Unlike any other time in our history, we have to know that

“Unlike any other time in our history, we have to know that staying in school and getting an education is the most important thing you can do.” — Alexis Herman

Hear these words, O children of the new age, spoken by Alexis Herman, the daughter of perseverance and the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor. Her words, though simple, carry the weight of centuries — a call to arms, not for battle, but for knowledge. She speaks of a time unlike any other, a world where the mind, not the sword, determines destiny. The fields of labor have changed, the machines have multiplied, and the power once found in the body is now found in understanding. Thus she declares that education — not wealth, not inheritance — has become the truest weapon of freedom.

Herman’s words arise from the heart of American history, where education was not always a birthright but a battleground. She grew up in the Deep South during the struggle for civil rights, when the doors of schools and universities were still closed to many because of the color of their skin. She saw that ignorance was not a coincidence, but a tool of oppression — for to keep a people uneducated is to keep them powerless. Thus, when she says, “staying in school and getting an education is the most important thing you can do,” she speaks not as a politician, but as a witness to the truth that learning is liberation.

In her youth, there were those who risked everything for the right to learn — the Little Rock Nine, who walked into a school surrounded by hatred; Ruby Bridges, a child escorted by federal marshals through jeering crowds just to sit at a desk. These stories are not ancient myths but living testaments to the value of education. For each of these children understood, as Alexis Herman did, that the classroom is more than a room of lessons — it is a gateway to dignity, a door through which one passes from limitation to possibility.

Herman’s warning — that this is unlike any other time — reminds us that the world has entered a new era, one defined by the knowledge economy. Machines have taken the tasks of hands, but not yet the visions of minds. The worker who once built with muscle must now build with thought. The farmer studies weather satellites; the craftsman learns digital tools; the merchant trades in data and design. To refuse education in such an age is to step willingly into the shadows, while the light of opportunity passes by. Thus, her call is not only moral but practical — education is now survival.

Yet, her words also hold a deeper, spiritual truth. To “stay in school” is not only to remain in a building, but to remain in a state of learning, of curiosity and growth. For the greatest danger of this age is not ignorance, but indifference. Many know how to read, yet do not seek wisdom; many possess information, yet lack understanding. Education, in Herman’s sense, is not mere schooling — it is a lifelong devotion to growth, a discipline of the mind and the heart. The wise never graduate from the school of life; they simply ascend from student to teacher, and then back again.

Consider also the story of Frederick Douglass, who, born a slave, found his freedom not through rebellion alone, but through literacy. “Once you learn to read,” he said, “you will be forever free.” Douglass risked punishment to learn his letters, knowing that the one who can read his own history can rewrite his own fate. So too, in every generation, education has been the ladder by which the poor have climbed and the oppressed have risen. Herman’s words carry this same eternal flame — that the mind, once awakened, cannot be enslaved.

So remember this, O children of today and tomorrow: do not despise learning, and do not abandon the path of education when it grows hard. Every book you open, every lesson you master, every question you dare to ask — these are the steps toward freedom, dignity, and greatness. Stay in school not for grades, but for wisdom; seek education not for status, but for strength. For in this age, as Herman declares, there is no treasure more vital than knowledge, no weapon more powerful than the mind. And when you have learned, turn back to teach others, so that the light of understanding may never dim, and the generations to come may walk further than you dreamed.