Education, the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.

This is Google’s definition of education, but if you were to ask me or any other student who has understood the true value of what education means, it would amount to so much more than just the process of receiving instruction. I have been in school for 12 years, 12 full years of the freedom and chance to sit in classroom after classroom, of being able to absorb information from basic English words to an excelled vocabulary. Although to most sitting in a classroom, going to English class, or any class for that fact, seems like an annoyance more than an opportunity. I’d like to view it differently as I think we all should. 

Don’t get me wrong: for a good two years of high school, I found it difficult to appreciate my education, but recently I’ve begun to see the true value in it. You wouldn’t believe how many countries refuse to let women get a proper education: and even go to the lengths of killing young girls for trying. 

The greatest example of this is Malala Yousafzai. Yousafzai is a woman from Pakistan who had a dad as a teacher: therefore she had a great appreciation for school although it was forbidden. She would sneak into school, as well as help her peers sneak into school, too. She demanded that women get the chance to receive an education and for this in 2012 she was shot in the head by the Taliaban, a political movement and government in Afghanistan. Malala survived and to this day she is still an activist to help change the culture of women being denied an education. 

In America, getting to go to school is not only a privilege but free as well. In many countries it’s not free, or even allowed. American kids forget that they have one of the biggest opportunities right in front of them that people would die for. We tend to throw it away for a day of ditching, a month of ditching, and even dropping out. I understand that school isn’t for everyone, but what I can’t understand is how people complain about how hard it is to be at school and have the chance to learn about different subjects that will benefit your future. 

Education isn’t just about what it can do for you in a work field or the “real world.” Too often I hear, “How is learning this going to help me in the real world?” If you can separate yourself from the stigma that school is only here to show you how to apply for a job or show you what it’s like to work, you can come to the understanding of just how powerful school is.

”Scientia potentia est.” This is known as knowledge is power in Latin. I’d even venture to say one of the most powerful things one can withhold. When you know more than just your little world, you become more aware about people, cultures, and the way the world works. When you are educated, it gives you faculty that can become threatening to others, and this is a main reason that education is restricted in countries, because those who are in power don’t want to hand us that type of ability. They know that if they give them that power that they can be dominant.. I say that people feel threatened with education because when you have the capability to understand the world to a complex degree, it boosts you in all aspects of life, making you superior. 

I asked senior Morgan Davis what came to her mind when I said knowledge is power and her words summed it up: “You have to work with people and have certain skills and knowledge. If you can outsmart the situation, there’s a chance you can get through it.”

I didn’t write this to condemn people who don’t like school. School is hard. There are times where you want to scream and cry because you have an essay due and you’re barely starting it at 1 a.m. There are times where no matter how hard you listen you still don’t understand what’s being lectured, and overall I understand that going to school for 6 hours plus, day in and day out is exhausting, boring, and difficult. However I urge you to remember that you hold the biggest opportunity and potential in just one classroom. So the next time you’re rushing that essay, bored out of your mind, and just outright tired, don’t forget that there are people who would give everything they have for all those feelings. And it couldn’t be more rewarding to walk across a stage earning an education that will only grow as you gain more knowledge. From me to you, the words of social studies teacher Stephie Rossi: “Knowledge gives you an awareness about what’s fact, what’s fiction, and it gives you authority over your own interruption and the world you live in.”