Jesse Ojuka

“The order of things awakened in our minds the order of things can satisfy.” – Emerson

When I was a teenager, not too long ago, though it feels like decades. Expressing dissatisfaction with school felt taboo. Any critique was often met with disbelief by classmates who aced tests, or dismissed by adults who chucked it into the bin of laziness.

But the tide has shifted.

One of my favourite habits is looking up definitions for everyday words. Words we use regularly without really examining. Yesterday, I looked up “education.”

“Education is usually the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge. Developing the powers of reasoning and judgment. Generally preparing each other or oneself for mature life.”

I liked that. It felt right. But it didn’t describe what I actually went through. So I kept digging.

“Education is the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.”

Ah. That’s the one. Controlled. Inculcation. The machine.

Ever since I was young, I’ve had a strong sense of justice. I was elected to student council and narrowly lost the vote for president. My friend Harry later joked, “They were never going to let that happen, you’d have been too much to handle.” 

At Amazon, I took a short-term job and quickly found out they weren’t planning to pay us properly. I stormed up to HR and told them I would stop working and get the rest of the workers to stop too until the issue was fixed.

I’ve taken three companies to court and won every case.

Fairness matters to me. I once read a powerful quote “No one is more angry than a righteous person in the face of injustice” 

Maybe I get that from my mother. A Nigerian immigrant in Ireland, often met with discrimination. I remember being nine years old, waiting in a long queue to buy schoolbooks. A woman cut in front of us. My mum politely said, “Sorry, we’re in the line.”

The woman turned, looked at us, and said, “Fuck off back to your own country.”

That moment is ironed into my memory, even though much of my childhood is a blur.

I believe no one is above another human being. Not for wealth, not for status. We are all naked under our clothes. We are all ants to the universe. Some are more skilled in certain domains but no one is worth more.

That’s why it pains me to see the societal issues caused by a misuse of educational institutions. 

In school, I was mocked for not being academic. It planted a seed of inadequacy that followed me for years. I know I’m not alone in that.

Today, our systems are falling apart. Polarization is rising. Social media amplifies confusion. Critical thinking is not being taught. And though people feel concern, many also feel powerless. We haven’t been taught to see systems, let alone change them.

Because today, education is:

“The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.”

But it should be:

“The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge. Developing the powers of reasoning and judgment. Generally preparing each other or oneself for mature life.”

This is my life’s mission, I see it now and accept it with grace and faith. 

This is the platform I will use to discuss, explore, imagine what we can and should do, build a community of people who care. Because the only way to improve things is together. 

And remember
The order of things awakened in our minds the order of things can satisfy – Emerson

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