Redefining courage; Lessons for education
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Growing up as a child, one of the people I have
come to identify with and in fact whose memory I will forever cherish is that
of the first black president of South Africa Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. We
loved Madiba as he is referred to in his native Xhosa clan so much that we knew
him more than ourselves. It became a habit therefore to memorize the many
poignant quotes that Mandela made one of which is his famous axiom that "I
learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The
brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that
fear". I could not agree more to this eternal truth that has within itself
a lot of wisdom we can tap from if we are to overcome the plethora of
challenges facing the acquisition of good quality education.
Education is the key to many of the challenges
that we face today. Democracy as promising as it looks, still has a long way to
go in many countries because of the high illiteracy rates. Education uplifts a
person out of the cancer of ignorance. However, it takes courage to obtain a
proper education no matter where you find yourself, whether in a poverty
stricken country or in the most developed country in the world. It is therefore
important for us to have a proper grasp of what courage really is while drawing
important lessons from the life of Nelson Mandela.
Courage is not bullying other kids in school.
Courage is not settling down on easy tasks when you should be tackling a bigger
challenge. Courage is our ability as human beings to overcome our fears and
doubts. Mandela himself until his unfortunate passing in December, 2013 served
as a living testimony of courage. How many of us today can withstand the
discrimination that Mandela had to face growing up in a racially segregated
South Africa? How many of us today can afford to still pick things up after
languishing in prison for 27 solid years? Mandela did not just overcome these
two enormous challenges but many more in his lifetime.
Fear is a thematic component of our lives and
physiologically helps us to survive. And since all of us are created with a
quantum of fear in us, it is instructive to realize that the ability to
overcome this intrinsic fear is what really makes us courageous. None of us
have been able to evade the natural phenomenon of fear no matter who we are. No
matter how well prepared I am for an exam, my heart would usually miss a beat
anytime an exam paper is about to start. This however does not make me weaker
than any other student; neither does it have any bearing on the grade I will
obtain at the end of the day. It is our ability to handle fear that truly makes
us courageous. Courage like fear resides in all of us and we must never lose
sight of this glowing fact.
Growing up in Ghana where educational facilities
are lacking, where some parents prefer to send their children to tend farms
rather than send them to school, it takes courage to brave the storm to attain
an education. This is one of the reasons why we readily identified with Nelson
Mandela back in basic school. He started out as a cattle-boy in his small
village like many of us and ended up being a global icon. In today's age and
time, there are still many families who do not understand the importance of
education and see it as a waste of time. It takes courage to skillfully
persuade one's illiterate parents to fully understand that education is not for
lazy people but in fact for everyone including them. For many children in such
families, that you would ever go to school lies in your ability to confront
this primary hurdle in your family.
To add to the above, many students drop out of
school not because they are not good enough to seek higher education, but
because they do not have money to pay fees. When they finally do get the money
to further their education, they are afraid considering that very few people
pass the final examinations every year. It is not only the academic fear they
would have to bear with, but they will also have to endure the bullies in the
class and in the dormitories. Notwithstanding the challenges, the courageous
ones endure and still make it. Real courageous people like Mandela are not
washed away by the magnitude of problems they encounter but strive to find the
silver lining in every dark cloud.
Another practical application of courage in
education is that it teaches us never to give up. As I described earlier, the
sheer problems inherent in obtaining quality education in many African
countries has led many to call it quits. But some have purposed in their hearts
to withstand the fear, confront the challenges squarely and triumph over them.
Such people refuse to be discouraged by the bleak future hanging menacingly on
their heads but rather have resolved to utilize the opportunities available to
them today.
Another lesson we can draw from Nelson Mandela's
axiom is to pick ourselves up when we strip and fall in our quest to obtain an
education. Some people unfortunately are consumed by one or two challenges and
finally fail in a particular aspect of the struggle. Such are the times we have
to demonstrate courage and rise up again, shake off the dirt and blaze new and
even better trails. Fear and challenges are not in themselves bad, they rather
give us an opportunity to be better, an opportunity to be courageous. Several
students have committed suicides because they have failed their exams. Some
have decided to even call it quits because their grades are not improving.
Failure is an ordinary and sometimes even necessary component of the human
life. What we must do especially with respect to education is not to look so
hard at our bad grades that we miss the golden opportunities available to turn
the tables around. We must always appreciate the bigger picture and not be
discouraged by a few mishaps. Just because one may fail in one or two subjects
does not make you a failure as a human being. Academic work can
sometimes be
frustrating but the truth is that at the end of the day we will get to learn
something we did not know before.
Nelson Mandela once said that "Education is
the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". Today
throughout the world, there is a general cry for change. There is a general
consensus that the world is not in the best of shapes and something urgently
needs to be done. For so long we have looked for this "something" in
politics but it has not worked. Why don't we take a break and appreciate that
one of the best ways of really changing this world is to look up to education.
However, let me be quick to add that the challenges in ensuring that everyone
receives good quality education are many and the struggle will be a difficult
one. Notwithstanding this, Nelson Mandela offers us another solution to
overcoming the challenges that we will most surely meet in his axiom that
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over
it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that
fear".
