"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." —Malcolm X

I have always understood the true power of education... Even as a child when I, with (what I now understand in retrospect to be) undiagnosed ADHD, and the struggle I had to engage with learning. Even despite the racism that existed in state education at this time in the 80s (Swann report, 1985), which meant that how many of the teachers at this Roman Catholic School responded to me was tinged with what would now be seen as overt racism. Even despite the low level bullying. I still understood its power and immersed myself in learning even though I found the environment of my school stressful.

I didn't do particularly well at school but have gone on to do better than projected as an adult. I completed my degree in my 30s whilst working and as a single mother. Completed my teacher training and PGCE as a single parent, in my 40s throughout the pandemic/lockdown and am now wondering if it is feasible for me to look at, one day, doing a PhD. Studying at that level has always seemed way out of my reach, as I believed for too many years that I just wasn't bright enough, as had been suggested at school. But the thought has grown inside of me over the last few years that maybe I am capable... as my understanding of what they taught me at school about myself (my capabilities) has led me to believe that this was so far from the truth. Because imposter syndrome or not, one doesn't get an exceptional distinction at postgraduate level as a fluke... My research proposal, if i ever get round to doing it, would be something along the lines of looking into how we resolve the issue of individual and institutional bias within education and/or how we make it into a more level playing field for those on the receiving end. I mean, I could so easily spend the rest of my life researching writing and reading about this... but... the reality is that as a single mother I have bills to pay and children to support (in more ways than simply financially). So...maybe I'll have to leave that until my 50s or perhaps I'd be better off doing engaging in some research off my own back.

Education is indeed the key, to so much in life: knowledge, freedom, opportunities, power, confidence... It is no wonder that at one end of the scale - the situation here in the UK for example, equal access to education is thwarted at too many angles for it to be an accident, and ideas of true social mobility (equal access to education being key to and in that) seem like a socialist fantasy/capitalist (carrot on a string) rouse. And at the other end of that scale we have the demonisation of education, of intellectualism, that we are seeing currently in Iran by the Ayatollah Khamenei... 

Here, we see quite clearly why education is NOT given the importance (support) in most big nations that it should be - because it will always pose a threat to those in power. What we are seeing in Iran currently may be extreme and seem a million miles away from what is going on in Western nations but really, we just do systematic oppression in an entirely different way. Yes, of course I am thankful, grateful even that I live in a country where my every movement as a woman is not restricted by a violence that is built into the fabric of society, where women are literally, legally less valued, equal and free as men, like it is in Iran as is perfectly explained here by Ali Azari via Hijabiluscious. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjMpBzEvKZF/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY

But as Elica Le Bon states in the first video in this post, we all need to look at this as a cautionary tale... Iran is currently heading close to a 1000 cuts if not already there, as many have already died - are dying at the hands of this regime that is open and honest about the reality that education and knowledge is more dangerous to their status quo and legitimacy than a cluster bomb. They do not want a people who will question them, who (through knowledge and understanding) might actually know better than them, and ultimately be in a position to challenge and push for change in that status quo. They are a living embodiment, as a country, of that death by a 1000 cuts, because much as this fight has been going on for decades, it often takes things getting really bad for people to fully acknowledge how bad things have been for too long already and the drastic need for change. Here in the West, we are a long way off that...yes, yes. But how far exactly? Are we at 396, 500, or 827 cuts? It is hard to tell sometimes. I just know that political stability is not where we reside.

Education, in the UK, is held up in many ways as being important and central, but as anyone who has worked in a state school will attest, in just so many ways schools simply function to preserve and perpetuate the status quo in terms of class/socio-economic status. You only need to look at the attainment gaps between children of different demographics (rich and poor being an easy one) to see this in stark black and white. And that is not even getting started on the ridiculous, rising and prohibitive tuition fees in this country. Access to education is becoming more and more difficult for those not born into wealthy or middle class families, from primary (where there is a direct link between socio-economic groups and levels of oracy and literacy) to secondary (with the attainment gap and HOW that is produced) to university. And this, more than gender, is what is at the heart of division here in the UK. Yes, we do also have multiple continued issues with misogyny and sexism, with racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism too and this is seen clearly when you get to the upper echelons of any institution... They become more white, male, straight, able bodied, the higher up you get. You only have to look at the demographic of academic managerial positions in UK universities to see this painfully clearly and yes, this stuff (in terms of the ideology it silently relays) trickles down and helps to maintain a system of silent oppression here. The reality is that all of these identities are trumped by wealth though. Because yes, you are indeed less likely to have personal or generational wealth if you are non-white, disabled, gay, female but inhabiting those identities AND having wealth will mean you are less affected by the discrimination poorer members of your community experience. Think Rishi Sunak and some of his proposals if he became King of the World 😊

