Jun
17
2010
Education’s Epic FAIL…
No jobs for a misled, mis-educated generation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of thousands of new college graduates are entering a work force that has no use for them. While two million U.S. college grads remain unemployed, kids with $200k educations are competing for jobs waiting and busing tables, delivering pizzas, serving as bouncers at night clubs and baristas at Starbucks. Those who’ve gone the distance to earn Ivy League law degrees may be joining other Ivy League law grads working as census takers, file clerks, and substitute teachers. Sorry Class of 2010, your education has failed.
If you’re a recent college grad, you’ve likely spent your entire academic life training to be irrelevant in our new economy. Not only that but you’re likely to be tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for an “education” whose economic bubble just burst.
It’s not your fault. It’s not your teachers’ fault. It’s our education system’s fault, which – like all industrial era machines – keeps churning out students just the way it was designed to over 100 years ago. Only industry doesn’t need what it needed a century ago.
Billionaires & Luminaries Agree: Doing Bad in School is Good. Want to know what university graduated the most billionaires? Actually none of them did. The best degree to have if you want to become a billionaire is “dropout,” which is credited for generating more billionaires than any other college or university (73 to be exact, according to ABC News – Harvard comes in a distant second with just 50 to its credit.) Most didn’t get the memo, but the smartest, richest self-made billionaires were astute enough to ditch class and dropout of this irrelevant archaic education system. Billionaire dropouts include many of the most forward thinking entrepreneurs of our time such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Michael Dell, Sheldon Adelson, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen and about 70 other self-made billionaires.
Trained to Fail
After all the hard work it took you to survive seventeen years of this archaic, industrial era academic system, you’re about to discover it was all a giant mistake. You’ve been trained to fail in the worst possible sense; because you’re not even failing at what you naturally love to do – you’re failing at what you’ve been trained to think you should do. And the new global economy doesn’t give a rat about the promises you were made. “Get good grades, so you can go to a good college, so you can get a good job,” is yesterday’s news and it’s about as helpful as knowing yesterday’s lotto number.
Industrial era schooling has probably trained you to follow instructions (instead of blaze your own trail), engage in rote learning (instead of deep, thoughtful exploration), work for grades (instead of your true passions), and develop a docile, domesticated disposition, dependent on the “the system” for security and employment (instead of developing your own rugged individualism). You’ve been taught to avoid experimentation and risk, because straight “A” students are trained to think they need to “get it right” at least 90% of the time, (instead of learning to be comfortable taking big risks with the confidence that if you can just “get it right” 20% of the time in the real world, you’ll be among the most successful entrepreneurs, pioneers, innovators and creative risk-takers in the world. 9 out of 10 new businesses and creative ventures fail. Get a 2 out of 10 success rate in the real world and you win. Get 5 out of 10 right in school or as an industrial age factory/knowledge worker and you still fail.) Bottom line is, school’s trained you to fail outside of anything but the artificial bubble of “higher education” and the American industrial age economic system, which we have just watched collapse.
Taught to Think Like a Dinosaur
This whole fiasco wasn’t malicious, but rather a consequence of a school system designed over a century ago, for what was necessary to drive last century’s industrializing economy. The U.S. school system was designed in Germany around the turn of the last century to fuel the industrial revolution. That’s where we got much of it from – even the name “kindergarten” (literally “child garden” – a place to grow kids.) The need then was for good factory workers and managers who did what they were told and followed procedures. So the school system wasn’t designed to foster free thinking, a pioneering spirit, innovation, or passion – in fact it was designed to snuff out those traits; it was designed to replace your natural inclinations, curiosities, and creativity with the compulsive desire to earn good grades and subordinate to the system. Instead of learning and working for passion, you were likely trained to learn and work for performance evaluations and your supervisor’s approval.
This worked on a national scale when graduates joined a massive workforce mobilized to build and man factories. In that era industrial citizens needed to be docile and easily trained to execute policies and procedures, day in and day out, without question or revolt. When industrialization is still the name of the game this approach works.
Back then two major realities of today didn’t exist: computers and a telecommunication-driven global workforce. With these two factors squarely in place now, there’s either a computer or someone in India or China’s newly educated workforce who can perform the same tasks, for which our school system trained you, for less than $20k a year.
If you are happy to do what you are told and work for about $20k per year, then your industrial era education may still serve you well for years to come. But if you’re a creative, pioneering soul who thought you were being trained to innovate, start companies, and blaze new trails in the global economy, then you’ve been duped.
