THE TRUTH ABOUT EDUCATION
23 March 2020
Knowledge Application is better than just Knowledge Possession.
The purported fact that majority of us have been told repeatedly from a young age is that a good education will guarantee you a good job and secure future. It might be a good idea to tell young children this in order to help them understand why it’s important to go to school, but it is a bit of a false promise in that there are no guarantees. The statistics don’t support this so-called fact.
Every year, highly qualified graduates pour into an already flooded job market and ended up unemployed or in menial jobs. Also, we hear more rags-to-riches stories of successful, rich entrepreneurs who dropped out of school at 16. Think Richard Branson and Carl Lindner Jr.
There is a big emphasis put on getting a formal education, but a really good education, like charity, should begin at home. Children need to be taught core values, good behavior, current affairs and world issues, by their parents first and teachers second. But many people seem to assume that a good education can replace good parenting. Do we inherit this kind of thinking? If our parents weren’t taught by their parents to think outside the box and to challenge old beliefs, then how are we going to know any better?
For most of us, when we first went to our parents and asked for money, were told to get a job. We were told that if we wanted to money, we had to go and work for someone and get paid for our labour. Few of us were told to go and open a business, or were given a small sum of money and told to invest it wisely and let it grow. We were given pocket money in exchange for doing chores, and later encouraged to go and get a job that would pay us a set wage for a set amount of hours given in labour.
A formal education may secure you a good job, but it certainly doesn’t give you any guarantees. Young people should at least be told that there are more options, paths to success other than sticking it out in a formal education program that doesn’t necessarily suit them. What is the real value of spoonfed education? Even if you do get a good job with your great grades, you are not immune from redundancy and you are still being paid a set salary in exchange for giving up most of your time.
A formal education may make you a living, but self-education could make you a fortune!
What We’ve Been Told
People with best grades get the best jobs.
The Undesirable Truth
Self-education creates the best opportunities.
From a very young age, we’re told to stay in school and work hard in order to get a well-paid job. What we’re not told is that while you’re getting your formal academic qualifications, others are getting the experience that will put them ahead of you in the running for the job you want. If you enjoy studying, by all means do it. If you want letters after your name for learning a whole load of stuff that you read in textbooks written by other professional academics, great.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting a formal education and studying a topic that you are passionate about. Some jobs obviously require certain qualifications. You can’t be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer unless you get the required qualifications. But even when you qualify, you are not guaranteed employment for the rest of your life. If you don’t like school, if you find studying in a formal way difficult, then leave and find something that you do love and get a job doing that. Then work your way up through the ranks until you know enough to start a business, doing the things you love. Perhaps eventually you’ll end up training others to do what you do, and then you’ll be able to sit back while your beloved business makes a healthy profit and brings in a passive income for you.
There are so many different paths to a successful career. A formal education is only one of them and comes with no guarantees.
