Is Education Worthless?

Education has been described as the catalyst of change, but one question remains, what exactly is education? Looking directly at the word, many conclusions can be drawn, but to get a true definition, one only needs to look at what the goal of education is.

As a society we need to ask ourselves do we want to be autonomous beings, able to think for ourselves, act on the knowledge we are receiving, and be active members in society, or people who blindly follow a system. Obviously we want to be autonomous. The objective of education is to promote knowledge. Knowledge is part of the freedom of speech. To promote knowledge is to promote understanding because knowledge without understanding is problematic.

Freedom of speech is the foundational freedom, if we don’t have freedom of speech; all our other freedoms are meaningless, including freedom of education. Education is teaching people to think critically, if we are not taught to think critically, we are being trained in a way that is no different than the way animals are trained. To think critically, is to question, probe, argue, and analyze information we are given.

It is obvious that in the end we want to be educated in a system that changes society for the better and not just follows a system. We want an education that dignifies the people, and lifts them up, and encourages their people to act. In the words of Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful tool you have to change the world”. This means that if we don’t like our education system, our government, we can use our education to change it.

In a system with no freedom of speech, the government tries to repress their citizens. A socialist dictator once said “lucky is for leaders that men do not think”. They clearly do not want their system to change, or their citizens to think. The question once again is clear, is it education if it just lifts up a system? It isn’t.

In an idealistic society everyone would have their voice heard, however whenever you ask someone if they support freedom of speech they will say yes, and then list off groups of people, who’s view they do not want to hear. As a result we will never live in a perfect society, there will always be someone who’s voice is never heard, and someone who’s view you do not want to hear. Knowing this, we must always be willing to use our voice, for if not, we may lose it.