Some of us have been warning about this for many years, but now it’s finally happened – with 17% unemployment for our latest generation of college graduates, many of which are now burdened with huge student loan debt that can’t even be escaped through bankruptcy – U.S. education is proving to be not only pathetically irrelevant, but a ridiculously expensive mistake – epic FAIL.
Our Saving Grace
It turns out the U.S. still has an edge in one area – despite our public education system’s apparent determination to rid our brightest students of it – and that edge is American ingenuity. American ingenuity isn’t just folklore; it’s natural selection. For centuries America has attracted the most adventurous, innovative, pioneering people from every country on the planet. And these pioneering souls passed their pioneering genes on. Genes like the DRD4 7R, associated with a novelty-seeking, exploratory, pioneering mindset, have been shown to be over twice as prevalent in the U.S. as it is worldwide.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to be American to have this gene (and the abundant creativity that comes with it), because if you’re impulsive, bored easily or ever suspected you might have ADHD or BPD, you most likely have the DRD4 7R gene (or one that does roughly the same thing). Other countries with high rates of the DRD4 7R gene include Australia, South Africa, Singapore and Dubai – all of which have attracted high concentrations of creative risk-takers at at least one point in their history.
While the industrialization of America provided a high standard of living, we have paid the price for it with epidemic rates of addiction, depression, and anxiety disorders. This is because we as a population have forced ourselves to conform to a disposition that is literally antagonistic to our genetic temperament. We are natural born explorers, creative risk-takers, and pioneers who have been cooped up in industrial era classrooms for far too long. And this confinement (and subsequent sublimation of our creativity) has taken a toll on our mental health.
We Americans can only sustain our lifestyle if we focus on maintaining our edge as the seat of innovation and progress: not factory workers, not bureaucrats, and certainly not the kleptrocrats whom frustrated creative-risk-takers all-too-often become when they are taught to abandon the passions of their hearts and instead chase external validation. When these naturally creative risk-takers, deformed by our intolerant school system, are put in the role of bureaucrat, kleptocratic looting becomes their “creative” outlet – and what they create is disaster and chaos – think Enron, Halliburton, Goldman Sachs, and BP to name an infamous few.
So What Do You Do Now?
If we want to recover from our industrial-sized hangover, we need to retool our idea of what education should be. (In fact our current educational system defies the very word education, because – as Russell Bishop once pointed out to me – educate comes from the Latin meaning “to draw out of,” which is the Socratic style of teaching, not “to put into,” which is the didactic style of teaching inflicted by our school system.) We need to offer the kind of real education promoted by the likes of Socrates, Plato, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Einstein, Edison, and Henry Ford. The kind enjoyed by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who both lucked into having rather unconventional educational experiences, which fostered inner direction, passion, creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, and freedom to take risks – lots of risks. This type of education is also the most effective for our most energetic and creative students. Right now these kids are being labeled ADHD and medicated to suppress their high energy, and fluid, creative temperaments; biochemically forcing bright creative children to conform to an antiquated idea of learning, which is tied to a sinking ship. These highly creative kids don’t have a disorder – our system does.
If you’re an impulsive creative risk-taker, then this is your wake up call. We need to wake up. We need to learn and help our children learn to be dynamic entrepreneurs, innovative inventors, and accomplished artists. That is what the new global economy demands. We need to get back to the roots of American prosperity when the leaders of industry didn’t get paid fat salaries and juicy bonuses for manipulating the system and chop-shopping our infrastructure, but instead thought like true entrepreneurs who gain prosperity through courageous, resourceful, creative pioneering.
We need to create and participate in more pursuits emphasizing innovation and difficult problem solving (instead of mere rote learning) like the Imagine Cup, where students compete to innovate technology to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems–including eliminating poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria. It’s “one of the most important science competitions in the world” according to Bill Gates and yet most U.S. high school and college kids aren’t even aware of it, because they’re too busy trying to keep up artificial grades. (If you’re interested, The Huffington Post is hosting a contest for student journalists to win a trip to this year’s event in Poland.)
The ones who prosper in a new world of rapid innovation and constant upheaval are not the compliant, dependent, directionless students we’re churning out of our cog-in-the-wheel education system. Those who prosper in a new world are those cut from the same cloth as the great American heroes: the kind who could shoot from the hip, the kind who could think on their toes, the kind who were comfortable with risk and uncharted territory, the kind who could invent unthinkable things like the airplane, the integrated circuit, and the Internet.
