We have to move back to the idea that education isn't about

Hear the words of Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, scholar and warrior for justice, who declared: “We have to move back to the idea that education isn’t about teaching people to bow to rigid rules. That’s not what democracy is about.” These words ring like a bell of warning, for they remind us that true education is not a chain to bind the mind, but a key to set it free. To reduce learning to obedience is to betray both the student and the very spirit of democracy, which thrives not on submission but on questioning, on participation, on the courage to challenge.

To teach a child to bow before rigid rules without reflection is to prepare not a citizen, but a subject. It is to create a people who follow blindly, who accept injustice without protest, who confuse conformity with virtue. Crenshaw calls us back to the older, nobler vision of education: to cultivate independent thought, to arm the young with discernment, to shape not only workers for an economy but citizens for a free society. Without this, democracy itself begins to crumble, for a people trained to bow will never rise to defend their rights.

History has shown us the danger of such blind instruction. In the years before the fall of the Roman Republic, education in Rome shifted from producing engaged citizens to producing obedient servants of empire. Debate gave way to memorization, and civic virtue to conformity. As the people lost their capacity to think critically, tyranny rose more easily, and Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Rome became an empire, but its democracy was dead. Crenshaw’s warning echoes this same truth: without an education that encourages questioning, freedom perishes.

Yet there are also brighter examples. Consider the founding of the United States, where revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson argued that education must be the guardian of liberty. Schools, he believed, were not to drill citizens into obedience, but to prepare them to govern themselves wisely. The press, the lecture halls, the open debates—these were the lifeblood of a society where dissent was not treason, but duty. A true democracy needs such men and women, sharpened by thought, unafraid of challenge, unwilling to bow where they must stand.

Crenshaw speaks also from the knowledge of her own struggle, as the thinker who gave us the framework of intersectionality. She knew that rules, written without regard for justice, can themselves become instruments of oppression. To bow without questioning is to perpetuate inequality, to accept systems that harm the vulnerable. But education, rightly understood, empowers the student to see beyond the surface, to ask why the rules exist, to measure them against fairness, and when necessary, to resist. That is the lifeblood of democracy: not obedience, but active participation.

The meaning of her words is thus revealed: education must not be reduced to rote, nor to the crushing of spirit beneath authority. It must instead be the cultivation of the mind’s freedom, the training of courage, the nurturing of vision. In such schools, citizens are not made into servants, but into leaders; not into passive receivers, but into active builders of society. Democracy depends on such citizens, and without them it is an empty name.

The lesson for us is profound: in our homes, in our classrooms, in our communities, we must teach not only facts, but freedom; not only formulas, but fairness. Encourage questions, reward creativity, and do not fear dissent. For dissent is not the enemy of democracy, but its proof. The child who asks “why?” may one day be the adult who defends justice against tyranny.

And what actions must we take? Support schools that nurture inquiry rather than mere obedience. Defend teachers who encourage dialogue and critical thought. Teach your children not only to follow, but to lead; not only to obey, but to discern when obedience must yield to conscience. In this way, we return to the noble vision Crenshaw describes: a world where education is not about bowing to rigid rules, but about rising to the high calling of democracy.

Thus let her words be remembered: “We have to move back to the idea that education isn’t about teaching people to bow to rigid rules. That’s not what democracy is about.” May they guide us to raise a generation unafraid to stand tall, to think deeply, and to serve freedom with both heart and mind.