A proper education is important for everybody, to wit, that America has an obligation to see that each and every member of our society has the opportunity to be provided as a matter of course, education that will allow their citizenry at the most essential level to at least read, write, and to do arithmetic; while also teaching them their responsibilities and duties to their country, as well as to their family, with an attendant moral code that differentiates between right actions and wrong.
Within any nation, or family structure, there are things that are considered to be taboo, or forbidden, to which some of these things are off-grounds because they are harmful to you as an individual, or that you are considered to be too young to appropriately deal with; but then again there are other forbidden items or thinking which is really a way for the State or for your family to maintain control over you. Forexample, an educated populace is a dangerous populace, mainly because they are much harder to fool. It is far easier to mold and to control people that are tied down to silly superstitions and pointless traditions, than those that have been not only taught at a young age to think for themselves, but also are able to communicate and do accomplish work by virtue of the fact that they have been educated and know how to use their minds.
In antebellum days, there were laws in Southern States which precluded slaves from being able to read and to write because doing so would be to give a "…. tendency to excite dissatisfaction in their minds and to produce insurrection and rebellion…" There were distinct penalties for failure to adhere to these laws both for the slave as well as for the white man for having the temerity to educate a slave, so that, slaves were punished by whipping, whereas white men were punished by monetary fines.
Fortunately, we have come a long way from those antebellum days and in America, all are by law, suppose to be equally treated in our public educational system. However, the long and short of it is that some children in America receive a much better and superior primary educational experience than others, so that in point of fact, there are clear and distinct differences in the opportunities presented to different classes and races within America when it comes to education. Those differences are of long standing and of systemic origins, so that the overcoming of these disadvantages for certain segments of our population will not be overturned anytime soon, but that does not mean a giving up or a quitting, because the importance and value of a higher education in America has never been more critical than it is today.
There was a time, not so long ago, that a man willing to work hard, but lacking education beyond high school, could find himself a job that paid a fair wage that would enable him to own a decent car, to own a decent house, and to have a family and thereby to be a part of the American dream. Unfortunately, those halcyon days are long gone, while there are still desirable "blue collar" jobs in America, there aren’t close to being what they use to be, instead, good paying manufacturing jobs, have been replaced with machines and robotics or non-union labor or out-sourced overseas, and we are left with low-paying service jobs which will never able those in that industry to earn a true living wage.
The one thing that we can say with a certainty, documented again and again, in study after study, is the higher and the further that you go in your collegiate educational pursuits, the better your pay will be. This means that more education provides you with not only more knowledge and knowhow, which makes for invaluable life skills, but also will invariably provide you with more pay.
The successful pursuit of education, though, is something that necessitates developing discipline, attention, focus, maturity, and desire in order to see it all the way through. While education has its merits for all Americans, none more so, than for those who were unfairly denied educational opportunities as well as their freedom, those many years ago.