Why Formal Education Is the Worst Thing for Society.
By: Angel Kobelo
Tags: Creativity, Self Improvement, Success, Education, Self Esteem

How the current education system sets us up for failure and what you can do about it.

Education. A word we use so lightly as we go by our everyday lives. So simple yet so complex. Most of us, when we hear the word education our minds directly go to school, college, and some other institutions out there that claim to provide it. But what does education really mean?

According to Google, education can be defined in the following ways;

the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university

the theory and practice of teaching — e. g. College of education (being a teacher/lecturer)

a body of knowledge acquired while being educated — e.g. Private schools often provide better education.

information about or training in a particular subject _ e. g. health education, sex education.

an enlightening experience.

We are all too familiar with the first couple of meanings on this list. It is that painful process of going through systems called schools that have selected what you will know and how you are going to learn it and at what pace. And dictate what is appropriate and what isn’t. This system, so rigid, so infallible _ the all-knowing might, through which we are to become successful in life. But does it really make us successful or set us up for failure? I think the latter is truer than the former.

Let’s see how and why below.

Through quotes, and a few of my own words I am going to tell you about some of the damage caused by the current “education” system or in other words the formal education we get from schools and institutions.

Current formal education kills Creativity and Fosters Low Self-esteem

As children, we are all curious and think wayyy outside the box. We challenge the limits and ask what if questions again and again. We also ask why not this? And why not like this? We try and test and create new ways of doing things and new things altogether. But then we grow up and are taken to school.

Here we are told what is right and what is wrong. What is acceptable and what is not. And what is acceptable and right is what our parents did, and their parents before them. It’s sitting down, solving a problem the same ways it has been solved below, learning in the same methods, and at the same pace. We are no longer allowed to ask what if? and why not? and how about this? In fact, these questions offend authority and anyone who persists in asking them becomes an outlier. The kid with authority issues- the bad rebel.

No creativity allowed here child!

As we grow and learn, we are forced to know things by way of fear. Fear of failure, of bad grades, of being the weird one, of not succeeding according to the given measures and of being different. We stop thinking creatively and we start thinking along the lines of would this be appropriate? Would it be accepted? What would my parents say? What would people think of me?

Consequently, we become more conscious of what people think or rather would think of us and we try our best to conform, to be like everyone else. After all, this was the goal of education during the industrial era. To create people who think and act alike, who are accustomed to timetables, long days and short breaks, in uniforms and who do not ask questions. People who adhere to a given set of rules and ask for permission to be anything that is different from the set norm.

We eventually become less confident about our own ideas, and when we fail to fit in, we think there’s something wrong with us and in turn question our self-worth.

So, by staying in school and getting this formal education we become less creative and more low self-esteemed. But, if the system instead, appreciated these differences and these challenging questions of what ifs and why nots, the world would be so different. Innovation would be faster, easier and at a much larger scale. People would be happier and the quality of life would improve immensely. Instead, the system is busy creating a conformist society of non-creative people who are scared to think outside the box, dependent, and lack a sense of self-worth.

Here are a few people who also think/thought along the same lines

“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.”

― Stanley Kubrick

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”

― Plato

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

― Margaret Mead

“The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on — because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions.”

― Noam Chomsky

“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments — and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.”

― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life

“We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong there.”

― Neil deGrasse Tyson

And that is true as we all know it.

“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”

― Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

If only….. Well, that ship is stuck in the middle of the ocean so let’s move on.

The other damage created by the formal education system(s) is literally, setting us up for failure in life

Formal education Limits options to a mere few

“Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.”

― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

“Try not to have a good time…this is supposed to be educational.”

― Charles Schultz

Well, we have all heard that dreadful question, “Who do you wanna be when you grow up?” And if the answer was, for instance, a truck driver or hairdresser that would be one sad parent or teacher. But if the answer is an engineer, a doctor, a pilot, or a lawyer, the grins and unending I’m so proud of you will be in play.

Also, the acceptable answer could never be something unknown or incomprehensible like a hybrid of 2 professional say, for example, a truck-driving hairdresser. It’s either or…. Not so and so or either so. And it has to be something known to have a certain high-status in society. Otherwise, you’ll have to decide something else or become a disappointment. There are about a million issues with this but that’s a whole article on its own so let’s move on.

After the answer is out there, you get to school and get that very limited, pre-selected knowledge on pre-selected areas that were deemed important to learn. And as you grow, you keep narrowing it down to one thing or if you are lucky, then 2/3 things by the time you are in college. And in college, you learn your one chosen field and become a professional in that one field. You leave a vast of knowledge unreached and the full capacity of your mind untapped.

We all know what comes next here, jobs.

Yes, jobs. You start looking for jobs in your field. You can no longer do something else outside your field of study as a job/career. If you are lucky to be in a somewhat diverse field like business management or economics then you can do relatively more than if you’re an engineer or a doctor. However, at the end of the day, you can only do a few things as a job or career because your education/knowledge is limited to that/those specific areas only. If you want to do something else, then you will have to go back and either be educated again on a new field or educate yourself. After all,

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

― Jim Rohn

Therefore, being “educated” really sets you up for failure by robbing you of options from the very beginning and limiting you to a few skills. It takes away all you could be by eliminating the chance to try different interests or foster the ones you had to begin with. And since your creativity has also been brutally shoved away from instincts or norm, you begin to feel stranded and hopeless. Like you have no options, because, in reality, you don’t have many left.

Don’t worry much. Out of the few options, there are still some you can take to transform things. See a few suggestions below.

What you can do to make things better for yourself and your future

Self-educate!

