# Why Become Educated By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2025-03-30 The Department of Education of the United States is being significantly reduced, perhaps primarily dismantled. At such a time, examining the purpose of education is useful. Why become educated? A common saying suggests that ignorance is bliss. In many ways, it is. So, if education reduces ignorance and therefore contributes to a general reduction in bliss, why should one pursue education? Historically, there were class distinctions associated with education. Those in the bourgeoisie became educated; those in the proletariat did not. More recently, there were economic incentives for one to become educated. One could join the ranks of “white collar” professionals, earn more money, and work in climate-controlled offices. These economic incentives are changing. It is common for those in the trades to make as much as those in professions. In the absence of social and economic incentives for education, one is getting closer to the root as to why an individual might still want to pursue education as an end rather than a means and why the reactionaries in the current regime of power might want to dismantle education in America. These reactionaries claim that American education is filled with progressive ideology. They are correct. Education is inherently progressive. To become educated is to question. To question is to question everything. Once one starts to question, there is no limit. Nothing is out of bounds. This is dangerous to reactionaries because illegitimate structures of power are perpetuated largely by people’s blind acceptance. If people start to question existing patterns of power and oppression, people start to reject them and demand justice. A truly educated population eventually demands justice for themselves and others. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” From the view that the first rule of those in power is to stay in power, those in the reactionary right are correct to dismantle education in America. Education erodes the illegitimate foundations of its oppressive, capitalist agenda of subjugation and exploitation. Trump admitted that he loves the poorly educated. Education performs a variety of functions. It can be a social signal. It can provide economic opportunities. Most importantly, it starts the process of questioning what is given as one determines the attributes of a just society. The reactionary right is coming after education. Those committed to justice need to defend it. #### Related Items [[Education]] [[American]] [[Ideology]] [[Society]] [[Work]] [[Class]] [[Justice]]