Would I rather be silently or violently oppressed...?

I ask this because I'd imagine right now, most Iranian women would say silently, definitely for obvious reasons.

Tricky question in some ways. Obviously, I am grateful I am not overtly and violently oppressed like Mahsa Amini, like Nika Shakarami, like so many of bright young minds in Iranian universities who have been murdered in recent weeks. But the silent, drip drip, slow bleeding to death of a 1000 paper cuts... What we have seen historically in this country is how hard that is to unify against and fight. Because its never quite bad enough? We have seen swathes of communities ultimately oppressed by what the Conservatives' game plan is, keep on voting them in, because lets be clear, there are actually very few people who will benefit from the sum total of their policies. And we have to ask ourselves why this is?

For me, again this boils down to education... Because one of the big things we do not teach in state schools (that they do in most public (private) schools) is critical thinking. In the National Curriculum, there are currently only three subjects in which students are asked to 'think critically': History, Art and Design, and Citizenship, and only one reference to "critical analysis", which is in science. There are four subjects in which students are *encouraged* to "read critically", but this doesn't amount to any specific importance being put on critical thinking in itself. This is basically the difference between teaching kids what to think and teaching them how to think. And without the ability to engage in evaluation on that level, what chance do most people have when it comes to unpicking the minefield that is politics? When the vast majority of stuff that comes out of most politicians' mouths (on the left at the moment almost as much as the right to be honest) cannot be taken at face value. Policies need be looked at alongside others, past and present and also the hidden agendas of those pushing them through. Each and every word these politicians speak (and more importantly the ones they don't) need to be scrutinised and understood in context. I am fairly politically literate but I confess, I am often at a loss and am not sure what to make of stuff. It is no wonder we have had folks in the not so distant past plumping for Boris over Corbyn because, Corbyn was always going to be seen as a *high falutin* intellectual whose ideas were impossible to unpick by your average wo/man, and Boris' *posh boy, bufoonian, plain speak* appealled to many (in a not too dissimilar vein to Trump) who either selfishly understood that they personally would benefit from his ideals and policies, or those who misunderstood his very well crafted mask because it is easier to gage a politicians worth by their *personality* when political literacy is low.

Yes. That is potentially an extremely harsh thing to say. Yes, I realise I have shown my partisan cards there with that little rant but the point I am attempting to make is that state education is NEVER going to be given the funding and support it needs to actually effect a real societal change under a Tory government because... Drum roll... That doesn't serve them. Capitalism benefits from a certain proportion of society being poor and that elite slice of society (who have grown rich off the back of not just capitalism but also colonialism) benefit from most people being politically illiterate AND poor.

We have different issues here to those the people of Iran are currently fighting against - have been pushing against for decades. But one commonality is that the elite in both countries fully understand the power of education and fear the ramifications of having an educated country and electorate. And when I say education, I'm not simply talking about literacy rates: Elica Le Bon states that in Iran the literacy rate is 97%. Here in the UK it is 99%. But the rates of political literacy... The levels of critical thinking and ability to unpick complex political ideas and systems. I would hazard a guess that that is lower here in the UK because quite simply, we are comfortably numb here... We suffer silent, not violent oppression, so there is less to push against.

Definition of Death by 1000 cuts: Death by a thousand cuts is a form of torture and execution originating from Imperial China. Death by a Thousand Cuts may also refer to: Death by a thousand cuts (psychology), the way a major negative change which happens slowly in many unnoticed increments is not perceived as objectionable. [until it is too late].