Why is acquiring education a big deal? It’s a simple question that we must all ponder if we are to truly embrace this gift of education, and be deliberate about investing in ourselves and others around us.
See below some testimonials of individuals across various spheres, whose lives have been impacted by education. Here are their views on education and what it has done for them:
Education gave me tools to think and analyze issues around me. It is the equipping with knowledge on one hand, and the permission it gives me to interrogate the same knowledge, challenge my own assumptions and make decisive conclusions. In short, education has helped me think more broadly and come to the understanding that there will always be more than one approach or perspective, which I have to acknowledge, respect, analyze and inform my own thoughts. Education has made me see unity in diversity and communicate my views intelligently. Beyond these, it has facilitated the development of my whole self – emotional, spiritual, intellectual, relational, etc. I am now able to have meaningful dialogue with people I disagree with respectfully and embrace other people and their cultures because I have the cognitive ability to understand their views and opinion without necessarily agreeing with them. This is the beauty of intellectual dialogue that education has given to me.
Dr. Adewale Adeyinka
Management Scholar, Business Coach, Consultant, Social Innovator
Silent Generals, January 2021
Education has shaped my life and is still shaping my life. Education has greatly helped me in broadening my mind. And as I got opportunities for learning, opportunities for acquiring knowledge, I began to broaden my horizon. My exposure to knowledge, my willingness to learn, my willingness to move out of my comfort zone, and my willingness to seek knowledge have helped in my ministry and purpose. I believe so strongly in education, I believe so strongly in acquiring knowledge, I believe so strongly in gaining wisdom.
Pastor Morin Osunmakinde (PMo)
Pastor, Life Coach, Entrepreneur, President “BABES Redefined”
Silent Generals, February 2021
Education has shaped my life. Of course, I went to school, but what I have realized growing up, is that education goes beyond the four walls of the classroom. You can also be educated from home, or just learn through life or learn through books. So, education should not be restricted to just what you learn in school. Women should learn, and even men. Young people should learn to cook, they should learn to read and write, they should learn to pronounce words. Sometimes I just sit to pronounce words, I just sit for like an hour. And I’m learning to pronounce some difficult words that I don’t know.
So, education is schooling, and it’s very important, it has helped my life, and I’m still learning. So, education is good. It helps you open your mind. It helps you know more about the world. It just makes you smarter, helping you to be able to contribute to conversations that are probably not in your field of study. But because you’ve read about it, you have studied about it, you can contribute. So, education is good. Everything we do is education. So, don’t just allow passive education. You have to be deliberate about getting an education, don’t just be passive about it. Be actively engaged in learning. You have to be deliberate as a young person, even as an old person, deliberate about the things that you’re doing and learning.
Parents should be models to their children in this. Education should start from home.
Mrs. Raquel Daniel (RKD)
Founder, Beyond the Classroom Foundation
Silent Generals, March 2021
One of the most important things that can happen to a man in his life is education, both formal and informal. Education is the fertilizer of the mind. It causes your mind to blossom indescribably. Without this fertilizer (education), there is no way your mind can function. One of my professors used to say something back in the years, he said “whatever does not exist in your mind, you can never use it in your life. Only the things that exist in your mind are useful to your life” Some people’s lives are limited because of the limited things that are written in their minds. Education is a fertilizer. Your plant can’t grow beyond the environment it is in or beyond the supply of water or fertilizer.
Education is also “tooling.” Some peoples’ lives are full, they are more equipped and more tooled. You can be basically educated, and you can be solidly educated in both formal and informal education. Formal education gives you certifications, while your informal education will be your edge in life. There are books you read that they won’t give you any certificate for, but will be your advantage in your life. There are lectures and courses you take online that they won’t give you certifications for but will be your greatest advantage in life. So, both formal and informal are necessary for you in everything.
If you are not going to go to school, and you are not going to pay attention to education, you have reduced the number of tools that you have. It’s like a Carpenter that does not have a saw. It’s like a Doctor that does not have surgical equipment. That is how it is for a man that is facing life without education, you have already limited the number of tools that you have. And there are some things that you cannot do in life without proper tooling. And so, you look at some people making some advances and progress, and you know that they have the same capacity as you have, but the tools that they have received are different from the tools that you have. This is the major part of what education entails.
Pastor Muyiwa Areo
Architect, Counsellor, Pastor
Silent Generals, April 2021
Education is really important and I’m also very passionate about it as well. It’s very critical for the development of any human. How we get it may differ but what is important is that you get it. I’m someone who believes so much in being trained and equipped.
So, I feel very strongly that the rigors or the process of formal education does a lot for us, it develops us beyond the formality of what we are learning. That’s one of the benefits of formal education because beyond the 1+1 and ABC is that you develop as a person, the principles that you will adopt and get, social networking and relationships that you learn to build, character, etc. through that process. Through education, you learn how to relate with other people who have different opinions from you and different perspectives about life. You learn about different cultures and you become vast. My ability to critically analyze, my ability to research, and my ability to go deeper than the surface. That’s education. I believe very strongly that education helps to fine-tune innate abilities. It doesn’t deny the fact that you have innate abilities so it helps to bring them out and it helps to amplify them.
Learning is all-encompassing. Learn from your own self and your own journey, learn from people, read books, go to school, and be in an environment where people love to learn. Both formal and informal learning are very important.
Kemi Fred Adetiba
Identity and Relationship Coach
Silent Generals, July 2021
Education has impacted me in so many ways. It helps me because education is continuous. I am still in the process of learning. It has helped me know myself, it has helped me become self-aware. It has helped me know my world; it has given me an understanding of my society, of my world. It has helped me know how to interact with the people in my world. It has helped me know how to be a human; an effective and productive member of society. It has equipped me to know how to contribute to making my society better, it has also helped me to know how to be successful, and how to live a life of impact, how to make a difference. This and many more I have gained from education.
And education is something you have to continue to acquire. As much as you can, from your high school, you can proceed to higher learning, even after higher learning, there are certifications to get. Now, education does not even have to be expensive. You can teach yourself certain things, you can acquire skills online; Google, and YouTube. These platforms have become the biggest institutions of learning in the world today. And so continually educate and build yourself. This is very important because the more you build yourself, the more you educate yourself, and the more functional you become. If you look around, man has over time gained increased mastery of his environment largely by the virtue of education. All the inventions that you have, ease of doing business, ease of communication, ease of transaction, ease of transportation, everything underlining, that is education. So, it will help you to increase your mastery of life and of your environment. So, the value of education cannot be overstated.
Mr. Fredrick Adetiba
Management Consultant and Author
Silent Generals, August 2021
For me, education is a leveler. The place I have attained today in life in terms of status, network, and wealth can be attributed over 90% to education. So, education is a leveler, it levels the poor and the rich, and it changes the fortunes of families because as a result of my own education, it has impacted my family. So, education is important. It’s a leveler, it makes you access to opportunities. It makes you live a better life.
Dr. Otive Igbuzor
Chief of Staff to the Deputy President of the Senate
The Silent Generals, March 2022
So, what’s your take on education? What has education done for you? Is it a big deal? At FOH, we know it is.
Happy International Day of Education 2023!
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