Life is the Education, Not College
Update 25May2011: An article describing the Peter Thiel Fellowship -- which pays fellows $100,000 not to attend college -- providing further details and information on this theme.
Humans begin learning as soon as the central nervous system begins to develop in the womb. Learning during infancy and early childhood is more intensive than any other learning in a person's life. Over historical and pre-historical time, most humans learned about life from observation, imitation, apprenticeship, and experimentation -- and just doing it. Only recently has it been thought necessary for every child to receive a formal, government-approved education before being released into the real world.
And still it is life that is the real education, not schools, not colleges. Schools can only prepare a student for a few of the things he will confront in real life, the rest is up to the lifelong student's capacity to adapt and grow in the real world.
Don't Let Your Schooling Get in the Way of Your Education
There is a significant mismatch between what schools "teach" and what life will demand of a student. School curricula do not generally provide the education a person needs to confront the real challenges to be faced. While a child may be forced to attend school up to a certain age or level, there is no guarantee that he will learn even the barest of necessities. In today's climate of indoctrination-by-school, what the child learns in school may be both patently false and outright counter-productive to his life prospects -- besides being a total waste of his time and a distraction from his true education.
Too much of the time, the actual "education" a child receives from lower education is an induction into delinquency and basic groupthink. Proceeding to "higher education," advanced studies in binge drinking, fornication, and an indoctrination into dysfunctional ideology and advanced groupthink, help to complete the blunting of the once-promising prospects which the child may have possessed.
Most bright and observant people have come to doubt whether it is in the best interests of families and society to pay the huge and ruinous price to maintain the modern system of "education." Particularly when a better education is readily obtainable at a minimal cost via the internet, libraries, used book stores, and real life.
The raucous marching of the paid, truant, and quasi-violent drones in Madison, Wisconsin, was but a gentle preview of the truly violent clashes to come, between the entitled establishment and the embattled taxpayer.
Most Americans think college is not worth the money
Winds of change in college infrastructure portend massive changes in how advanced education will be provided
In place of "unions" in the cartoons, one could also write "tenured professors" and "university administrations." A sense of entitlement runs deep and rampant in "educational" circles, and in societies with topheavy governments in general.
Humans begin learning as soon as the central nervous system begins to develop in the womb. Learning during infancy and early childhood is more intensive than any other learning in a person's life. Over historical and pre-historical time, most humans learned about life from observation, imitation, apprenticeship, and experimentation -- and just doing it. Only recently has it been thought necessary for every child to receive a formal, government-approved education before being released into the real world.
And still it is life that is the real education, not schools, not colleges. Schools can only prepare a student for a few of the things he will confront in real life, the rest is up to the lifelong student's capacity to adapt and grow in the real world.
There is a significant mismatch between what schools "teach" and what life will demand of a student. School curricula do not generally provide the education a person needs to confront the real challenges to be faced. While a child may be forced to attend school up to a certain age or level, there is no guarantee that he will learn even the barest of necessities. In today's climate of indoctrination-by-school, what the child learns in school may be both patently false and outright counter-productive to his life prospects -- besides being a total waste of his time and a distraction from his true education.
Too much of the time, the actual "education" a child receives from lower education is an induction into delinquency and basic groupthink. Proceeding to "higher education," advanced studies in binge drinking, fornication, and an indoctrination into dysfunctional ideology and advanced groupthink, help to complete the blunting of the once-promising prospects which the child may have possessed.
Most bright and observant people have come to doubt whether it is in the best interests of families and society to pay the huge and ruinous price to maintain the modern system of "education." Particularly when a better education is readily obtainable at a minimal cost via the internet, libraries, used book stores, and real life.
The raucous marching of the paid, truant, and quasi-violent drones in Madison, Wisconsin, was but a gentle preview of the truly violent clashes to come, between the entitled establishment and the embattled taxpayer.
Winds of change in college infrastructure portend massive changes in how advanced education will be provided
Labels: education, University
posted by al fin at 7:19 am
2 Comments:
"Particularly when a better education is readily obtainable at a minimal cost via the internet, libraries, used book stores, and real life."
The barrier I see is in access to expensive labs that currently only universities and governments can provide. For instance, RF and microwave test equipment is very expensive, and if you want to learn how to use it, you either have to work for a company or use it in a university. You can't get a job at the former unless you've done the latter.
I wish there were an alternative to college for the hard science and engineering majors like some sort of industry apprenticeship program. Right now, industry doesn't want to bear the costs and risks of training people on the job and students seem all too willing to take on debt. Meanwhile, the government lies to students that college is the only way into the middle class and continues to provide a firehose of Sallie Mae money. It's sickening, really.
We've gotta get away from credentialism and make the business climate better so that companies can become less risk averse and more prone to hiring smart people who don't necessarily have credentials.
Credentialism goes along with the type of convoluted and byzantine governments we are burdened with. Unless new frontiers are opened up with smaller and freer governments, human societies will stagnate and rot.
The very concept of a "job" as the be all and end all of providing sustenance is just part of the rot which prevents humans from thinking for themselves.
Perhaps better simulators would facilitate lower cost regional "labs" which could be shared by freelance students and small scale independent educational co-ops and associations.
Or regional high tech centers allowing the sharing of advanced test and fabrication equipment, computational facilities, and other scientific and engineering tools that allow for advanced training.
Funding would have to come from the private sector, since everything government touches turns to crap.
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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