VANGUARD OF FREEDOM
SHEERYL N. DELA CRUZ
An uneducated nation is a nation destined to fail. Education in the modern civilization is not a privilege. It should be a right of every citizen to be educated and to be given the most fundamental knowledge to read, write and most of all to comprehend.
Like the glorious United States of America where civil liberty is guaranteed by a constitution and is protected by different legislative actions, most existing sovereign states at the current time has guaranteed civil rights and liberties, but what would be the use of those rights to a nation of illiterate persons? What liberties could a state guarantee to an uneducated populace? Not a single right could be exercised by somebody who could never understand and never know what he is entitled to. Every farmer who knows not how to read and write was told by the annals of history to have lost their lands, their harvests and their source of living. We have seen through history how Rizal wanted to educate the masses first, to have them learn to read and write rather than to fight with bolos and guns not because Rizal wanted a fight in the courts, but because a freedom without understanding is far worse than tyranny. Tyrants can never last long with educated populace while free men with no education can be ruled endlessly by a tyrant believing they are free.
We have seen in the modern times and we have shown the world what educated intellects have done under tyranny when intellects from different classes of society decided to stand up, but not take arms, but rosaries and flowers to fight and to revolt against a dictator, we have done it not only once, but again in recent times when we felt that we had enough of corruption. Education toppled down abusive dictators and presidents alike. Education made the world as we know today and it guaranteed that the poor are not taken advantage of.
Education has made the world a civilized one. No constitution, no army and no government could guarantee freedom and a success of a state with no educated populace. States should arm their people with education rather than guns, for what would be the use of a fighting force if they do not have the spirit and do not understand what they are really fighting for? — oOo—
The author is Teacher I at Sta. Cruz High Integrated School