A Silent Weapon for a Brighter Future

The meaning of the word “education“ is distorted nowadays. Some people use their education level to increase their pride, instead of increasing their knowledge. Sometimes, I ask myself: “What is education? How important is education to oneself?“

I once joined a regional competition when I was in bachelor degree. The dean of my faculty was performing his speech. One thing got my attention – curiosity. He emphasized the fact that curiosity is the first step to having an educated mind. Yes, we will wonder about how and why things happen in the way they do if we are curious.

However, curiosity is not really being taught in school. We have to memorize something to get a good grade, instead of asking ourselves: “Why do we have to memorize this? Does it have any importance to my future?” Memorization is good, in the case in which we know what is the purpose of it and understand what we are memorizing.

A long time ago, Nelson Mandela said that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. It is not a mainstream weapon, one which would attract the attention of media because of its noise. It does not make us invent new ideas through a threat. This weapon only works if we have the curiosity that makes us wonder how we can change what is around us. It gives us the chance to have the idea, to understand, and create our own opinion.

There is something else that educated people need to have – acceptance. When everyone around us thinks the same, it is something nice, but it would not brings any progress at all. For example, Galileo Galilei was threatened by the Christian Church for his new ideas about the Universe, as the idea of Earth not being the center of the Universe was something crazy to accept. He was charged of heresy, but that so–called “absurd” idea was actually correct after the observations of some scientists, even though there is no specific location of the center of the universe, according to Albert Einstein’s principle of relativity. Another one of the people who tried to change the world is Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi. He introduced the idea of zero in 976 and he stated that if no number appears in the place of tens, a little circle should be used “to keep the rows”.

Based on the examples, we may say: “Those are ideas that change the world, but what can I really do to really change the world?”. A philosopher, in an interesting open letter, said that a change can be done with a very simple, but an incredibly effective idea at the same time. Allowing all the kids to learn, understand and accept other cultures, even if they are different, would bring a huge change.

An educated person should respect the world’s diversity. They are not threatening to us, but they represent an important chance to improve or strengthen our ideas and invent something new. One time, a diplomat said that if you think well in a good way, the only thing in the world with no borders and walls is the science. The projects are capable to put people from different countries, with different ideas, religion, and background together.

Lastly, to keep learning is also important. Knowledge is not only obtained in school, but also in life. By learning from our own mistakes and others, we can discover something new.

In the end, I conclude that curiosity, acceptance, respect, and learning are the main concepts of education that can change the world itself. They can lead science to a new way of solving problems. Even for religion, this represents something important. In Islam, scientists are highly considered of, because they are capable to explain the creation of this wonderful world, how we live with other people, and to make people closer to God.

So, if we want to have a brighter future, education is fundamental. Besides those concepts, education has to be accessible to everyone. Allowing affordable tuition cost in order to approach the young minds to the simple, yet fundamental idea that a better future can be built on a solid foundation that is represented by a solid education.