On the Danger of Education

CEFR Level B1-B2

The Background

Education is dangerous. It gives people ideas. When people have ideas, they start to think. Thinking means asking questions. Asking questions means authority cannot have unwavering obedience. That is bad for The Authority.

​I was raised to obey The Authority without question. I was told The Authority always has my best interest in mind. Whether or not I was explicitly taught this, I came to believe that it was disobedience to even want something different from what the person in authority wanted. Any of my own ideas got shut up in a filing cabinet called “They Must Know Something I’ll Learn Later.”

College

Fortunately, my parents were strong advocates for college education. I didn’t even know not attending a 4-year college was an option my peers seriously considered. Unfortunately, I had been sheltered enough from the culture my peers experienced that I didn’t understand socially normal things I encountered at college. 

I didn’t know how to make friends because I was too scared my parents would disapprove of someone. I didn’t know how to relate to people who weren’t my parents’ age. I thought the “s-word” was “shy” (IYKYK). I thought Pride Week was a week to be proud of who one was, like the college version of an elementary school self-esteem assembly. College would have been a great place to start investigating what I missed, but I was so conditioned to not do or think anything unapproved that I kept my head down, focused on my studies, and missed many opportunities to learn about how others understand life. Anything I learned outside of academics was incidental. Is that normal for education-focused college students?

As for the “They Must Know Something I’ll Learn Later” filing cabinet? It kept getting larger and larger - more like a filing room. 

Grad School

My graduate program was Library and Information Science. There we learned about the principle and applications of intellectual freedom. Those discussions got me thinking. Thinking made me ask myself questions. 

I had been taught that my version of Christianity was the only right one and that it was important for everyone to do what we did so that the US would be a Christian nation. A Christian nation meant that everyone would be happy and healthy and life would be rainbows and sunshine all the time. The principle of intellectual freedom says that people should be free to engage with whatever information they want and that one person or entity does not have the right to restrict access to ideas. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Could I be a Christian and also a librarian? 

The thought was too complex for me to deal with, so I did what I had been trained to do. I filed away my question and got on with the business at hand. 

Beyond Grad School

Years later, when working as a public library director, I again came face to face with that moral dilemma. This time, I sat with the question. The other options were to live with conflict tearing me apart from the inside out or to quit the job that supported my family. Neither of those were acceptable, so I let the question roll in my mind. Because I am still a practicing Christian, I asked God what I should do. I started wondering when I would be old enough to be in the realm of “I Know Something They’ll Learn Later.” 

I came to accept that if I, as a Christian, were to enforce my way of understanding the world and my practices on others, then I would be creating the precedent that said others had the right to enforce their understanding and practices on me. To me, the logical outcome of the way I was raised would be that if someone in power created a rule that was contrary to my beliefs, I would have no way to argue for my right to live according to my beliefs because I had already demonstrated that I believed the one with power had the right to dictate what everyone else did. 

I concluded that I wanted to be free to live and worship God according to my conscience. In order to protect that freedom, I had to give other people the right to do the same, even if it meant that they contradicted my beliefs, even if it meant allowing and promoting media that I personally found problematic. Protecting things I disapproved of was self-preservation. This realization didn’t feel like a compromise. It felt like freedom from a way of life where you are never quite sure what the rules are but you had darn well better obey them. The threat was removed. Peace was given. 

That sounds great! Who doesn’t want a person to live in peace rather than fear? Unfortunately for those who would be in total authority, that realization opened that massive filing cabinet. Files spilled out of the room and I started questioning everything. I began to learn that “they” don’t actually know something I don’t. “They” just are happy to equate truth with something someone said that got repeated enough “everyone” now knows it must be true. 

The more I sought answers, the more I realized “they” got a second-hand kindergarten education and proclaim it as a first-hand grad school education. Once I moved into (metaphorical) first, fifth, seventh-grade territory, I realized that things make a lot more sense when you don’t have to have a definite answer for everything. The more I found answers backed by provable data backed by verifiable evidence, the less intimidating things without answers became. Having to know the precise right answer brought me anxiety. Knowledge brought me the freedom to not know. The freedom to not know brought me peace. 

Who would object to someone living in peace rather than anxiety? Unfortunately for those who would be in total authority, this peace relies on the freedom to ask questions. Asking questions shines a light on the slap-dash stage dressing. This is bad for The Authority. 

Mine wasn’t a quick journey and the process continues, but now, years later, I stand in opposition to much of what I was taught was needed for people to be happy and for the country to be at peace. I no longer believe The Authority always has everyone’s best interest in mind. I no longer obey without question. I no longer say that The Authority is right simply because they are in authority. 

I now think. I question. I use my mind to think rather than to conceal. 

Education is dangerous, y’all. It changes lives for the better. And that is bad for those who want unquestioning, complete obedience.

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