The Right to Study

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was told that study was not for her, and she studied anyway. A mind does not ask permission to learn. Closing the books to someone is itself an argument, and it is a weak one: it produces the ignorance it will later complain about.

Silence can be forced. Thought cannot. When the classroom was shut, she learned from the work that remained, including the kitchen and the convent around her. The wish to understand does not expire because the official door is closed.

Notice who is being told to wait. If the reason is “people like you do not study this,” the reason is the exclusion. It is not a discovery about the mind.

The closed classroom

A student is turned away from a subject and told it is not for someone in her position. Later the same people say she has nothing to contribute, because she never studied it.

Sor Juana’s reply is that the second sentence is the first sentence arriving late. The closed door was the whole argument.

Try this today Notice who is told to wait or “not for people like you” and ask who made that rule.