In recent years, American politics has become a battleground unlike anything today’s high schoolers have lived through. There’s political content invading once apolitical social media feeds, casual conversations with classmates and even personal relationships. The country has entered an era of misinformation, where half-truths or blatant lies spread faster than facts, and critical thinking is both of paramount importance and under threat. Books are being pulled from shelves, and history is being rewritten. The Department of Education faces the prospect of closure, while education policies are increasingly used as political leverage rather than tools for real change. Education should not be a casualty of political polarization; students must be given access to knowledge, and it is their responsibility to utilize the access they are provided with.
There’s a reason oppressive regimes throughout history have targeted education first. In George Orwell’s “1984,” a dystopian novel about a dictatorial government, the tyrannical “Big Brother” makes a point to alter history in order to obtain a stronger grasp on society.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past,” Orwell said.
China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s treated intellectualism as a disease, and the USSR under Joseph Stalin taught children under a state-controlled curriculum. Without education, powerful figures can control the narrative.
The world of literature is full of cautionary tales about suppressed education. “Fahrenheit 451” paints a bleak picture of a dystopian society robbed of books and independent thought. A not-so-dystopian book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” focuses more on the dangers of ignorance that come with a lack of education. Ironically, all of the books mentioned have been banned numerous times.
With all of this in mind, consider the present. Look at the book bans, the challenges to teaching the true history of this nation and the seemingly imminent closure of the Department of Education. We should be asking ourselves: Who benefits from an uneducated public? Here’s a hint: it’s not those struggling to make ends meet, nor is it the average Joe in the middle.
Education should be the foundation of society, not a weapon or a privilege reserved for the few. Malcolm X, a prominent American activist during the Civil Rights Movement, believed education was key for individual and societal empowerment.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,” Malcolm X said.
The politicization of education isn’t new, but its scale today is unprecedented. Debates over what should be considered “acceptable” knowledge and the suppression of certain ideas will shape the way future generations understand the world.
Knowledge is never handed out freely. To understand the world, one must dig for it. Confucius, an influential Chinese philosopher, believed recognizing the limits of one’s intelligence was the key to achieving true wisdom.
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance,” Confucius said.
There is always more to learn, so it’s crucial to question everything, read widely and understand the past to make sense of the present. The ability to think independently is one of the most powerful tools humans possess. Lose that, and the result is merely repeating someone else’s opinions.
In times like the present, education isn’t just about passing tests or getting good grades. It’s about being able to recognize when the truth is being distorted, history is being altered and understanding how decisions made now will affect people’s lives in the future. In a world where truth is often manipulated, knowledge must remain accessible, allowing future generations to think critically and shape their own understanding of the world.
