Written By Executive Director, Noemi Giszpenc
The fifth cooperative principle is Education, Training, and Information. This may seem like a milquetoast, quiet principle, but it’s not.
Would slaves have risked their lives to learn to read if education was optional?
Would dissidents risk their lives to smuggle novels and leak documents past iron curtains if information was secondary?
Consider the approach of Training for Change: “Direct education is about liberation and empowerment.”
So take that picture you have of a cardigan-wearing librarian and give them a flaming pen, mightier than fifty swords.
If your co-op isn’t investing in education, training, and information, it’s not only missing an opportunity, but undermining its future.
That said, education can never be merely an end in itself. Rabbi Akiba was once asked by a student, “Which is greater, study or action?” He replied, “Study — if it leads to action.” I was reminded forcefully of this story when I recently heard Chenjerai Kumanyika in Episode 4 of “The Land That Never Has Been Yet” explaining why Lincoln’s Second Inaugural speech condemning slavery was less than hugely impressive:
…It took him a long time to come around, even to the point of just favoring emancipation. And I think that’s what the David Walker quotes really make clear: people had been saying this for decades, including people talking directly to Lincoln. So Lincoln learned, and I like that he learned. But it’s also a reminder to me that while white people are learning, black people are dying [emphasis added].
What I take from Rabbi Akiba is that study is necessary — to act without knowledge, without reflection, without transformative growth, leads to greater harm. But to study instead of act is to miss the point of study entirely. What I take from Chenjerai Kumanyika is that we cannot study at leisure, as an academic exercise. Lives are literally at stake.
Another angle which may help people to see the proper place of education is this continuum of anti-oppressive evolution (via Adaway Group): 
Naturally, actions and education are taking place at every stage, and the stages can be taking place several at a time. Still, the progression clearly shows that there is a time, as awareness grows, when the pre-eminent activity is to educate oneself, and then others. But it is not the end-point. The point is to dismantle oppression and become free.
Another word of caution: in the enterprise of becoming free, there is nearly as much to un-learn as there is to learn. This piece by Tema Okun points out that urgency, perfectionism, and individualism all reinforce white supremacist, oppresive culture. So if you catch yourself thinking “I must learn everything right away!” take a breath. Ask some questions. Find a partner or several. How we do things is about as important as what we do.
We are fortunate in this early twenty-first century to have a plethora of resources available to us to learn in fantastic breadth and depth. There is no excuse to remain uneducated. But make sure your studies leave you transformed and thoughtfully acting!