Schooling

I wish that all the formal education I endured through my life had been about learning.

Instead, school was about judgement. You were either an A student or a failure, or worse, mediocre. It was never about learning and growing. The focus was on passing exams, and acing reports.

No one seemed to care if you understood the material presented. No one cared if you could use your brain to solve problems, to discover things yourself.

No one cared what your interests were. You just needed to conform. You were an outcast if you didn’t do things the way they wanted you to. You were a failure.

Students were never developed, they were beaten into submission so they could become adults working as slaves in corporations.

I don’t think much has changed in my life.

Any learning I did was through my own efforts and plenty of hard knocks. A lot of pain could have been avoided if I had of been educated properly.

Schools need to guide minds to think for themselves, to develop their interests and talents and to, get this, have fun doing so. They need to inspire you. To encourage curiosity and develop a life long habit of learning.

My memory of school, including University, is endless, meaningless homework. Assignments on mundane topics. Terrifying three to four hour exams. Continual judgement. Not much, if any, fun. And not much valuable learning. That I got on my own.

Education Not Just for a Job

Pursuing higher education is not just about getting a better job or better pay, although, yes, it often does result in that.

It is not about the nice piece of paper you get to frame and hang on your wall or pull out when doubting Thomas’s say you couldn’t have possibly got a degree.

And it is not just about creating more opportunities, but yes, many more doors open.

Education is also not only courses, textbooks, certificates and honours.

And it is certainly more, way more, and should be more, than rote memorization of stuff.

It should be mind expanding.

I have met plenty of pretty stupid PhD’s. I mean, really stupid. They are not even good at what they doctored in. Narrow minded idiots who haven’t a lick of common sense. Or worse, snobs who like to smear their qualifications in your face like plate full of pooh with absolutely nothing to back up their claims of superiority.

Education, in its highest form is three fold. Experiences, critical thinking and doing what you love.

Experiences – You need to do things, try things, explore. Move outside your comfort zone. Be open. Learn from them.

Critical thinking – Oh, my, how badly we need thinking people! We have enough sheep. Enough cults. Enough celebrity worship. Ritual religion. People are asleep. The world has major big huge gigantic life threatening problems that need thinkers, solvers and doers! Not more idiots who give us more telephones, cars and jettison more crap into space hoping to colonize an inhospitable planet, professing to be geniuses because they are billionaires (oh there I go on an old rant!)

Do what you love – We already have a shit load of compassionless youngsters who became doctors and lawyers because of the money, man! When you pursue what you love, it’s like baking a cake with real butter and sugar. Becoming something just for money is trying to make delectable chocolate cake with only flour and water. Blah.

End of rant.