If you’re graduating with the class of 2010, your best bet is not to wait and hope for industry to save the day and rescue you from your jobless purgatory. Your best bet is to reconnect with your passion, your God-given brilliance, your ingenuity, and go ahead and invent the industry that will save the day.
I leave you with a couple quotes from the masters:
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire sports the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” ~ Albert Einstein
“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” ~ John F. Kennedy
Garret LoPorto is an inventor, entrepreneur, speaker and author of The DaVinci Method: Break Out & Express Your Fire.
An article by Garret John LoPorto
Hi Garrett,
This is an impressive article and what makes it great is that it is true.
I am at the far end of 31 year career in the hospitality industry (hotels and the cruise industry) and believed, in 1968, after being a high school dropout, that what was being taught in school and in college would have no relevance in real life. That the expensive education system does not guarantee today’s graduates jobs and just gives them a worthless degree is true. Peer pressure to perform, in India as well, nowadays is not just leading to children having “breakdowns” but suicides in their early teens and that is tragic.
The pressure to get good grades messed me up early and I suffered from “nervous breakdowns” for 9 years, periods when I experienced phases of “Hypomania” until I was diagnosed a “manic depressive” or “bipolar”.
I began working the day after I was 20 as a bellboy and worked my way up from there, always on the “right dose of medication” to keep my state of mind “normal” as that was the only solution then and managed to work successfully all my life.
I do always understand what you are talking about and sharing with the world very easily for I have been through it all myself.
I always wonder why there was no other like you to educate the population on what being bp is all about. What you present is so clear. Way back then I was referred to as “mental” or “mad”
Sadly, even today I keep my experiences with my bpd a secret as “normal” people still do not understand that being “bp” is being special and not an illness.
At 56, I am looking for a direction that will carry me through a phase that will make up for what I lost trying to live a “normal life”. I hope I will find it soon.
I wish you continue doing the great work you are doing at this time, hope your word would spread faster and find greater approval amongst the medical community, who presently are cynical about your ways of viewing bipolar disorder.
To me you are an inspiration. To me what you say brings hope. I wish you even greater success in the future and hope what you have to share will bring hope to all those that end up going through life the way I had to.
Rajeev
I am 23, and living in Thailand throughout my youth has not been an easy life. With ADHD, I was often labelled as “stupid” or “lazy” and has been disruptive to many people, most of the time to my parents. This can really crush your self-esteem. Moreover in Asia you are only respected if you are clever. At least in the west there are more exciting activities to do and to calm you down. In the east, society is more strict and citizens are expected to behave proper way, else you are judged most of the time. Lucky that my parents could support me and now i’m in Canada in a small college. What gives me hope in life is all the quotes from Emerson. One of my favourites are
“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience”
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
“Friendship, like immortality of the soul, is too good to believe.”
With the above two quotes, now i’m seeing a therapist for anxiety issue, since i had problems with relationship all my life, just for being inattentive & not being able to behave in a certain way they expected me to.
You may well be right but I have to say that I really loved studying and English/History are fantastically interesting. I never wanted to be a billionaire nor rich either so I think education has a role,don´t thrrow it all out the window. It has helped me a lot in my life it isn´t just about making money. What about knowledge ,culture, criteria?
beauty, discernment?
yours faithfully
anne regan
Hi Anne,
I agree – learning to appreciate language, art, history and beauty are well worthwhile. Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Edison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, Louisa May Alcott and Bronson Alcott along with most other true luminaries – all found “school” as we know it to be antithetical to appreciation of true beauty and developing true discernment.
Steve Jobs did find a class in calligraphy to be eye opening and he credits it with much of the inspiration for Apple’s early devotion to eye pleasing fonts… Only he took that class AFTER he dropped out. And I think this may be a clue, because our current education tends to be compulsory, which runs against the creative spirit and the true nature of human curiosity. I have found most great artists and creators had to take time away from school to gain depth and appreciation for the finer aspects of their craft.
