How does education empower individuals and society?

From Amabeth Ocampo’s “Literacy as Independence”

“If the mind is like a house, then books that have been read are the furniture of the mind. One
look at somebody’s furniture and you will know what s/he is like.”- Amabeth Ocampo

Let’s do a comparison between the life of Rizal and Tarzan – a man who has the ability to
read, and a man who lives under the civilization. Rizal lived in a civilized nation wherein he
could get the education he wanted. On the other hand, Tarzan is a special case. He was a human
raised by gorillas in the jungle, oblivious to the society. Now, with the quote stated above by
Amabeth Ocampo, it is pretty obvious whose house is completely built. The house of Rizal that
is filled with knowledge and wisdom – which at the end, was used to defend our society.

The life of Tarzan is best fit to describe a person without education – an incomplete life
without meaning. With this being said, education is a powerful tool to make a change. It is the
travel from darkness to light, a wings to fly high in life. Just like how Jose Rizal, Andres
Bonifacio, and Emilio Aguinaldo liberated themselves from medieval thinking and opened
themselves to a bigger universe of ideas. Education helps turn weakness into strength that would
give us the confidence to stand for ourselves and spell the difference between independence and
slavery; liberation and isolation.

Per se, education is the fundamental right of every citizen that empowers the society and
helps elevate and uplift the social and economic conditions in the marginalized sections of the
society. A centralized weapon that has the power to empower all – education.