Is Education a Right or a Privilege? by Tiana

Is Education a Right or a Privilege? by Tiana - January 2021 Scholarship Essay

Is Education a right or a privilege? A very controversial topic amongst the world. I believe that before you form an opinion on any topic, you need to fully understand what the topic is asking you. So when people ask if education is a right or a privilege, you need to know the difference between the two. Privilege is a certain entitlement to immunity granted by an authority figure. A Right is an inheritance held by human beings and they are given in the moment of birth. The biggest difference between the two is the phrase “Entitlement”. For example, People who feel entitled to go to private schools because they fit a certain social group are privileged people. A child going to school, and have the freedom to do/say whatever they want is a Right.

Society normally confuses the two because the world is filled more of people who are middle to upper class citizens who never had to experience a life without education. From the moment we turn the age of 5, we’re sent off to pre-k ready to start our educational journey. We as Americans feel a sense of entitlement about our education and we fail to open our eyes to see the bigger picture. We would be naive to think that only people in our country would be allowed to be educated. What we don't realize is that there are roughly 260 million children who aren't able to go to school. According to the United Nations, A Human right is the right to have an education no matter where you are in the world. Programs like Save the Children, help improve the equality of education in developing countries. Just because someone doesnt fit a certain socioeconomic status, doesn't mean they need to be stripped of their basic right to have an education. Preventing a child from going to school because you feel like it's a privilege is cruel. Preventing a child from going to school will have an everlasting impact on their learning and employment opportunities. Education is so much more than learning how to read and write. Education is the process of teaching skills,moral/values, daily habits, and knowledge. Children need to learn how to speak properly so they can have a job in the future, they need to learn the value of money so they understand how the economy works. Just because a child wasn’t born in the United States doesn't make them any less than capable of changing the world.