Learn and Create Your Own Way, You Don't Need a Piece of Paper or Approval from Academia
Many -- if not most -- people think you need to go to a school to learn and make something of yourself. We first "need" to go through the 12-step program of education (indoctrination) into various topics that prepare us to be productive cogs in the larger system. Then we are expected to go to college or university to further learn a specific topic in order to do that for a living, for life.
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I'm not saying many of these topics aren't useful, such as learning how to count and use numbers abstractly, learning how to use language and write better, or learning how to do other things. But people have found other ways. Homeschooling allows a more efficient learning of the rote topics to be memorized for passing tests.
Children then have more time to pursue their own interests in a specific topics they like, or go after many different topics to satisfy their learning desires. They aren't constricted to specific times to begin classes, and being slowed down by the slow course development or teachers. They can accelerate at their own pace and get through things quicker, and learn better.
If you ask regular people who have gone the systematized way of learning in educational institutions, they think that's who you have to learn something. If you want to be like X person who was an expert in field Y, then you need to go to a higher learning center to learn it. That's the standard answer.
While there, if you challenge the dogmatic orthodoxy of a field that might have something wrong, then you can likely fail, and their goes your dreams to succeed within the systematic institutional process. So, keep your head down, get into a highly respected program, and then down the line you can get appreciated for being so knowledgeable in the field. If you work in a scholarly field, you can get tenure and secure your position. Then you can start talking against the falsities that others become entrenched in protecting.
That seems rather sad to wait so long and gain the respect and authority to speak freely on subjects in your field. All that time just o get a piece of paper from corrupt institutions and risk becoming the thing you tried to avoid becoming. A better strategy is possible, where you don't have to worry about upsetting the apple carts of the academic system. You can learn on your own. You can be autodidactic (self-taught).
Many people can't imagine going any other way than through academia. Alternatives exist that people don't know about. If they become aware, they could advance in topic they want to be an expert in, without the academic structure pigeon-holing them. There is no need to please your teachers or get permission from an institution to move forward in your learning.
We have the Internet now, with loads of information available for you to learn from. Start a blog and talk about the topic. Post your notes on a topic you research. Read and talk more about it. Watch videos and talk more about it. Go interact and comment on the works of others to talk about it. Create a YouTube channel and talk about it there. Make a podcast to share what you know. You can amass some works and self-publish a book as an e-book. Consume the information that is out there, and become an expert yourself.
Instead of following the old way, try to think of how you can go a new way: your own way. You don't need to play the game of the existing authorities to get their approval to become the next expert in a topic or field. Follow your goals, objectives and the end you want to achieve, and worry less about the specific means and path that others have used before. You can become good at something by finding the best way to do be good at it. Learning is a process.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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I went away to college and took an accounting class. As the teacher was giving his introduction to the class I challenged his thinking about the use of computers taking over the basic roles of bookkeeping. Not that someone someone wouldn't need to enter the information, but that there would be zero use for ledger books to track everything.
He was so upset with me and said that computers would never be able to do this work. I laughed at him and said he needed to get out into the real world more often as they already did. That I had been installing computer systems, the software, and giving a basic set of accounts based on the type of business since I was 15. That computers not only replaced the ledger sheets, but also made it so a secretary could manage the books instead of hiring an accountant.
Needless to say the teacher didn't like me and made it very clear the entire semester. Didn't matter as a year later I dropped out and became a financial controller for a company and helped take them public. It was a small company that I had as a client for 3 years at that point and they had just grown like crazy. They rewarded my efforts to keep their books straight and allowing them to keep growing by giving a job that normally needs decades of experience and degrees to a 19 year old kid.
I had zero knowledge of how to take a company public and had to do some research. But I learned years worth knowledge in a matter of a few weeks by self studying it. In the end everything went smooth and I was their acting CFO and officially the Financial Controller for a couple years.
IMO Schools are there to teach people how to follow instructions and erase the creativity out of kids. If you have a society full of people who don't dare to dream and are good at following instructions it's very easy to manage. Problems occur once people start dreaming big and wanting more then the scraps the rich allow them to have.
Damn, that's a good story. Sad to see how personal motivations can mess with people's right to think freely and express truths about reality :/ You seem to have done well and been better off as a result of seeing the bullshit in academia ;)
Without question my life is better for it. Might have done better financially if I drank the kool aid and went along with the system, but I'd be a miserable wreck.
I also figured out that the system as a whole is bullshit. We now don't bother to keep up with the neighbors and drive cars that are older with no payments, don't waste money shopping for crap we don't need, and while I work hard my work isn't my life. Ask someone about themselves and most people lead with "I am a [insert profession]" first and foremost. What they don't realize is they are not that, that is just a costume you put on each day to go dace for the man and make some money. You are so much more then your job and so much more then the crap you own, but those are the things most will talk about if you ask about them.
BTW, @krnel thanks for the support you have given on the contest! People are really getting into it and the feedback has been great. When you look back at entries and see the comments from the featured bloggers and their appreciation to being recognized it's very rewarding. Spend a lot of time at this and it's nice with a few upvotes that others have removed the financial burden of the prizes and made it about a break even...give or take, but close enough. Now I can focus on getting my vote up more to help everyone with larger votes. Slow going, but working on it.
Spot on. I did the first path for a long time, though along the way I did branch out and explore a lot. Eventually though, and this is often the case at the PhD level and above, you really don't learn that much from the people around you while being beholden unto them for job security, further opportunity in academia etc.
Once a person is working on a PhD they really should be doing it all on their own - basically following the autodidactic path you describe. PhD advisors are more mentors than teachers at that point. Once a PhD candidate finishes their degree, they should know more about their specialized topic than their advisors or pretty much anyone else.
But the channeling and conditioning aspect of the education system is the great danger. I didn't realize how little I knew of the world until I turned my back on the university. Soon all the time and energy I had spent researching obscure erudition turned towards understanding the world around me. It changed my life for the better, undoubtedly.
Now I am a greater advocate of education than ever before, just not the education you get from being immersed in a standardized education system. It has been weaponized against the general population. This stance is ironic considering I still work in the field. I rationalize it as fighting in the trenches to save minds from the soul-crushing system. If I am ever so fortunate as to have children, I will definitely home-school them and ensure they can pursue their passions early in life. At this point, doing otherwise is unthinkable for me.
That sucks though, that so many people spend tons of money and then the shocker... :/
I agree, real education is important, not the systemic one ;)
I hope you get your dreams of raising children a better way,the world needs it :)
The internet is a game changer. Through social media, Steemit YouTube type channels we can spread truth and be leaders in the information war without the consent of the liberal academia. Yes there is a war on for your mind and the left is relentless in their efforts to control the agenda. We must be even more dedicated to the cause of spreading the truth. Thanks @krnel.
we love this post and have resteemed it @the-hearth, @mountainjewel's curation account for earth-centered inspiring content. we think this is one of the biggest ways to step outside of the broken system; challenge it and stop asking it for approval. thanks for writing it!
Thank you for appreciating the content ;)
Curated for #informationwar (by @truthforce)
Wow, I like this post. Really great, it sounds so self-employed. I'm feeling sleepy but your post is interesting. I have to finish reading before going to bed.
Life is a choice. We have the right to choose our own way of life. But we live in a world full of responsibility. We can not escape responsibility.
Thank you for your post @krnel, I am very inspired to read it
As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility.
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Don't you think that public schools are a great way of making kids learning how to play and building up their social intelligence?
Sure there are benefits.
Science is very wonderful, it looks at society and benefits society
Really a very wonderful article well done
I love science