User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 18/Power/Power in/through Education

Power in and through education

Power of education

Access to education is a basic human right. It is an important aspect in everyone's life and it has the power to open up a variety of different opportunities in our life, yet there are still too many children, especially young girls that do not receive education. Education improves both the satisfaction of the individual but also the community and helps individuals develop personality, their values and greatly develops confidence. Education also helps us prepare for the next phase of our life (moving from high school to university, university into work phase, etc.). Education is especially important in the lives of children.

“In some parts of the world, students are going to school every day. It's their normal life. But in other part of the world, we are starving for education... it's like a precious gift. It's like a diamond.” - Malala Yousafzai

Education provides many people with great opportunities to pursue a career and obtain a certain status in society. In a lot of countries education also has the power to help people out of poverty or to support young girls from being married off at a very young age. It also has the power to lower the criminal rate. Research has supported this, showing that when rates of high school completion rise only by 1% for men, this would save the U.S around $1.4 billion costs from crime.

Power of educators/education system

The power of educators or the education system is often underestimated. Teachers have the responsibility to encourage students and support their expectations to help them pursue their dreams or careers in the future. Positive educators have the power to help young students and inspire them to make a difference.

Interdisciplinarity of the power of education: climate change

More importantly, we are facing a world issue: climate change. Research has continuously shown that education for young girls would not only benefit them personally, but could also positively affect our planet, and help more than green cars, etcs. Project Drawdown, which came up with the 100 most beneficial ways to contribute to the problem of rising greenhouse gasses, stated that the number six initiative should be educating girls. Furthermore, educating young girls could result in reducing 51.48 gigatons of emissions by 2050, says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). However, access to good quality education has shown to result in “later marriage for girls, fewer and healthier children and a longer life with greater economic prosperity.”