What Life is Like Without Education?

There is no better way to celebrate the end of educational endeavor other than writing about it myself. Pondering how has my 20-odd years of accumulated education supposed to empower myself. This is among my favorite activities: pondering the what-ifs. 

To truly realize the great blessing that comes with education require us to imagine the exact opposite. What should life be like without education?

We often forget our privileges because we do not know and consciously ponder how life will be like without them. We're taking our reality for granted, with reasonably acceptable reason: because we don't think life would drastically change in our immediate future. Of course, there are exception - French monarchy in 1789-99 did not think that they would face guillotine ever until they experienced revolution. 

Because I am born male in patriarchal society, I want to imagine how life would be like, had my reproduction gene been an XX rather than an XY. Had we been born as a girl in deeply patriarchal society - still existing even in modern times, by the time we hit puberty and get our first period, the people in our community could look at us with disgust, truly believing we are cursed. Going to school is not an option - partly for practical reason, poor family with no access to tampons or pads finds it difficult to keep the matter of period-related hygiene from the rest of classmates (changing underwear and undergarment frequently will do but what if the school do not even have proper bathroom to wash ourselves during the clean-up?)

Other more persistent reasons is due to the belief that we are cursed (in such case, we must be isolated from the rest of society and obviously kept away from places such as school) or rather cultural belief about the role of women - that women should not be at school but staying at home. Maybe we are forced to work to care after the rest of the family, because our parent thinks investing in our little brother makes more sense than investing in us. Boys could get variety of jobs right after their graduation - from blue collars work to possibly even white collar work if they are lucky enough or rather brilliant at what they do - compared to women who faced constant discrimination and hurdles in whenever they do. Besides, what is the use to send us to school because ultimately the true mission is to find a decent husband that would want to marry us and also that could help ease the burden of the family.

The previous paragraph has been horrible but even so one can still consider that the horrible situation is a tiny bit better if you consider that had you been born in Saudi Arabia just 1500 years earlier you could have been killed, because it was a common practice there to bury the baby girl alive. Actually you do not have to go way back - we found evidence that there are systematic abortion against female fetuses in modern China due to one-child policy, women faced high risk of being raped in many societies such as in India, in some cultures it is common to kidnap a woman and force them to marry, in other societies if you had been born poor, it is a possibility that you will be traded with several sacks of rice by your very own father, you could have been sold as prostitute, you could have been the victim of honor-killing, you could have been working with no pay and in abusive environment as domestic workers in rich gulf-countries, risks associated with being women and poor women especially are exceptionally and disgustingly high. 

In a rather famous example, Malala at a young age was shot almost to her death by Taliban because she demanded education. Education is a way out for many. Sometimes, education is your only life insurance. I personally know the story of two brilliant young women from Afghanistan (at the time we only turned 18) who used their time as exchange student to plan their historic escape away from their home country to seek asylum in Canada. They earned the spot because they had been educated (they speak English and are considered very bright passing a very tight selection process), and they used that to escape their home. It must have been heart-breaking, my mom cried her eyes out that I left her for a year during my exchange year, these two girls leave their home for the rest of her life. 

Life could have been very dramatically tragic had my gene been an XX and due to unfortunate circumstances that forces me to lose my access to education - years of schooling that I often (now which I regretfully) dread. It is true that I do not have to use gender-sentiment in my analysis, however (i) it may be an eye opener for some of you, (ii) it does not hurt to be a bit dramatic when imagining the parallel reality.

The absence of education could mean that I lost access to things that define me, that I love the most. Such as the joy of reading - imagining impossibility, opening up to fresh new perspectives, exploring the world from the lens of others. I received many insight from reading books, or even simply reading comics. In a world, where I could not read and comprehend writing would be world so restricted and so dull, living therein could be no less than torture.

The absence of education could mean that I am shackled by invisible mental block. Not knowing that there are alternatives. Stuck in my problem. Trapped within our own often self-deprecating mentality. Chained by own-mental block believing that we are undeserving and sub-par. 

The absence of education could mean that I lost my cherished and taken-for-granted freedom. Living at the mercy of others. Not having control of my very own life-choices. 

The absence of education could mean that I live in constant fear because I have no understanding of how things work, I have no framework to make sense of what is going on, and I would have no safety net at all. What is considered as simple mistake by the privileged could be life-shattering for me.

The absence of education could mean that we are limited in our ability to connect with others - simply because of differences in social statuses. Stigma against the non-educated is persistent - because we do not speak their lingo, because they have higher social status, again realizing our own inferiority is a very un-liberating experience.

It is indeed hard to gauge how exactly your education empowers, but it is helpful to look at how has your education helped you understand and grow yourself. 

Self-awareness, self-growth, self-control, and ultimately self-actualization is the definitive product of your education. For people without education, dreaming of self-actualizing yourself is outrageous - most do not even dare to dream. Too helpless even to imagine personal goal. The sweet glory of achieving personal triumph is unknown. People with no education is deprived from experiencing many liberating aspect of personal journey and development. 

The quick contemplation of the what if is enough for me to realize how much I have been lucky experiencing decades of education. Of course there are sky above the sky, I may not be experiencing the full benefit of my own education. I may not be efficient enough in absorbing the insight and lessons out of my schooling years. But, comparing to the life without education, my life has been infinitely better and I am much more empowered. 

It is easy to take things for granted, until it is gone. I am eternally grateful for all the people involved in my own education - patiently guiding me to a functioning and ethical adult. Teaching me skills to allow me to adjust in transition to be a responsible and most importantly kind human being. How about you, how your life would be like without education?