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Formal Education is Pointless



This is a touchy subject; especially for the parents out there who want their kids to go to college, but this is a question more and more people are asking every day.

Let’s get something out of the way first: our current education system sucks. It uses a one-size-fits-all strategy where every student learns the same way, instead of focusing on what a specific student needs. Some would say that this is good since this creates an environment where everyone is treated equally.

I disagree. Forcing someone who has no aptitude for math to study calculus is like trying to get Shakespeare to come up with the Poincare conjecture. That won’t work. Education should be about bringing out the best in you. It should be about teaching kids at the pace they feel comfortable at.

Before anyone gets mad, let me say this; I understand the necessity of basic education, like basic algebra, writing skills, and basic world history. But this is where it should stop. You shouldn’t get a 16-year-old to study economics and differential calculus together. There’s no point in that. Almost none of us will use that information in the real world.

This is a question for all the adults/parents out there, “How much of the stuff you learned in school/college do you use in everyday life?”

For most of us, the answer will be the same: Very little.

So why even bother going to college and spending hundreds of thousands on education? Not to mention, college is pointless on a different level. Unless you are in a STEM field, your chances of getting a high-paying job with your college degree are small, and even that number is decreasing.

Maybe 20 years ago, a college degree guaranteed a job, but that is no longer the case. Going to college doesn’t mean you’ll get a job. In most cases, you don’t end up with a very good job right after college. Not to mention, the whole education industry is focused more on making a profit.

And get this: We pay colleges with our hard-earned money just so they can teach us how to earn.

We are paying to learn how to earn money. That doesn’t sound like a very good deal.

Now that’s not to say they are useless. If you are already in college, there’s no point in dropping out(unless you are certain that is what you want) and most jobs today require some college degree for you to be eligible for the position.

But that is changing fast. If you are a parent and have a kid, invest in helping them find what they are good at, instead of being limited by the walls of the classroom.

Explore stuff. Learn what you’re good at. Know a little about as much as you can. Focus on developing lucrative skills that can get you somewhere.

The education system won’t change, but you can get out of it.

I will continue the rant about the drawbacks of college and formal education some other time (believe me, I have a lot more to say) but for now I will leave you with this shower thought:

The system we have created expects the students to learn how the world works through a textbook while sitting inside a classroom.

Isn’t that ironic?




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