Remember:
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire sports the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” ~ Albert Einstein
“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” ~ John F. Kennedy
Hi Dear Garret,
Hi Everrybody,
As a non Graduate (i haven’t even finished High school), i must admit that i’ve found this Article rather helpfull and enjofull to read, as i’ve alway’s found Your newsletter’s worthy of reading, i must add that unfortunatly getting to do something really worth doing in life is never as simple as talking about it or what so ever, especially if you don’t have enought fund’s or if even worse, you don’t really believe that you want to give a hand to improve this Society anymore, or rather desire you could radically change it from a to z! Does this Society really need to be improved? do most of are Fellow Citizens care about being “Good ” People? and when i mean Good that means following the the way of The Ten Commandments as Our Holy Father thought Us, do We still remember them? or do We just care about making new money (sure we truely need to make lot’s of money, since money brings us wellness, improves Society, defeats crime e.c.c), but whilst We thing of making money, and if one can even open a Company of his one (thing that i will probably never be able to do since i’m poor), i truely believe that whilst doing all this, or even better before doing all this we should also believe in keeping a Good Soul, in order to save Our Soul’s, since we’re not gifted with eternal human life. Why do i say this? well that’s simple, just look around, Our We All happy and satisfacted with what we’ve got, appartment’s, job’s, holiday’s, money, i don’t believe so, even here in Italy with Our lovely weather many people are really stressed, oftenly angry, envious of each other, depressed, many cases of suicides and Family crimes. Sure money, wealth and being a career doing Person could surely help prevent many ouwfull thing’s to happen, but what i really believe that many People truely need, is that true feeing of Faith, beliefh, being good with oneself, with each other, we truely need to be good, our Society needs to change, outherwise i don’t see any possibility of true happyness omongst us All, sure money can buy happyness, but for how long? time pass’s slowly but continuously, and when you less realize it Your old, and then You ask Yourself, have i done the right things in life, have i really truely done what i should have done, or could i have done better in order to please The Holy Sky’s? I surely know one thing for sure now, since i’ve found out in these past years, due to The Mental Health System that i have a Disorder, i’ve decided to take thing’s easy, i’ve quite my past job and i’ve decided to read, read, read and learn all i nead, as much as i can to higher my personal knowledge in order to be someone else, the Person i’ve always dreamed to be, in my small way of living, give a small hand to help improve this Society in order to make it become a better place to live in, for all of Us, that won’t be simple, but i’ve got no hurry, that’s because i don’t want to make any mistake’s this time, at least the less possible, and in the meantime if i’ll get the opportunity of getting on a good job and making some money i won’t throw it away, but i certainly don’t won’t to work so hard as in the past, no this time no more hard manual work, this time i want to do some brain working.
Well that’s all Folk’s, have a great day tommorow and Greeting’s from Italy, the sunshine Country, thankYou.
May Our Holy Skys Bless You All, Claudio Pedretti “Claude”.
I am a secondary english teacher and even though I agree with a lot of what was said in the article I also agree that an appreciation of thngs artistic no matter whether they are in language or creative arts needs to be nutured. You can’t nuture what you don’t know. Having specialist highschools after year 9 would allow students to follow their passion or what they feel naturally drawn to. A basic education is needed to be able to communicate but not as you grow and develop in mid adolescence. I have many students who are stifled and I feel I am tring to fit a square peg into a round hole with the casualty being the students! Until educators stop being politically correct and accept that not all students learn well in the academic based arena there will never be any change.
I find most success in teaching students to accept the basics as necessary but then to follow their heart and begin to pursue those things they find exhilarating outside of school if necessary. I am sick of hammering students into moulds they just don’t fit.
I would have to agree with you regarding the education system, I was recently diagnosed at age 50. It made sense in a way when I looked back at my schooling, I was described as disruptive and the class clown but in actual fact I was high functioning. The teacher would teach a one hour class with 5 minutes of facts or actual learning, then repeat things or put it another way.
I got it in the first 5 minutes, they bored me and couldn’t keep my attention, I believe that I could of learnt much much more in school but they couldn’t keep up.
There was also a question of revelance, would it serve me later in life, how would it serve me later in life, where was the free thinking time? Where was the personal expression time?
I like the artical and agree with the content, have read your book and found it most helpful, struggling a bit at the moment though with motivation, have a very unique business idea that will make a fortune but stuck in the bit I hate ,the planning….I just want to make it happen but also know this part is very important ……but frustrating the shit out of me.
Have you noticed behind the success of such multi millionaire are highly qualified educated brain as master mind, who loves Technology, knowledge and achievement more than MONEY….
I agree with this article, I have just graduated from university in accounting but it was a choice I made to help me account for my business activities and nothing else. I shall not be entering any industry as an employee but I may soon be taking on employees.
From the day I was old enough to form my own opinions I have said that school was completely irrelevant. I lost count of the number of times I had to ask teachers when I would ever need to know the crap they were teaching me but still I always performed highly academically.