Seek knowledge. Tap back to that creative side of your mind, to that curious and care-free, confident and bright child that we all are deep down inside. Tap into your interests and develop it or them into a career(s). I am of course speaking of a process. Per Google’s definition, I am speaking of the experience of enlightenment. Because after everything is said and done, and you have gone through the gruesome system that is labeled formal education, you still have a bit of the creative spark left in you. Even Einstein agrees.

“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. Without this, it goes to wrack and ruin without fail.”

― Albert Einstein

Because the truth is that given everything we go through in these systems, Education is what Mark Twain says here.

“Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.”

― Mark Twain, Notebook

2. Ask What If? How about? Why? Why NOT?

By asking these questions in everything you do, you stimulate your creativity and imagination. You start getting new ideas on products, services and ways of doing things. You become innovative and inventive, but you also become more knowledgeable. That is because, as you try to answer these questions, you will want to know more about whatever you are inquiring and that will lead you to a journey of discovery and knowledge.

3. Embrace being un-cool.

Do what you think. Let the creative juices flow. Bring those ideas to life. In doing so, embrace the fact that until people understand what you are trying to achieve, they will poke and criticize you. You may be considered weird, uncool or foolish. But as long as it is your idea, do it. Do it! Again and again, and again until the picture in your mind is before your eyes in reality.

4. Expect failure

Do not be scared of failure, expect it. If one way fails to get you there, try another way, and another until you build for yourself what the education system could not; Persistence, Intelligence, Perseverance, and Discipline.

What can be done to change things for the better for future generation?

Truth is, although the current system isn’t working for us, it is still doing the very job it was designed to do. That is, create conforming, punctual, faithful and hardworking people with specific expertise, designed for a specific function in the line of production hence the narrowing down and majoring in chosen fields.

The current model was designed during the industrial era to create people who would fit in the factories. People who can work or sit still for about 8 hours a day, do what they are told, measure success in numbers and ranks and take orders without question as they stick to a schedule.

The aim — in uniform, sitting long hours in silence, working, doing what they are told.

So, the current education model isn’t working because it is creating factory workers and expect them to work in corporates, creative arts, and design. The world has changed so much and so have it needs, yet formal education hasn’t.

3 suggestions on what can be done to make things better

Create a new system instead of improving the old one.

Trying to tweak the 100+ years old system and expect different results is as good as using water to put out a gasoline fire_ it will spread on. So, instead of coming up with new ways of doing the same old thing, and getting relatively similar results, it’s better to come up with a new thing altogether.

I suggest a curriculum that is designed to identify and help grow the different interests and potentials of children. A system that is flexible and adaptive where children can go in and come out more knowledgeable and with expertise by the time they are 17–21. A curriculum that doesn’t take over 20 years to complete.

One that will allow trials and errors and build a foundation for a lifetime of learning and continued self-improvements. A system that will tap into the potential of the mind, not diminish it.

Foster creativity and curiosity over conformity and memorization.

The current system measures how much a child can memorize, create habits, and be obedient. It fosters conformity and passiveness. Instead, there could be a system that encourages the practice of curiosity and creativity by allowing children to both ask what if? why not? and how about? questions, and to find out the answers to these questions.

If a student asks what if we could solve this problem using a different way? instead of being told, “there’s no other way” or “it’s proven, this is the only way” I suggest they be told, “it is thought to be that this is the only way to solve this problem, what way are you thinking about? can you try solving it your way and then show us the outcome? we are here to support you with what you might need”.

This would stimulate creativity and increase innovation and inventions. The new system should let children explore; give them a chance to bring their ideas to life or at least try to. We will be surprised by all the things that could be achieved.

Here are a couple of quotes from Dr. Myles Monroe, from his book Understanding your potential, that may help stress this point.

“Potential is…dormant ability…reserved power…untapped strength…

unused success…hidden talents…capped capability.

All you can be but have not yet become…all you can do but have not yet

done…how far you can reach but have not yet reached…what you can

accomplish but have not yet accomplished. Potential is unexposed ability

and latent power.”

“In every seed, there is a tree…in every bird a

flock…in every fish a school…in every sheep a flock… in every cow a

herd…in every boy a man…in every girl a woman…in every nation a

generation. Tragedy strikes when a tree dies in a seed, a man in a boy,

a woman in a girl, an idea in a mind. For untold millions, visions die

unseen, songs die unsung, plans die unexecuted and futures die buried

in the past. The problems of our world go unanswered because potential

remains buried.”

So, let’s create systems that stop making the graveyard the richest place on earth by allowing all that potential to die alongside the people who had it- untapped.

Measure success through practical achievement instead of grades.

Instead of grades and ranks measuring success, I recommend that success be measured by practical achievements in interest areas. If a child is interested in becoming a writer, the improvement in their word use, grammar, vocabulary, etc. should be what measures their success. Same applies throughout the fields. This would create a need for self-improvement and the foundation for constant learning.

This doesn’t mean that if a child wants to be an engineer then they should not study biology or an artist know nothing of maths. I think basic knowledge is important but what is stressed should be what the child is interested in, and success measured by how much progress is made in the area.

By allowing a person to grow, try and fail and try again, learn new ways and create new things, this new system would create intelligent people with values such as discipline, perseverance, persistence, and respect. People who learn because they want to, not because they have to.

Note that, the suggested reforms are applicable not only at school but also in the home, where parents and guardians often enforce what is taught at school.

Here are a few more quotes regarding the formal education system. What it is now, what it should be, and what you can do.

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: ‘You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be.

You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgments. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being molded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”

― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”

― Richard Shaull, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Because

“The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.”

― Jean Piaget

That,

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.” … YET. You can become this person by simply starting to educate yourself.

― Heath L. Buckmaster, Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale

So, educate your mind, try new things, expect failure, embrace criticism, and have fun while at it😉😉. Unleash your potential and set yourself up for success.