The Burning of an Education by Ally

The Burning of an Education by Ally - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

At 17 I was ignorant towards my future, oblivious of the immense opportunity I was lucky enough to have been born into. I grew up a child of the suburbs; caring parents, a roof over my head, room to grow, and a stomach that was never empty. Despite these advantages I struggled tremendously through the majority of my adolescence; going to school seemed more like a chore than anything and else and I spent more energy blaming teachers for making things difficult then I spent actually attempting to grasp the material. It took me a long time to understand that I was equally, if not more, responsible for my own learning than the support system surrounding me was. It wasn’t until I read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 had I changed my outlook on the value of education and the crucial role it plays in this constantly changing society. I think Fahrenheit 451 should be a required reading for any young adult.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was a book that became the first of many to be finished in one sitting, the novel brilliantly served itself as the introduction to my own form of therapy. More specifically it was the first time I had felt like I needed to understand more, the first time I had felt like the rest of the world needed to understand more. I thought about how overwhelmingly unfair it was that some people would never get the chance to experience how words on a page could transform themselves into questions in a person’s head and vise-versa. Not only was I left with a thirst for more knowledge, but also this idea that reading was accompanied by an ironic feeling of comfort in having something to be bothered about.

Fahrenheit 451 was a turning point for me as I begun my junior year of high school. The novel was surprisingly relatable, despite its futuristic setting. It explores topics of censorship, ignorance, personal freedom, and happiness. It makes the reader question what they think and I that is why every high school aged student should read it before they graduate. So they are prepared to make decisions and become more comfortable with the term individual. So that they may begin taking education seriously because an education is one’s biggest weapon against conformity and oppression.