Unchained Excellence by Ashley

Unchained Excellence by Ashley - October 2022 Scholarship Essay

While our school systems can feel like a prison system, the education we extract from our holding-classrooms will lead us to our ultimate goal: freedom.

The twelve-year sentence will be worth it. Some plan to take a gap year. Some plan to start work immediately. Some plan to deepen their education through college. Whatever we choose to do encompasses a form of freedom. Financial independence. The ability to choose. We develop all of these as we learn who we are through the restraints of the education system, refusing to be taken down by standardization.

Education is an opportunity to break free [from the system]. Take the Allegory of the Cave: when the prisoner ran free, he knew more, and he was happier and therefore attempted to free his fellow prisoners. It makes sense. There is so much intelligence in our natural intuition. When we combine it with our creativity and conscious logical reasoning, we become a genius that amazes all. We must let our education be responsive to this innate curiosity and drive.

Our education ultimately leads to our success. Education allows you to determine whatever “success” even means. It’s freedom! Freedom is ability.

Not to mention, I like being able to think for myself. I like being able to make informed decisions without anyone hanging over me. I like impressing people with my knowledge.

Of course, education does not replace wisdom. Wisdom is experience. But education provides the right experience things, with caution. Through knowledge and hindsight, we gain wisdom and become better people overall. The whole reason we are so advanced is through discovery and teaching such discovery so people can make more discoveries.

It’s how we set ourselves, as people, free from our primitivsm.