I consider myself lucky that throughout my education I had the inclination to pursue many “extra curricular” activities that I was passionate about and these usually culminated in my trying to make money one way or another.
What’s funny also is that from and early age I have told my parents (who are very keen on education) that most rich people are school dropouts but I didn’t realise it was actually true. Gives me a warm glowing feeling.
Great article that I couldn’t agree with more and one I wish I could force down the throats of the powers that be. I’m in the UK but I believe the situation for graduates here is very similar for all the reasons you mention. Most graduates here that I know have absolutely nothing about them and nothing going for them other than an “education” and that is the result of this “education”. I’d be surprised if any of them get jobs
Dear Garret,
Thank you for your enlightening article. I don’t have BPD however can relate in many ways, as I have been raised outside of the traditional education system and now, at 23 years old, have been struggling with whether or not I want to enter it for the sake of giving myself a good name and being able to say “I graduated”. Is it really worth investing all that time and money in it, when I have already decided on a career path and love the fact that I have the ability to innovate, create, work hard and think independently? Is the title or certificate worth that much when I’m already doing what I love as a vice-president for an NGO in a foreign country speaking 4 languages (and working on a 5th) and within the framework of the NGO working as a project manager, accountant, trainer, PR spokesperson, resource mobilization specialist and a student of the 2 most important religions in the world? I don’t mind spending time in a classroom, I love to study (especially language, sociology and history) but at this point in my life I tend to think that it would be a waste of time. I have been searching for answers to this dilemma, as it’s difficult for me when I’m asked “what university did you attend” or “what kind of education did you receive for your job” and I need to say that I’m a high school graduate that has never been to university, and to be bound to the fact that their opinions will probably be in line with the vast majority of people that feel that graduating university = success and not graduating = failure. I don’t by any stretch of the imagination feel like a failure and would to know what your views are on this.
I totally agree with this and it scares the crap out of me. I have a bright shiny kindergardener graduate and a preschooler in the house. I really don’t know what to do to break out of this school system rut.
We’re planning a trip around the world next year – which will force us to road school them both (not really our cup of tea, but it’ll be a requirement if we’re going to travel like that)….
I’m an entrepreneur myself – dropped out of college (yay) – blaze my own trail, do alright… in retrospect, I see one big advantage of Harvard, in particular — is LOTS of really good business connections.
Oh well, I have a relatively happy life though – may never be a billionaire and that’s okay. I’m kinda over ‘growth for growth sake’ — there’s plenty of world to see while I’m still on the planet.
Peace – thanks for the article.
“Ugly Ducklings” (i.e. swans), are surrounded by ducks… In order to succeed in a duck’s society, more often than not, you need support and recognition. You need to be able to talk the talk, in order to walk the walk…
I found the article very interesting and related to the feelings a bit. I’m not BP but I am ADD. School was fun and intriguing for the first several years because it opened up topics for me that I probably would not have found on my own. Then it became difficult for my short attention span and high distractibility and I started taking a lot of short cuts when possible ….. I cheated myself. I finished HS but knew I was underachieving, ie, underlearning and underretaining. I didn’t know why then. I struggled through two years of college and stumbled on some techniques to master my classes. I had to worked 4-5 times (maybe more) harder and longer but it taught me two things that are PRICELESS ….. self-discipline and that I can do almost anything if I want it enough. You don’t learn those by dropping out of school. I worked in a variety of jobs and broadened my appreciation for different roles and types of people. At 40, I went back to college part-time while I worked full-time and single-parented two young children. It was even harder than before because my brain was older and “out of the habit”. I enjoyed learning more with each new level of accomplishment and finally discovered my passion in grad school. I was finally diagnosed with ADD after finishing my masters degree. I didn’t stop until I finished my doctorate …. which I did for me. My doctorate didn’t boost my income but it enriched my senses, broadened my perspectives and taught me to synthesize new and old knowledge alike. Education is NEVER, EVER a waste. Just because you don’t get the job of your dreams immediately after college doesn’t mean that your knowledge is worthless. Our educational system uses “facts and subjects”, ie content, to introduce new ideas, teach discipline, delayed gratification, perserverance, appreciation for things different from self (people, ideas, places, customs, etc), to challenge self, etc. Like everything in life, you get out of it as much as you put into it. I’ll never be a billionaire but I have never sought that. I am content pursuing my passion and purpose by serving to improve my world in my small ways. Maturity has taught me that I do not regret even one of the classes that I have taken because each helped me to grow(though painfully at times). I only wish I had learned that last bit earlier so that I would have complained less about my classes and my professors and applied myself a bit more.
