Remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.
Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education should be focused on enhancing the lives of individuals and making positive changes in society.
Marian Wright Edelman's quote emphasizes the fundamental purpose of education as a tool for uplifting individuals and communities. It highlights that true education goes beyond personal advancement; it encompasses a responsibility to use knowledge and skills to improve the world around us. By learning, we gain the ability to contribute positively, ensuring that our influence results in a better future for others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, one might say, 'As Marian Wright Edelman stated, education is for improving the lives of others, reminding us to use our knowledge for social betterment.'
More from Marian Wright Edelman
All quotes βFar less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards. We can do better. We must demand that our leaders do better.
Dr. King used to say, 'I was sitting in the back of the bus, but my mind was always up front.' Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. You aim high and you work very hard and now I think it's clear that you can be anything you want to.
The outside world told black kids when I was growing up that we weren't worth anything. But our parents said it wasn't so, and our churches and our schoolteachers said it wasn't so. They believed in us, and we, therefore, believed in ourselves.
I was taught that the world had a lot of problems; that I could struggle and change them; that intellectual and material gifts brought the privilege and responsibility of sharing with others less fortunate; and that service is the rent each of us pays for living - the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals.
We must always refill and ensure there is a critical mass of leaders and activists committed to nonviolence and racial and economic justice who will keep seeding and building transforming movements.
Similar quotes
I feel it is now my duty to speak to young women, to encourage them to have careers and, particularly, careers in science.
Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.
The difficulty in a number of Western democracies is that the playing field is being tilted. For many in the middle class, prosperity seems unattainable because a good education - today's passport to riches - is unaffordable.
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.
One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.
In Austria an editor who can write well is valuable, but he is not likely to remain so unless he can handle a sabre with charm.