A Fire Lit by Sophia

A Fire Lit by Sophia - October 2022 Scholarship Essay

William Butler Yeats, a prominent force of the Irish Literary Revival of the 1900s, once said “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Many of today’s youth view learning as the mindless memorization of facts coupled with senseless honing of skills, much of which will never be utilized in their adult lives. This, however, is not education. Education is the development of new ideas and passions within individuals. It has written sonnets and symphonies. It has sparked movements and decimated cities. It has let us view things as microscopic as an atom and as vast as the universe itself. Without education, where would we, as a human race, be?

All too often we see news reports of places where people are restricted from education. 73% of South Sudanese girls have not attended primary school. Less than 40% of Nigeriens, aged 15 to 24, are literate. Lebanon dedicates only 1.6% of its gross domestic product to education. Even the United States spends only 4.96% of its gross domestic product on education per year, significantly less than other developed nations. But why does this matter? The human race has not reverted back to its primal days, and civilization has yet to collapse, so why should we take funding from other issues and put it towards learning A-B-Cs? Simply put, if we do not place more emphasis on the cultivation of young minds, society cannot be expected to progress any further.

Take space exploration, for instance. Fifty-three years ago, NASA put its first man on the moon. Just this year, their James Webb Telescope produced images of galaxies 7,500 light-years away. Of course, these advancements go hand in hand with the evolution of modern technology and the growth of our general collection of cosmic knowledge, but these things ultimately whittle down to one thing: education. Without teachers fostering the enthusiasm of students, and schools providing them with the resources to do so, the headway seen in space and other industries would be unachievable.

Healthcare, too, has reaped the benefits of scientific progress. All too well we remember the Covid-19 pandemic which killed approximately 375,000 Americans in 2020 alone. Unfortunate as this is, many more lives were saved by the rapid production of a coronavirus vaccine, which was developed in less than a year; a stark contrast from vaccines such as the one for polio, which was not released until 1953 after twenty-three years of testing.

With the education of young minds comes the solutions to many of the world’s problems. In modern times, we see the effects of climate change, genetic diseases, environmental degradation, and much more. And who better to improve our future than the coming generations? Each new era of individuals brings new waves and modes of creativity and self-expression. And who else should paint the canvases of tomorrow than those who will be there to admire the final product and even learn from its mistakes? Education provides children with the chance to not only learn about the world around them but to learn about themselves and how they can help both the Earth and its inhabitants. Without education, there is no progress. Without education, there is no invention. Without education, there is no fire, and our pails remain empty.