Seeing this title, many people would wonder if you’re crazy to doubt this famous and almost self-evident truth. It is understandable, of course, if such puzzlement occurs. I thought of this saying while I was reading a book about education. The phrase, All men are created equal, was from the American Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson. How many times this phrase has inspired us in the pursuit of democracy and freedom! And I’m sure it will continue to serve as an inspiration to generations to come.

However, if we give it a second thought, we might find out that certain people are using it out of context, to satisfy all conditions, which, in some cases, can be ridiculous. The first example I can think of is that in our education system students are placed in the same classroom and taught by the same teachers, regardless of the degree of their intelligence and diligence----because all men are created equal. But after each major examination, the students will be ranked one by one. Just imagine how the kids left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. To be honest, we know we are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe. Let’s face this cruel reality: Some people are smarter than others; some people make more money than others; some people cook better dishes than others; some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men; some people have more opportunity because they are born with it.

Do you mean that we cannot help ourselves because actually all men are not created equal? Some people may ask. Definitely not. Admitting the fact doesn’t mean we just indulge ourselves and float like a leaf in the sea. I remember Yu Minhong, chairman of the New Oriental Education group, once said in his speech something like: one of the criteria for judging a successful education is that the poorest student is as happy as the top student because he also learns and makes progress. The key to education is not how many students you send to prestigious universities but whether all the students have made progress on top of their original basis in a happy and encouraging environment. A really successful education, including family education, should be one that even after graduation learning has become students’ lifelong living habit. In this light, we are all capable of realizing our dreams.

I guess there is only one way in which all men are created equal----before the law, which makes a pauper the equal of a Li Jiacheng, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college professor. The law and our judicial system have their own faults, as does any human being. However, our courts are the only places where we can be equal, if there’s any. That’s what we should believe in and fight for.