Education And Oppression

The main objective within this essay will be to illustrate how significant education is as an ongoing process for all individuals in order to be eligible in gaining the opportunity to feel the sense of liberation and thus become an effective participant within society. However the question as to whether education may also oppress a society shall also be discussed as an opposing argument due to this often being portrayed as a subconscious act to many individuals under the influence of authority.

The definition of education will be unique to each person as it is an ongoing process built up from personal experiences over time and as such is almost impossible to universally define (Burton and Barlett, 2012). However something that can be agreed

The most significant part in the extract which provides evidence for this stamen elaborates ‘let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened… Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light… their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them’. (Plato, 380 BC, cited in Asscher and Widger, 2012). This section can be represented as metaphor for individuals who only believe what they are told, their mind is trapped alike the prisoners meaning they are unable to see the light which can also be represented as freedom or even autonomy. The one prisoner who was educated to the outside world within the extract shows how education can form power as he was set free to be accustomed to the world around him without much influential input and thus provoked him to discover and think for himself, progressing onto the act of liberation though independence, ‘He would bless himself for the change, and pity [the other prisoners]’ (Plato, 380 BC, cited in Asscher and Widger, 2012). The result of this allows the prisoner to go back and inform the other prisoners the wisdom he has gained from the outside world which is one of the

Malala Yousafzai is just one of these figures highlighting how the act of autonomy developed through education has the power to overcome such stereotypical barriers like religion and class which she fought against despite being only a young girl. Malala (cited in Geroimenko, 2014 p.67) proclaims ‘One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world’ explaining how the willingness to want to learn and be educated has the ability to overcome any factors of oppression no matter what difficulties they may face. The result for her hard work in taking a stand was recognized in a historical change against the social movement of education for young girls and even earned herself a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her dedication and sheer enthusiasm in the right for education to be made available to everyone, ‘I am many […] I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of education…’ (Malala Yousafzai,