When I was small, I used to think that anyone who could read, write or go to school was automatically better than those who couldn’t. In my head, once you can speak good English and go to university, you will have sense, you will behave well, you will treat people with respect. But life taught me otherwise.
Let me just be honest with you education is good, no doubt. But it doesn’t always make someone a better human being. Some people who can’t even spell their names act better and more reasonable than some people who graduated from university.
Back then, we lived in a face-me-I-face-you compound. One of those houses where six or more families live together and share bathroom, kitchen, tap everything. You go dey hear everybody’s business whether you like it or not. Some people there were graduates, some couldn’t even read road signs. That’s where I started seeing the difference between book and sense.
There was this woman, Mama Nkechi. She didn’t go to school at all. She couldn’t write her name. Sometimes you’d see her asking someone to help her read a letter. But this woman is one of the kindest souls I’ve ever met. Always minding her business, If anybody’s child was hungry, she’d find a way to give them food. If two people were fighting, she’d go and settle itbeven if it had nothing to do with her. You could run to her if your mum traveled. She just had that motherly spirit.
Now fast forward to Uncle Felix. This man went to university, always wore suit every Sunday, always speaking grammar up and down. But no one liked him. The man was too full of himself. He would insult you because of small mistake. One time, he embarrassed the akara woman in front of the compound just because she splashed water while washing something. He shouted like someone fighting a court case. No respect, no kindness, just vibes and grammar.
That was when it entered my head that book doesn’t mean sense. Being educated doesn’t mean you are better than anybody, It’s not your degree that shows who you are, it’s how you treat people.
Don’t get me wrong, literacy helps a lot. It makes life easier. If you can read and write, you can get better jobs, you can help your children with homework, you can read medicine prescriptions. I remember when my cousin had an asthma attack, it was my mum who read the drug instructions and knew what to do. If she didn’t understand English, that night for end badly.
Also, reading opens your mind. It helps you see the world from another angle. You learn about other people’s pain and struggles. I once read a book about how people deal with emotions, and it helped me. Since then, I don’t jump into arguments anyhow. I try to understand people first.
But still, all that doesn’t mean literacy equals goodness. Some people can read from morning till night and still be wicked. Some use their education to oppress others. Some use it to lie, scam, and carry fake pride. So I ask again, does literacy really make us better?
For me, it doesn’t. It can help, yes. But the real thing that makes someone a better person is their heart. Are you kind? Are you humble? Do you respect others even if they’re different from you? Do you help when you can? That’s what counts.
It annoys me when people laugh at others because they can’t speak English well. So what? The person might not speak grammar, but they will feed you if you’re hungry. They will check on you if you’re sick. That one na big intelligence too. That’s love. That’s humanity.
Literacy doesn’t automatically make us better. It’s just a tool. What matters is how we use it. You can use your education to lift people or use it to look down on them. The choice is yours. If we really want to be better people, let’s focus more on being human. Let’s learn to listen, to be patient, to be kind. Book no dey teach that one. Life teaches it. People teach it. Experience teaches it.
This is my response to this episode of hivelearners community prompt of #hl-w174e2 which the topic is tagged LITERACY
