There is no higher and noblest ideal for a human being than to rebel oneself against mediocrity and strive for knowledge, enlightening the intellect. It is true that not every person has the possibility to study, and due to the harsh reality we live in, unfortunate events can happen that force a person to abandon his formal education and start working for his never ending struggle of survival; lower classes have different priorities and worries, different goals for life, and could well not think education would provide them with a rapid solution to their problems. In fact, most of those belonging to the lower social strata do not have hours and hours of time to read and educate themselves as they need to work in low-skilled jobs to take care of their immediate and basic needs. On the other side, there are also many young men who could pursue a formal education, but prefer 'enjoying life', which by the way the enjoying concept is completely relative, and thus wasting the opportunity their parents could provide them. Of course, some might already have a good position in a company before even going to college, but this is not the majority’s case, and they will just irresponsibly and perhaps unconsciously opt for having those ‘fun years’ and sacrifice their resulting mediocre life.
Adversity shapes a person in a way in which a comfortable and easy life does not, and even when in an unfavorable social position, I am convinced effort and personal abnegation is crucial for the strengthening of someone's character, and it is much more admiring and meritable someone who has struggled and was able to overcome many obstacles, finally succeeding in accomplishing his goal.
Several times I have heard people saying: "If I were younger now, I would probably do things differently; I wish I would have studied more…" Hearing that, and looking at their situation, how could one make the same mistakes they made in their youth? I always remember the following phrase which is one of my favorites and has been a model to myself:
The wise learns from that of the others
The fool never learns.”
When circumstances allow us to, there is no greater good than to reach for the books, and if possible, choose the environment and external factors, the social context, with which we will interact and to which we will be unavoidably subjected, that will influence our thinking and perception of reality.
A good education enables a person to stand out of the crowd, to differ from ordinary people; it makes the person think in a way most people do not. For instance, education and knowledge enables a person to think and reason beyond the usual boundaries the common person is used to think, by inertia, because society (publicity, biased news and information, the media, etc.) leads people without self-criteria and common sense to think in a distorted and tendentious certain way of interpreting reality.
By education I do not mean an academic degree, but in the broad sense of the word, I mean every factor that shaped the character and personality of the person, every piece of information, countless subtle interactions a person has had since his birth, and that through a gradual process of unification and integration, he started developing common sense, logic, independence of thought, mental acuity, and which combined with formal diligent study, he acquired the ability to associate all the incoming information, to analyze it, to judge it, and act accordingly.
Note: In these words there are some fragments of a letter I once wrote to a person I truly appreciate, that without knowing me much decided to help me lending me the necessary amount of money to continue my formal education; if this lady ever reads this blog, much thought was dedicated to that letter, though this is my general understanding and opinion on this issue, and it should not be confined to that letter.
