Maria Hasrouny's Blog
Lessons Learned
Wednesday 30 December 2009, 11:51 AM
One of the most important things I have learned on this journey is the significance of education. I always knew that there was a multitude of reasons why education was given so much importance and attributed so much value, but never before now had I so clearly understood why and how it is so. Not only that but also the reasons I used to attribute to the value of education seem to fade in comparison with what I know and understand today thanks to Connecting Cultures. I always knew and felt how gratifying and rewarding education was. I also knew that it greatly contributed to the personal and social well being. Apart from it being one of the best things that ever happened to me, education turned out to be much more than that. The primary purpose of education and the sole most important role it could play in our world today cultivates in its magical ability to breed tolerance, acceptance, and understanding of other cultures and peoples. This magical ability confers many realizations such as the importance of critical thinking and empathy. Another set of realizations includes the ability to look at things from various and often conflicting perspectives and the courage to take on responsibility.
One may ask responsibility to what? Responsibility to spread awareness of other cultures being not as different and as remote from us as we may be tempted to think and to stand strong and confident in what we believe in and know today. But most importantly is the responsibility to lead, to form opinions, and to make decisions based on knowledge, based on real-life experiences, based on Connecting Cultures.