Last class really got me thinking of whether or not education was a need or if it was a right. Could it be both? Or did it have to be one or the other. I started to think about this further when Sam brought up the very famous quote from our Declaration of Independence, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” To an extent, we can all acknowledge that this derives from the Social Contract. We give up our unlimited freedom in order to live in a community which helps us allocate resources, create a sense of security, and in the process of it all, we gain civil liberties. Is one of those civil liberties education? I mean, in order to maintain a properly functioning community it is necessary to have an educated mass? Isn’t that how we achieve liberalism? We cannot rely on those who were luckily placed into wealthier families to have a better education and expect them to guide our country propely. Once we recognized that for our community to function we must have an education population, it necessary for the government to create means for people who are less economically capable to attend the same schools. Nevertheless, I do not believe that these financial aids should be solely in the form of grants. When one has an economic commitment to their education (signing off for a loan) its forces the individual to strive more for their education. I’m not arguing that students who are being assisted financially by their parents don’t value their education, but there is a lesser degree of feeling fully committed as a student who opts for loans. Regardless, in a community such as the United States, education should not be seen as a need. For it to be classified as a need, an individual would have to depend on it for survival purposes. Although one can argue that an education can increasing survival rates (as it allows people to have more money), people can live without an education. Nevertheless, since we do live in a community influenced by the Social Contract, I find it implict to recognize education as a right and that is necessary for the government to provide means for every individual to be educated.
I strongly agree with what you’re saying, Diana. Education is most definitely a human right and it’s not fair to deprive individuals of this basic need simply because they were not handed everything on a silver platter at birth. In order for the less privileged to rise out of poverty, they need to be given educational opportunities. Education is a fundamental requirement for social justice and it correlates directly with one’s standard of living. Without an education, the possibility for success is limited and the cycle of poverty continues. Like you said, a community, on both a local and global scale, cannot function without an educated public.
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