The Right to Curiosity and Self-Directed Learning

Sor Juana's famous declaration of her childhood hunger for learning—her theft of books, her self-education—asserts curiosity as a fundamental right that cannot be restricted by colonial authorities. In postcolonial societies, colonialism attempted to control what colonized peoples could learn, creating artificial knowledge monopolies and suppressing indigenous intellectual traditions. Reclaiming the right to curiosity means rejecting educational systems designed to produce obedient subjects rather than critical thinkers. Sor Juana's model shows that decolonization requires creating spaces where all people can pursue knowledge freely, according to their own interests and needs. This concept challenges the gatekeeping of education by credentialing institutions and validates informal, community-based, and self-directed learning as equally valuable. For postcolonial identity, asserting the right to curiosity is asserting the right to define one's own intellectual and spiritual development.