smile I would look at my wife and a shadow would fall on her face, because she thought, 'This is not the same Malala I gave birth to, this is not the girl who made our lives colourful.'"

Malala's ear specialist Richard Irving thinks that in those early weeks, she was troubled by her new appearance.

"She was very reluctant initially to speak, she preferred to be photographed from the good side," he says. "I think it probably did have an emotional impact on her, which she didn't really voice to anyone, but it's very easy to understand in a 15-year-old."

After tests and scans, Irving's view was that the facial nerve was unlikely to repair itself, but without surgery, he couldn't be sure exactly what state it was in. The procedure would be a lengthy one, and this time Malala was herself able to weigh up the risks.

"She was in control," Irving says. "She would take advice from her father but she was making the decisions. She took a great interest in her medical care and didn't leave it to someone else."

During a 10-hour operation last November, he discovered that Malala's facial nerve had been entirely severed by the bullet and that a 2cm section of it was missing. For any movement to return to her face, the two ends of the nerve would have to be re-attached, but the missing section made it impossible to do this along the original route. Instead, Irving decided to expose the nerve and re-route it so it travelled a shorter distance.

In February this year, a further operation replaced the skull section removed by the surgeons in Pakistan, with a titanium plate. A cochlear implant was also inserted into Malala's left ear to correct damage to her hearing caused by the bullet. No further surgery is said to be required - her face should continue to improve over time, with the help of physiotherapy.

On 12 July, nine months after the shooting, came a major milestone - Malala stood up at the UN headquarters in New York and addressed a specially convened youth assembly. It was her 16th birthday and her speech was broadcast around the world.

"One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world," she said.

How did it feel to speak in public once again - this time on a bigger stage than she could ever have imagined?

"When I looked at 400 youth and people from more than 100 countries... I said that I am not only talking to the people of America and the other countries, I am talking to every person in the world," she says.

Ziauddin Yousafzai remembers it as the biggest day of his life. For him, Malala's speech was an assault on negative perceptions of Pashtuns, of Pakistanis and of Muslims.
Watch Mishal Husain's Panorama special You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook Malala: Shot for Going to School on Monday 7 October at 20:30 BST on BBC One
"She was holding the lamp of hope and telling the world - we are not terrorists, we are peaceful, we love education."

Malala was introduced to the audience in New York that day by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the UN's special envoy on global education.

He has no doubt about her power to focus attention on the bigger picture of nearly 60 million out-of-school children around the world. "Because of Malala," he says, "there is a public understanding that something is wrong and has got to be done."

There is even speculation she could be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The girl from Swat has gone global, but she still believes she can and will return home to Pakistan. Few would advise her to do that anytime soon. There are still fears for her security and also criticism that she attracts too much attention, especially in the West.

But she seems sanguine about any criticism. "It's their right to express their feelings, and it's my right to say what I want," she says. "I want to do something for education, that's my only desire."

The danger for Malala is that the more time she spends away from Pakistan, the less she will be seen at home as a true Pakistani, and the more she will be identified with the West. But she has little time for distinctions between East and West.

"Education is education," she says. "If I am learning to be a doctor would there be an eastern stethoscope or a western stethoscope, would there be an eastern thermometer or a western thermometer?"

Still only 16, she has to balance being the world's most high-profile educational campaigner, in demand around the world, with the completion of her own schooling.

"I am still the old Malala. I still try to live normally but yes, my life has changed a lot," she tells me.

There are moments when she misses her old anonymity, but says it's "human nature" to want what you don't have.

She is an extraordinary young woman, wise beyond her years, sensible, sensitive and focused. She has experienced the worst of humanity, and the best of humanity - both from the medics who cared for her and the messages from many thousands of well-wishers.

I find one of those well-wishers in her own street in Swat, just outside the home that she never made it back to, on the afternoon she was shot. He is a young man called Farhanullah and he says the Taliban have blighted his life, destroying Swat's economic, social and educational fabric. Malala was "Pakistan's daughter", he says. "We should be proud that she has made such a big sacrifice for Pakistan."

I ask if he would like to send a message to Malala. Yes, he says. "She should continue her struggle. We are all with her."

The voice of the girl whom the Taliban tried to silence a year ago has been amplified beyond what anyone could have thought possible.

When I ask her what she thinks the militants achieved that day, she smiles.

"I think they may be regretting that they shot Malala," she says. "Now she is heard in every corner of the world."

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The girl who was shot for going to school

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One year ago schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen - her "crime", to have spoken up for the right of girls to be educated. The world reacted in horror, but after weeks in intensive care Malala survived. Her full story can now be told.