Why I'm AGAINST Getting A College Education!
People have been horrified by my strong opinions lately. When I say that I'm against MOST people getting themselves a college education they are baffled. And often angry. I tell children to not go to college. I tell fellow adults, and I tell teenagers.
This is advice I wish someone had given me! I've already written about my horrible college experience. So I won't go over that again. But here are more reasons that I feel make college, And heck I could argue high school. A waste of time, And money!
School is Often Busy Work
Worksheets, Worksheets and more freaking worksheets!
I remember in jr high getting massive packets for my Earth Systems class... I was disappointed.
I would complete the massive stack in less than 10 minutes because Earth systems was a subject I was passionate about. I knew all the answers.
Packets, Is all we did. My teacher was trying to keep us busy, So he gave us busy work.
Worksheets may "help" you learn. But with people learning in different ways, it's important to incorporate different mediums, Which school was always so limiting. Almost all of my classes felt like I was "babysat." I wasn't learning much.
This was the same for college. They take your money and your time, Give you all these tests and crap. Then when you finish, they give you this useless piece of paper.
You Don't Always learn stuff That is IMPORTANT.
Most of what I learned was unnecessary. We learn too much math. That's for damn sure. MOST of us will never have a career where we use that advanced level of Algebra, Geometry or other math.
English? I get it; We should learn to read and write. But all those bizarre essays and shit. And All those weird formats didn't help me much at all. Sure, I write blog posts, But I don't write fancy essays using long, complex words that I would never use in a conversation, Which is funny. They also encourage you to write "In your voice." While telling you to use a larger vocabulary in essays.... Which one is it?
Science...This one is a bit difficult for me Because I'm biased. I love Science.
But do we need some of that complex chemistry?
I love Chemistry, but I don't remember most of it.
Do you know what they should teach in depth? EVOLUTION!
And what THEORY means.
History, I get it we need to know our country's history. I feel like we could argue both ways on this one. A lot of the history we do learn doesn't seem as important.
OF course whenever they make "budget cuts" They cut classes like Art, gym, Typing and Computers, Finance, And cooking classes.
Uhhmm....
THOSE CLASSES TEACH US HOW TO LIVE! And how to "adult."
These are the classes we should be taking MORE OF!
This is the same with college. All those stupid generals... Really? I was forced to take a "math for artists" class in college. That taught me multiplication and division all over again! I KNOW ALREADY!
Student Loans
Student loans are a joke.
I was in debt for years as a result. And I got no job as a result.
Many college graduates don't even use their degree, Becuase they quickly realize they can make more MONEY working at Frito Lay, Or UPS.
Which are entry level jobs!
Sure, Even if they DO get a job they like, And that's IF. Because lots of graduates are unemployed.
They are forced to either pick a job in their dream field that could potentially make them very HAPPY. But they'd be making much less! Or they can choose to make more at an entry level job.
Oh, and many college students are in serious debt. So when it comes to money Or happiness. They sometimes end up going where the money is so they can take down that loan as soon as possible.
You Aren't Taught Leadership Qualities
Obviously, everyone can't be a leader. But this cookie cutter education we are getting isn't working! We could be teaching Entrepreneur classes, Instead of teaching people to work for an employer. Especially with the rise of people starting their businesses.
Conclusion
While some people got a lot of benefits out of their college education, I feel we need to stop pushing so hard for everyone to go to college. These days a lot of people have degrees. It's become a somewhat diluted accomplishment.
We aren't learning the things necessary to live, As well as work in the workplace. Many employers have to end up doing in-depth training anyways. And college is overpriced and a waste of time.
I would say most of the college student agree with you, but the society we are in today sees college degree as a prerequisite for management positions. So if you want to get a decent job, many of the companies require a college degree from you, and sadly not because of what your learnt from it, they just want their company to look nice :(
I just graduated from college and I found out that some of my friends who did not do well in colleges turned out to work very well starting their own business and building their network while I am just doing an ordinary job. Maybe colleges teach us some knowledge but also confines our future path, being one of the gear in the big society machine and buries our talent in the end.
