In today’s world, theoretical education is arguably the most highly regarded institution in the world, aside from religion of course. We take out loans large enough to buy homes to purchase theories on everything. This is not to say that all education should be valued equally. The progress of science/engineering through education is undoubtedly valuable; however, we need to evaluate what is going on with theoretical education and why we pay so much for it (in the US).
Educational institutions are very powerful. They have huge investments and tons of highly sought after patents which earn great amounts of money. They have thousands of students paying thousands of dollars to consume concepts, intangible assets that can now be easily shared online through the internet.
I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the graduation cap and gown and that of a priest in religion. I watched the famous Steve Jobs commencement speech again at Stanford, and couldn’t pull my eyes away from the ridiculous caps and gowns everyone was using. In Jobs’ speech, he undermines the university system as a whole by sharing his story of dropping out of an expensive education to pursue the things he actually wanted to pursue.
Many of the great thinkers of yesterday and today have similar stories. They don’t believe in paying for an education. They don’t want their parents or themselves to be indebted to an institution for the majority of their career. They don’t want a piece of paper telling them that they are capable of something. They want to do what they want to do and not have to pay for it.
Today education is changing. It is in the beginning stages, but education is becoming something that people can explore, rather than pay for. It is a huge development in the equality of knowledge and the development of genuine interest for everyone.
Many people hate the job that they were able to get by means of their education and their expensive diploma. Not only do they hate their job, but they are also in debt from the very thing that got them the job – their education.
As we all know, religion has caused many upsets/wars/conflict around the world. I’m not suggesting that paying for theoretical education is causing as many issues, but what I am suggesting is that you think about what you want to do rather than pay someone to tell you what you should do.
I always have admired my mom’s ability to maintain the value of practical and personal education in her first and second grade classes. She builds gardens with the kids, incorporates physical activity, and allows students to draw and sing to enable students to develop in healthy ways and to focus on things that they love to do.
We don’t go through each day selecting the ‘right’ answers from a selection of ‘A through E’ options. We choose to do things because we follow our intuition and passion. ‘A through E’ test questions limit our ability to create anything at all. It is very admirable that my mom is able to still allow her students to focus on intuition and passion in and ‘A through E’ education world.
I can’t recall one single multiple choice question I had to answer from my university education – and there were probably thousands.
UPDATE – view – NPR Article on Student Debt
Check out WeAreThe99Percent
If you want to read more in depth about the debt issue with education read this article.
Take a look at the Khan Academy to see how theoretical education is being spread for FREE today. Wikipedia.org is also a part of this change obviously. It is a start, there is still much change that is needed.
Thanks to my step dad that has always introduced forward-thinking websites like the Khan Academy and Ted.com.
Good points Greg. Education is a very complex subject. (Hmmm, reminds me that my first college writing topic was “education” and I was shocked to get a D on my paper!) As well as DOING more things we should learn theoretical concepts behind DOING things so we can understand what we are DOING in order to invent new things to DO. So the key words are DO and DOING. Unfortunately “doing” is often left out of schools and students are just “talked at” about theoretical concepts without doing anything. Hands-on experience is best but see http://www.SimzLab.com for what I think should be a much bigger part of traditional as well as online learning: interactive simulations of things that are too expensive or dangerous to do in a hands-on lab. Making simulations like this is expensive as I found out from the time it took. I would vote for 0.1% of the money that is spent on games and military simulations going to make good, interactive educational simulations!
I agree with Richard that it’s a complex topic. But I read your point as it shouldn’t be.
It should be simpler.
Was watching an interesting show about a family restaurant that grew their own food and one of the items on the menu was a special pickled eggplant with another vegetable (I never heard of). The man was known for this pickled dish and no one ever taught him how. He just used to watch his mom make it and so he did the same. I guess my point is that paying for an education, whether it’s theory or hands-on practical guarantees the payer nothing. And in the current system the payee doesn’t have to guarantee anything either. Seems lopsided to me.
Ultimately it comes down to the fact that there are too many people and there aren’t enough jobs to go around. I have read the problem is worse in China.
It’s not a new problem.
I had an interesting experience just before graduating university… I went to the career center to get some help finding a job… They had stacks of binders with personality tests and websites listed. Then they told me that a good job resource could be Craigslist. I couldn’t help but to think…are you kidding me? There is no promise in theoretical education without practical experience and a defined skill set.
After reading through your posts and listening to Steve Jobs, it hit me…my largest failures in life were followed with growth and life changes that may not have occured without the mistakes that I had made. I believe most people learn from their mistakes; a parent may say to themself “well he/she is going to have to learn the hard way.” Sometimes that is the only way to learn/fail, it can have the most persuasive impact.
I believe higher education as well as grammar school is set up to discourage failure and in return limit progress. My experience in school was one in which if you failed an exam you are judged by the score/result, and not judged by how you responded afterwards.
This may be why I love sports so much, there is nothing more raw and objective than the visual performance of an athlete (except when refs alter the game haha). You can’t deny a swing and a miss in baseball, a bad throw in football, a faster swimmer in a race, there is no arguing with the performance there is only the ability to respond. How we respond begins to define our character and how our dots will connect in the future (jobs).
I think more time should be giving to trying new things and failing vs. perfecting how to study and take exams!
Can’t agree more. The unfortunate thing is that the value of ‘failing’ is diminished so much for students that don’t resonate with the formal education system that they just think of themselves as failures in all aspects of life. Those that are able to continue to understand and seek the value of failing even after ‘failing’ in school are those that have a deeper understanding of their own interests and abilities. Pursuing sports can definitely bring about a new found understanding of the value of failure in a person and it is highly commendable considering the hurdles someone has to overcome after battling continuous failure in education.