Longing for Education

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains it original dimensions. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes.

On a cold December afternoon in 2010, my friends and I were teaching at a local village school in Nargarkot, Nepal when my attention was diverted from the enthusiastic class to an elderly man standing outside, peering in earnestly through the gaps of the blue window grilles. He wasn't there at the start of class, so he must have just arrived.

He cut a curious figure, standing rigid and silent. An overwhelming curiosity made me asked myself what his life might be like. I wanted to know what he was thinking about at that moment as he fixated his gaze upon the children: They had their arms outstretched, desperately competing among one another to answer the questions.

It is quite amazing how one can invent a myriad of stories from a photograph. With wrinkles that seemed to suggest decades of toil and eyes that provoke an aching longing, he was probably appreciating what he could not have during his youth: Education. This local school was built only a couple of years ago, and one of the very view in the region. In the dark recesses of his eyes, these batch of students represents the hopes of the Thamang tribe - his hopes.

Indeed, it is really through education that knowledge and information is received and used to improve the state of the world. A person devoid of education would not be able to read and write, and hence, he is excluded from all the knowledge and wisdom he can receive through books, media, and the internet. In contrast - like the fortunate Nepali children in class - those with education live in a room with all its windows open towards the outside world.