Writing is normal. Reading is normal. Admiring beauty is normal. Preferring, say, Michelangelo to Picasso, is normal. But in reality, all it takes is a lack of education to render all of these things inaccessible. Education is the key to the faculty of choosing. To choose, we must first know that we have a choice. We must rethink school to see it not as an obligation, but as a tool for gaining knowledge and awareness.
EDUCATION IS A RIGHT THAT CANNOT BE DENIED
“School: it is our chance to evolve, to better our conditions, to recreate the spirit of belonging in our community. Our last hope of saving our history, our culture, our people.”
These were the thoughts of Lama Tenzin when he conceived of the Rangdum school, and he was right. Today, thanks to the school, a sense of community has reawakened. Illiterate parents have overcome their initial reservations about education: even those who originally needed convincing to allow at least one child to go to school, today they try their hardest to send all of their children. Now they are proud of their children, of the school, of the new hope that they see around Rangdum.
In education they see a future for their children and for their impoverished community–a tiny world hidden on the high plains that has, little by little, begun to open itself to the world.