I like your view on it!
Thanks :)
There is a store where I live that hires workers that they don't actually need.
The worker's wages are subsidized by the gov't, so these people can payback their student loans.
That is, my tax money paid for their useless degree, and now it pays their wage... just so they can payoff their bad choice of education.
When I went to college I was a bit older than everyone else in the class.
It was because I worked, saved up the money, and enrolled when I could afford the price tag.
Thank god there's an alternative to fiat now.
You are brilliant for doing that! I wish I didn't get myself into debt for school. But at least I learned fairly quickly and was able to get myself out of debt.
That makes me mad that our tax money will go towards peoples bad decisions. If thats the case everyone who went to college should get a refund!
The whole entire system is being recreated and I'm glad fiat is dying!
Uhm...cause you don't want to graduate with a mortgage payment! lol. My neighbor wants to buy a house - I'm trying to coach her through it....then I realized she already has a mortgage. 100K is student loans, insane!
EXACTLY! 100k is so insane. Might as well buy your house outright and work an entry level job. At least you'll have SOMETHING other than a piece of paper.
Could not have said it better! Excellent post. College today is watered down, overpriced, and over emphasized. I have a Masters Degree and quite frankly I believe that I learned much more through interacting with people than I did in my 6 years of college class room learning.
Think twice before you decided to invest in the traditional college!
I suppose the common education system in America is beyond hope. A private school in each state that teaches the basic success skills like investing, individual finance planning, cooking history, art , Leadership would more likely benefit the common people. Not sure if such schools would be allowed because of corruption and crony capitalism. Disclaimer: not an american
Wow really? Thats impressive ! I'm glad to hear that SOME countries are doing it right lol.
nope, its the same everywhere. The need to produce a bunch of workers smart enough to operate the machines but dumb enough not to question the motives is ever present. That's why I am skeptical if such private schools would be allowed to even operate whether if it is USA, Europe or Asia
You only touched on student loans.
Guaranteed student loans are the only unsecured debt NOT dischargeable in bankruptcy.
The number of Guaranteed Student Loans in the US in default is reaching an alarming rate and they will not go away.
In 2016 a Texas man was arrested at his home by US Marshals for a 29 year old $1,500 student loan.
Source
That is terrifying!! I wonder what will happen with those. I'll be really annoyed if it comes out of the pocket of the tax payers in the end. Which I think it will.
I totally agree with you, everybody I've spoken to get angry at me when we discuss school matters. They all think school is the key to success, as you say Collage is not for everyone, people can't simply understand that. also can i share this post ? not on steemit but in other social media ? why ? well because you explain it better than me !!
This is so true the entire system is so flawed and honestly seems to crush dreams and the passion to create and build something unique.
I myself went to college but ended up leaving just 2 years in due to being bored, learning things I could care less about (being a well rounded student they say) and just overall not learning anything I would use in the real world.
It wasn't till I kick myself in the butt and decided to go for my dreams and do the things I wanted to do and learn the things I wanted to learn that has opened up a world of both success but always massive learning which happens every day.
You also brought up a very important point and that is the cost of going to college and how it is rising. While the cost of going to college is rising the amount of money made from jobs it gets you ready for in many cases ends up pushing you years back on your retirement goals.
You now have 5,10,20 maybe even 30 years of paying off student loan bills and maybe landing a job in what you actually ended up going to school for.
While education is important it is also important to understand with some self motivation and the internet you can teach yourself the same if not more. Go out there and get it done!
My 21 year old daughter just got back from traveling europe for 4 months ...she learned and grew more from that adventure than anything she has experienced in her life ...worried about her the whole time but thats our job lol
Exactly! Lol instead of college people should travel
Oh and she fell in love with Italy she almost didn't come back ...or was it that musician that took her to venus lol Either way she just loved it there ..