Education as Liberation, Not Domestication

Sor Juana pursued knowledge as an act of liberation—learning became her pathway to autonomy and resistance against limiting gender roles and institutional control. This concept challenges the common practice of using education primarily to domesticate children, teach compliance, and prepare them as economic units. True education, in Sor Juana's tradition, awakens critical consciousness and empowers children to question the world and themselves. Education as liberation means designing learning experiences that honor children's curiosity, support their emergence as thinking beings, and equip them to examine (and potentially resist) unjust systems. It prioritizes understanding over mere information transfer, critical thinking over obedience, and authentic engagement over performance metrics. When children experience education as genuinely liberatory, they develop not just skills but conviction in their own capacity for wisdom. This approach recognizes that children's intellectual freedom directly supports their broader freedom and rights.