"I can make the Sun go out."

This was the claim placed before the gaggle of timid students on their first day of history class. These students, doing their best to come to grips with the realities of 8th grade, sat in their chairs perplexed at such an assertion. They had no reason to suspect that their charismatic yet certainly human history teacher had power over the Sun and thus all that its rays affected, but this was the 8th grade and perhaps the rules had changed in the intervening months since their 7th year graduation.

The assertion stood, but not for too long.

It was this assertion - this tool of education - by which the history teacher surfaced the importance of learning in the hearts and minds of his pupils. It was this assertion which introduced the following (embellished and paraphrased) lesson.

When European explorers discovered the North American Continent, they shortly thereafter discovered the presence of the Native Americans who inhabited the land. These Native American tribes were chalk-full of natural resources and were swapping solid gold artifacts like candy. The explorers, of course, wanted a portion of this wealth, (specifically, all of it) so they devised a plot to trick the Native Americans into giving it to them.

Imagine yourself to be a Native American. Some oddly dressed men show up in large boats, check things out, and then one day, out of the blue, one of them approaches the tribe and the chief and says:

"I am a god! I can make the Sun go out! Now if you do not give me all of your gold and all of your goods in three days, I will make the Sun go away and all your crops will die, and you will surely perish."

It was at this point that the teacher paused and asked the class, "Now if you were a Native American back then, would you have listened?"

The timid students, some still unsure whether their professor actually held power over the Sun itself, said nothing. After a pause, the storyteller answered his own question. "Of course not! Just because some random guy shows up and says he has power over the Sun doesn't mean he's right. That's ridiculous! Don't believe everything you hear!"

The students all nodded. The ones who had thought that handing over their make-believe gold had been the best course of action nodded most vigorously of them all. The class collectively began to doubt that the man who stood before them was the human manifestation of Ra, but the teacher pressed on.

So, assuming as a Native American, you didn't decide to hand everything over, you instead go about your business. For three days, nothing much happens, but the third day is different. On the third day, something odd occurs. The Sun begins to disappear. It doesn't set. Instead, in the middle of the afternoon, the Sun simply begins to grow darker and darker until it is nigh impossible to see.

At this point the teacher paused again. "Now what do you do?", he asked.

Silence, frantic glances, and then from some incomprehensible direction, barely above a whisper, "Give them the gold?"

"You bet you give them the gold!", the teacher exclaimed. You pile up every piece of gold you can find and then you go find some more, and you give it to them!"

The teacher continued, "Now imagine I'm the European explorer. I ended up with all of your gold, and it wasn't because I was better in combat or because I was stronger, or because I could actually make the Sun go out. It was because I was more educated. I knew that you weren't going to give me the gold at first. I knew there was going to be a solar eclipse in three days, and I knew how to take advantage of that knowledge to get what I wanted."

The teacher concluded, "This is why it's important to take your education seriously. This is why it's important to learn as much as you can. Don't you dare think that learning is uncool or only for nerds. That is a straight up lie. The truth is that if you don't take your education seriously, one day someone may come along and say 'Give me all you have, because if you don't, I'll make the Sun go out!' and if you aren't educated on that day, you might just believe them."

My urge to you, the reader, is the same as my professor's was to me and my classmates years ago. Take your education seriously, never stop learning, and if someone says they can make the Sun go out, make them prove it twice before you agree to their terms.

Notes

1. While the account above is fictional. It is based on a true event involving Christopher Columbus and the indigenous people of Jamaica. Read More Here.
2. Feel free to get in touch with me via my Contact Page.