In Pakistan one week ago, a 14-year-old girl named Malala Yousafzai, was shot by members of the Taliban. They did so, according to news reports, because of her “outspoken” advocacy on behalf education for girls. Two other girls were also injured in the shooting.

It might or might not be the case that, according to the customs of Pakistan and her community, women should not be educated nor advocate anything. Although there are certain rules of morality we feel ought to apply everywhere, we generally support the prescription that, when in Rome, we do as the Romans do.

Without going into incendiary yet typical cliches about the oppression of women or the barbarism of Islam, this incident reveals something important every student in every place ought to take to heart. In many cases, education is not just a matter of self-betterment. In a very real way, it is a struggle between life and death.

Yet in the United States, most of us take higher education — let alone primary and secondary education —  for granted. Instead of talking about college in terms of how it will make us better people, able to constructively contribute to not just our own material benefit but that of our communities, we conceive of college as anything from a place where we continue our adolescent recklessness to a necessary prerequisite before we can “get a job.”

In the past century, especially in the United States, childhood has come to be regarded as a unique phase of human development; no longer are children thought of simply as short adults who must contribute to their own well-being.

We have repudiated the idea that children should have to go out and get jobs, in mines and sweatshops, and are in danger of forgetting that outside the United States, the world is a hellish place. Having imprinted K-12 education and a college degree into our culture cement, we need to remember the struggle some people go through to only slightly broaden their horizons through education.

Having incorporated into our lives the normalcy of attending schools for 13 or more years, our educational system has taken on a kind of  “set it and forget it” attribute. Like the battles labor unions and progressives fought a century and more ago for better working conditions, better hours and better pay, we no longer have to consider what we are giving up to go to college — or high school. For us, education entails little risk with the promise of sometimes lavish future gains.

The danger for Yousafzai, however, is not over. The Taliban reportedly have vowed to target her again if she survives.

This experience of hers is a testament to the value of education, and the value we should give it.