Education and Poverty

It's almost a hallmark of modern liberal democracies to cry out that the answer to poverty is a functioning and all inclusive education system. Why I agree with this idea on the whole, I think it's often treated like a silver bullet when it could more accurately be described as something that generally gives people more opportunities. However, we can see that nations with better education systems have higher earning workers and have better standards of living, although some might argue its just a consequence of industrialization. However, Carolina's accounts in "Child of the Dark," do very little to reinforce this often cited "fact." She talks of how a boy who, when brought to the favela was educated and polite and smart, quickly degenerated into a layabout, a drunk, and a womanizer as he aged in such such poverty. One could argue that an education without opportunity can do little but make one aware of how horrible their situation is. However, Carolina, also in the same hopeless situation, was only able to write the very book we're reading because of her education and it would ultimately lift out of the hell of the favela. In my opinion, education itself is just a tool, and how it is used and to what end is in the hands of the owner.

C.S. Lewis once said that “education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”  Seeing as education in and of itself is but a tool, this is hard to disagree with. A callous and clever individual may used their education to further themselves by any means while another may use it to try and help his peers. In a sense, this is what education out to be, something that empowers an individual to make their own decisions and judgement and to operate in the world as they see fit. Many education systems try and reproduce the value system of a particular society in the youth. This in and of itself could be considered a kind of oppression, as hat is considered to be right and wrong according to the curriculum is decided by those in control of the education system. In this sense, knowledge is literally power, if I may quote Foucault, as it allows  people to shape the views of those much younger than themselves. However, this does not completely remove one's agency in their own thoughts, although it does restrict it.  None the less, an education ought to empower someone to choose or create their own values, rather than have values forced upon them.