Educational Manifesto

What is Education for?

            What is education for? There is no one set thing that education is for or how you can define it. We all have our own thoughts of what education is for. Education can be seen as an occupation. Education can be seen as a missionary field (Christians going to school to become a certain occupation and being a disciple of God in that field of work.) Education can also be a right to freedom. I see education as an opportunity; it’s a path towards a future of possibilities. It is an opportunity for people living in poverty, who are assumed to take after previous generations by staying where they’re at, with no education and barely living off of anything; they need to prove society wrong. No matter where you come from, you are capable of doing all things when you put your mind to it and give it to the Lord. “For with God nothing shall be impossible” Luke 1:37 KJV. There is always hope for a future even when it feels like there isn’t.

“The individual is between an identical past and present, and a future without hope. He or she is a person who does not perceive himself or herself as becoming; hence cannot have a future to be built in unity with others. But as he or she breaks this ‘adhesion’ and objectifies the reality from which he or she starts to emerge, the person begins to integrate as a Subject (an I) confronting an object (reality). At this moment, sundering the false unity of the divided self, one becomes a true individual” (Freire, page 154).

 Education allows these people to break away from this way of life, a life of hopelessness, and low self-esteem in what they are capable of. There future doesn’t have to be the same as their past and present. Their future is filled with hope and new dreams. Education allows them to become the individual they are meant to be, not what society (the oppressors) expect them to be. Education allows these people to accomplish their dreams and make a new name of themselves. Education is a life of opportunities.

             There have been a few people here at Trinity that are the first generation in their family to go to college. They are setting an example for their family. It shows their families and others that it is possible to break away from this life they have known for so long. “If the conditions which penetrate the home are authoritarian, rigid, and dominating, the home will increase the climate of oppression” (Freire, page 135). These families have let others tell them who they are, what they should be, and what their future looks like; these families are finally standing up for themselves. The more recent generations are showing their families and others that you can live out your dream through getting an education. The oppressors have no control over them. They have the freedom to do what their heart desires. They are free to be their own individual. They have created hope amongst their family and functional community.

            The oppressed are working towards their own functional community. “…a functional community is a community that enjoys value consistency, a shared understanding of what the world is about, what is important, and how the group should live…” (Vryhof, page 4). Rich kids functional community has always been about going to school, graduating, and working in successful businesses making millions. The less fortunate, their life hasn’t been as fortunate. They go to school and drop out thinking they aren’t capable of graduating and becoming successful citizens. This then causes some to get into trouble, party, or do drugs, but with this new functional community, things can and will turn around. Their values will start to change. They will want to go back to school and graduate.

            They can contribute to society and their community by going to college and making a name of themselves. They will then work successful jobs alongside the rich. They oppressed will work just as hard, if not harder to show that they deserve this job, that they earned it, all thanks to the opportunity given by education. Through this, they will want to turn their community into a place of hope. A place where people can dream big and show others they are worth it. They can succeed with the opportunity education gives them. No longer will they be that stereotyped definition of be the oppressed, going no where. They are individuals who have gone off to get an education to make something of them. Sooner or later their community will rise and join them. All of their community will function on education. Education allows people this dream. It gives them hope.

            Too many times do people have this one set view of how life should be or has to be. When these people begin to broaden their horizon to all the opportunities God has given them, due to the power of education; they can accomplish anything. They just have to open their eyes and look around. “Small windows onto reality supply only a narrow and limited view of the surroundings, just as the tiny portholes of a submarine reveal only a fraction of the immediate area. Submariners know that a widened view requires a periscope. A periscope would give a comprehensive perspective; it would permit us to scan the whole horizon above, not just part of it” (page 181). Society is like a small window, it shows people one way of living, the only way the oppressors think these people (the oppressed) are capable of living. When education steps in and gives the oppressed a periscope, it shows them that they are more than that. Education provides them a variety of opportunities. As individuals they can either look at their future in a small mirror or through a periscope. The oppressors (society/stereotypes) don’t own their future, they do.

            Education can be seen as an occupation. Education can be seen as a missionary field (Christians going to school to become a certain occupation and being a disciple of God in that field of work.) Education can also be a right to freedom. I see education as an opportunity; it’s a path towards a future of possibilities. It’s hope for the hopeless.