All You Need Is Love and Opportunity

One of my personal passions is education, both formal and informal. I believe that having a well-rounded education is of vital importance to creating opportunity. Unfortunately, quality, equitable education is not available to everyone, even here in one of the world’s wealthiest countries. This is a tragedy that reinforces everything bad in society.

In the pre-Civil War, antebellum south, it was illegal to teach slaves to read or write. Illiteracy was considered essential to keep the slaves enslaved and the slaveholders in power. Anyone who violated this was punished, sometimes quite harshly. This might seem like an extreme example, but it really isn’t.

Even today, quality education is generally available to the lucky few. Lucky to be born into a middle class or higher economic strata. Lucky enough to be born into a state with excellent school systems. Lucky to be born with a pale color of skin. I personally was born with one of these things: physically I’m as white as I can be. I mean, I can’t even tan, I burn then go white again. As a child, I had no understanding that my skin color gave me an advantage, but it did. This is another tragedy of society. As I got older, I came to see that different things were expected of me than of my friends of Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic, or Native American descent. These expectations weren’t just about life choices, they were also about educational performance. I would like to say such prejudices have finally fallen by the wayside, but they haven’t. People are still judged by their skin color, religion, and economic class. This has to change. In addition to this inherent societal racism, people are now endeavoring to ban books in an attempt to control young minds. Granted, I know book-banning is not a new thing, but, as a society, we should be past this. Make no mistake, this book-banning fervor has the same ideological push behind it as the illiteracy of the antebellum south, albeit unconscious to many who have been caught up in it. This ideology is one of fear and control. Fear of the unknown or “other”. Without fail, policies and choices made from a state of fear have more negative ramifications and consequences than any made from a place of love, acceptance, or peace.

So, how do we combat these societal failings? Well, one very important way is through education. As Socrates once said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” Quality education not only provides its student with important information, it also lights a fire in their mind that cannot be quenched. That fire is curiosity, which leads to a lifelong love of learning. This love of learning can lead people to places even yet unknown. It can lead to advances in technology and medicine that we can’t even imagine yet. It can lead to civic engagement and a disruption of the backward status quo. It can lead to art and music that will take our breath away. It can lead to the end of environmental devastation and freedom from fossil fuels. It can lead to the end of poverty and hunger. It can lead to the end of war and, ultimately, bring about genuine world peace.

Now, maybe I’m a dreamer. I already know I am. I do have a dream. I dream of a world free from war and poverty. I dream of a world where everyone has access to clean water and quality food. I dream of a world where skin color and economic status don’t determine a person’s fate. I dream of a world free from disease. I dream of a world where humanity walks amongst the stars. I dream of a world governed by love and reason, not fear. That is the world I want my kids and grandkids to grow up in. But in order to achieve this, we have work to do, and that work begins with education.

There is a fabulous organization that speaks specifically to educational inequity and the reform thereof. That organization is Teach for America. They send corps members to the most impoverished, inequitable communities, with the belief and purpose that every child deserves a quality education. This is one of my goals for this year, to work with Teach for America. I’m currently in the middle of the rather long application process, so I don’t rightly know if I’ll be accepted or not. One thing I do know, regardless of how this turns out, I will be endeavoring to make a positive impact in education, this year and in years to come.

*If this is your first time hearing of Teach for America, please look into it. They pursue a truly worthwhile cause.