With Education Under Attack, Learning Is My Form Of Protest

For years, I thought learning was something quiet — something you did alone, late at night, to become a better version of yourself.

I studied alone in my dorm with my head down, squinting under the light of my desk lamp. I worked in the library, praying I wasn’t typing too loudly, until a voice over the loudspeaker told me it was closing and it was time to go home. 

School used to give me stress dreams about finals and forgotten deadlines. Today, those dreams haven’t gone away — rather, they’ve gotten scarier. They look like denied financial aid, banned books, my peers in handcuffs for protesting, and attacks on the very values that made me want to go to college in the first place. They look like real life.

Across the country, lawmakers are banning books, dismantling diversity programs, and limiting what teachers can say about race and gender. The Department of Education is under threat. So are journalists — sometimes metaphorically, and sometimes not. President Donald Trump and his administration are pushing esteemed colleges and universities into impossible corners, forcing them to choose between funding and academic freedom. 

Let’s be clear: These repeated attacks on education aren’t random. They’re part of a coordinated strategy to control how young people think and who they become. They’re an effort to devalue truth and diversity of thought. It’s simple, really — education builds critical thinkers. It builds empathy for those being oppressed. It builds resistance against the systems in power that seek to oppress. 

Those who are attacking education don’t just hate education. They fear it.

But here’s the thing: Those who are attacking education don’t just hate education. They fear it.

That’s why those long nights in the library and those brutal 8 a.m. lectures matter to me more than ever. They aren’t just testaments to your my determination. They’re acts of protest. In this social and political environment, choosing to learn deeply and honestly is one of the most powerful acts of defiance we have left.

It’s easy to overlook the radical potential of a classroom. But every time you study for a final, write a paper, or ask a question in class, you’re taking back control from people who want to tell you what to believe. Math and science help you understand how the world works, English classes help you understand how people work, and history teaches you how power works — and how dangerous it can be when we stop paying attention.

When Trump won the election in November, Bright Line Watch — a project coordinated by political scientists, professors, and sociologists to track the state of democracy in the U.S. — rated the health of the country’s democracy a 67 out of 100. By February, that number had dropped to 55. Political scientists and historians warn that the country is moving toward competitive authoritarianism, a system in which leaders come to power democratically, fill key appointments with loyalists in order to erode the system of checks and balances, and then threaten the press and educational institutions into complying with their policies.

Sound familiar?

This system thrives when people stop questioning it — when we forget how to think critically, or worse, never learn how in the first place.

This system thrives when people stop questioning it — when we forget how to think critically, or worse, never learn how in the first place. That’s exactly why our classrooms, libraries, and newsrooms are under attack.

So yes, your day-to-day learning might feel small. Just another lecture, another book, another quiz. But it’s more than that.

The Trump administration doesn’t want a public educated and empowered enough to stand up to it, and is doing everything in its power to dismantle the institutions and opportunities that teach people how to do just that.

By refusing to succumb to the comfort of blissful ignorance, by dragging themselves to morning lectures, and by working hard to better not just themselves, but the world around them, students everywhere are committing a radical, political act. And that’s enough to get me out of bed every morning with more defiance and determination than ever before.

Today, when I take a class, write an article, or even just read a book, I know I’m not just learning for myself. I’m learning how to stand up for what I believe in, and I’m choosing resistance. I hope you’ll do the same. 

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