Why I hate school but love Education?
11:54 PMWhy do I absolutely hate school but love knowledge and education?
You see, being Asian, there's only one path - you go to school or die. I'm only partially joking here.
As technology and innovation occurs at an enormous pace the traditional school system will become obsolete - that's a given. The democracy of knowledge and the power of the internet will make yesterday's degrees a thing of the past. With the exclusion of typical must-have career choices for university degrees and credentials (e.g. doctors, accountants, etc.); school is a big conforming machine and I'll explain why I have such a lopsided hate towards it.
1. CONFORMITY
You are taught to always listen and be a subordinate to a person; this starts in kindergarten to senior year of high school to your last year of your undergraduate career. You are taught that this higher authority figure is always right and things such as change in the system is a thing unheard of; let alone question anybody who is in that power. You are taught that this is the only way and 1+1 is always 2, but what if you wanted it to be 3?
2. SUCCESS IS A MIRAGE
Just because you go to school and get good grades and a high GPA does not entail that you are smart, ambitious, nor a successful person (unless you plan on a typical career in science, or math, etc.). The school system is built upon the instant gratification of regurgitating useless facts. You're just a puppet parroting back whatever you are being tested on. This especially true if you're an arts major. Just because you memorize a list, does not mean you can become a leader in today's world let alone be successful in anything you do.
3. LACK OF FUNDING AND CHAOS
Putting aside how little teachers are paid in our system and how under funded the earlier stages of the education actually is - you take bunch of aspiring teachers who learned their education from people who were also put through the same system and so forth - you get a smorgasbord of conservative approaches to education and the desperation to innovate but is always tailed off by a lack of a funding.
Top that with the constant racking up of student loans as one acquires through university and colleges to only assume and aspire to be 'making that money back' in the long term.
4. OUTDATED
University courses regurgitating useless power point presentation slides where I could easily Google search something to find the exact same thing and probably be awake to absorb the information at a much more readily pace. I remember seeing half of an entire lecture hall falling asleep (me included) while I listen to some old guy talk about something that I do not remember. These types of environments are so outdated and might have been a good representation of knowledge and understanding but at this time and age are not. I spy with my little eye - several people messing with SnapChat, Facebook, and even playing League during lecture. Why even bother?
I know these are heavily biased and one sided - but these points are through my own experience through the education system. Am I saying completely eradicate the formal education system along with universities and colleges? No. There is good that comes out of public universities which include scientific research and actual new innovative findings for things like the cure for cancer, and so forth. However, I do argue that a change is needed or a continuing conveyor belt will continue to put the new generation 'Y' - into generation 'why on Earth am I in this system and what going to do with my life' in full effect.
I love learning - reading - experiencing things that I'm passionate about but I've learned a lot more through going with my gut then any traditional system can ever teach me.
As Gary Vaynerchuk would say, nothing beats the school of life - to which I concur.
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