Ensuring a Future of Thinkers and Not Farmable Sheep by Amber

Ensuring a Future of Thinkers and Not Farmable Sheep by Amber - June 2025 Scholarship Essay

Oftentimes, when we as a society define power we forget the inherent impact of education. Despite it sounding dramatically Orwellian in nature, without proper education the inherent power of information lies in the hands of whoever or whatever is narrating it, not unlike a shepherd’s relationship with his mindless sheep. This is especially true for the contemporary population, as it is everyday that information and misinformation alike are being pumped into our veins through AI-generated content, marketed ads, or social media. And while you once could turn the TV on to hear what the news has to say, according to the Pew Research Center, 54% of adults get their news-related information from social media- which should be a concerning statistic to you due to the lack of repercussions pertaining to those who post purely speculative or false information. But even if these individuals were turning to news channels, it is difficult to discern what is actually happening due to the disparities between who is telling the story. Ultimately in the digital age, any individual old enough to hold a phone can fall victim to the nauseating hoards of misinformation that assault from every internet source; without the proper education on how to digest or interact with this knowledge it can oftentimes feel like you’re walking outside in the pouring rain with no umbrella or no place to take cover. Moreover, it is for those reasons that media and information literacy education should be a required class for every student starting from elementary school until they graduate high school.
Media and information literacy (MIL) is defined by researcher Patricia Aufderheide as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a variety of forms.” And it is understood that having a high MIL rate will translate to other facets of the world such as in one's schooling, employment opportunities, and generally with who one can interact with being bombarded with information (and misinformation alike) as we often are subjected to in the modern age through marketing and media. Without a high MIL capability, an individual is not only limited in the extent to which they can decipher information from the internet, but it is also typically evidence that there is a present lack of comprehension of the multi-faceted world that we live in. To truly comprehend history and therefore understand the future ahead, we must first be comfortable with the fluidity of perspective. For example, specifically in America, there is no way to even attempt to understand your neighbor if you lack the ability to engage with different perspectives. Not only is this about empathy, but it is necessary that you have high levels of logical reasoning that determine why you don’t comprehend a certain thing and how that can be because of a limited perspective. MIL affects all stages in life, whether you are 1-year-old or one-hundred-years-old, you face situations every single day in which you exercise some level of MIL. In fact, engaging and strengthening one's critical thinking is perhaps one of the most democratic and patriotic activities one can do, as having a large population of independent thinkers is what allows for innovative progression within a population and further fortifies the intelligence necessary for advancing a country economically, socially, and politically. Due to this, it would be in the best interest in the long-term development of the student to integrate an appropriate, required MIL education class into elementary schools so as to aid them as they begin to actualize how the world around them truly operates.
Most often, the closest we get to MIL education is when we are taught to evaluate different types of literature in English, but we typically aren’t told how this extends into the real world after our primary and secondary schooling is done. We require now more than ever proficient critical thinking skills that are packaged into MIL, and we need a class that does not necessarily teach students what to think but how to think. We are students from the day we are born to the day that we die, and it is crucial that we are equipped with the skills necessary to effectively learn, engage with, and contribute to the world around us. As we become more technologically advanced and as increasingly more information (and misinformation) is pushed out into the media, we must maintain the power as effectively educated individuals so as to never become dependent on someone else who can manipulate or control the narrative however they see fit. When we refuse to strengthen our mental processing capabilities, we are rendered to that of helpless sheep, dependent on a shepherd whom we do not know of what it is he sprinkles on the grain before feeding us nor where it is he is even leading us. The fall of the contemporary man lies not in being conquered through the traditional view of power by his fellow man, but rather, by unknowingly surrendering his free will through the abandonment of his most valuable asset: his mind.