Freedom 101: Education

(Originally posted on my family blog)


I've started on a journey. A journey to get an education, or to become educated. It's exciting, intimidating, and a little scary. I've always loved to learn, it's just part of me, but now I've taken it to a whole new level. I'm reading, listening, discussing and writing(a bit). I feel like there are a million things to know and I want to know it all right now. But, I just need to be patient and enjoy the journey.
I know I have a mission in this life and I know I need an education to fulfill that mission. I don't know what my whole mission in life is, but I do know that the most important part of it is to be a good wife and mother. I want for my children what I think most people want. I want them to love God and their fellow man. I want them to fulfill their dreams and live happy successful lives. I want them to stand for truth and right, and to be leaders and statesman. I also know I need to be what I expect them to be. I am the example that they look to the most. As Emerson said, "What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."

On my education journey I have been increasingly aware of how important having an education is to our freedom, our way of life, and the things I want for my children.

"Raising children and mentoring the next generation is the most important thing we can do to change the world. It is the primary role of all women and all men, married or single. It is who we are. It is why we were born. We must train up the leaders of the future with confidence, power and grace."
-Rachel DeMille, Steel to Gold

Thomas Jefferson said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." An education is important to freedom, because we must know what brings freedom. We need an education to see the cycles in history, and how to avoid making the mistakes that have been made in the past, and an education lets us see the real issues and then come up with real solutions.
Until recently I had been intimidated by politics and current events. It was very overwhelming to me. I didn't understand the issues that were being talked about on t.v. I would listen to one person and think they had a great solution and then listen to the opposition and think that their solution was just as good. At election time I didn't understand the issues that were being voted upon or what the candidates stood for. I think I was like a lot of Americans. It all seemed so complicated I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and let everyone else worry about it. But a strange thing started to happen, as I began reading and studying the classics I began to have a desire to learn more about our government, our founding fathers, our nations history and about what freedom really is and the principles our nation was founded on.

"...[some] assume that we can leave all intellectual activity, and
all political responsibility, to somebody else and live our lives as
vegetable beneficiaries of the moral and intellectual virtue of other men.
the trouble with this assumption is that, whereas it was once possible, and
even compulsory, for the bulk of mankind, such indulgence now, on the part of anybody, endangers the whole community. It is now necessary for everybody to try to live, as Ortega says, 'at the height of his times.' The democratic enterprise is in peril if any one of us says, 'I do not have to try to think for myself, or make the most of myself, or become a citizen of the
world republic of learning.' The death of democracy is not likely to be an
assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy,
indifference, and undernourishment." --Robert Hutchins Introduction to Great Books of the Western World

Now that I'm on the road to getting an education and understanding what freedom is I know how important it is, not only for me and my children but for my grandchildren and their children. I know I have a long way to go, but I feel like I am on my way. I am by no means an expert, but I am understanding more, and as I read more I am better able to form my own opinions about issues in the news. I am better able to vote for a candidate based on what they stand for and not just what party they belong to. Right now, in our country, a lot of people are upset and angry about what is occurring in our government, but as Stephen Palmer said in an article titled Education Must Precede Activism, " It's not enough to just be mad--we must also be wise." Wisdom comes from education.

If you would like a place to start my I suggest you start by reading The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States and The 5000 Year Leap . Then, discuss them with someone. Your children and your grandchildren will thank you, and they will follow your example.