The biggest problem in our schools is that teaching is very poorly respected and extremely poorly paid. What a disgrace! The best and brightest minds should be the teachers from K to grad school and beyond and paid the “big bucks” to keep them teaching. Then no one would want to drop out because the journey would be too exciting to “quit”.
My opinion.
Hi Garrett
Just curious, have you ever read or listened to a Dr Peter Breggin and his thoughts about diagnosis? I love reading your book, listened to your thoughts etc as well as Dr Peter Breggin. Humans are not created to be controlled and forced to conform according to societies laws and rules. We are individuals born with special gifts and talents which need to be nourished by parents, teachers etc.
Thanks for making individuals realise that they are worth something!
I agree with you, I have been studying for years now and after completing matric my parents tell me what i have to do and i’m not interested on being the engineer; but i was forced to do it and complete it. and after that they tell me to look for a job and did get a job and i am working on the field that i dont like, now i’m busy working out on my business and it needs alot of time and on other side is this job.
The education system is costing our lives, and people, you have to understand that its not a key as they preach, its a business – because if its a key, why do they make it expensive and offer you a loan, to be successful in life you dont need to have a degree, you have to be smart and use the brain that GOD give you.
Your article echos what I’ve had rattling around in my heat, but hadn’t reduced to words. Many thanks for the clarity.
I might add that in addition to dropping out, I got in trouble for many mischievous acts, and I suspect that they, too, are indicators of the creative, inventive mind.
hi Evreyone!
i love the article, have written something similar myself in regards to the educational system. Never had found a great passion at studying. i hated my school days with passion therefore never had been a great student, although both of my parents are doctors, that made me the odd one. i had my own schooling to do which differed very much from the “traditional” one. My decision from early age was [F---] the studying for somebody else, coz i’ve got studying of my own kind to do. i am a music producer and composer now. Of course i never regreted the attitude! in fact i now teach it to everyone that wants to learn it! Learn for yourself, live for yourself, love yourself, this journey is for yourself alone! if you can realize that, you’ve just figured out the theory of relativity! Sounds simple! Try it!
Dear Garrett (and everyone),
I would like to thank you Garrett for a wonderful book, “The Davinci Method” (I’m almost finished reading it). It has helped me so much. I found you hit the nail on the head every time. You described me and my children. My oldest son has had such difficulty in school (and we have moved a lot which has not helped). I have a Master’s degree in English Literature. I was a good student, but when I was young I had some difficulties to learn in the manner they were teaching me to, but I learned to adapt to the system and to do “what they wanted” but I’ve always had a bit of the “rebel” in me. Now with my own children I am trying to make things better for their true education. They have an advantage because we lived abroad for awhile and they have studied in various methods including homeschooling. However, I’m planning to put them in a gifted school this year so they can explore the arts, since they are artistic. Even now I’m rediscovering myself and trying to open up my abilities to launch a new career. I do believe that traditional schools are killing creativity, and I do believe that most ADHD kids are actually gifted kids that society does not know how to teach or to reach correctly. Medication is not the answer. I agree with Vikki (the English teacher). I have taught students who did not fit the mould we are supposed to put them into. No one should be forced into a job he doesn’t like. Not everyone is Shakespeare. Not everyone is a doctor or a teacher. Students do need to learn the basics to facilitate learning and getting a well-rounded education that gives us general knowledge is great, but in the end a student must pursue what is in his heart and follow his true calling.
You are over generous to the education system. It is their (teachers and admin) fault. Like all uniion’s they promote the value of their product with their own well being in mind only.
The statistics are irrefutable; high school drop outs earn less than college graduates, which is not to say there are many exceptions like myself that are in the top 1% income bracket.
The question is, why?
….The answer is because children from the age of 4 are lectured constantly from many directions by people that apear to have valid credentials that there is no hope for them if they do not stick with the current education system. Plain old time brain washing contantly, day in and day out.
Children who for any number of well understood reasons (including they are too smart for teachers to tolerate) will not do well in a structured school setting. They fail and have been brain washed into believing there is not hope for them so they give up. . . . . .
Thank you Garret for sharing your wonderful views on life with us.
I really think we all need the basic school system up to 12 years of age encouraging free thinking and expression of ones thoughts and ideas. After 12 a free self developing education will produce happy fulfilled young people ready to take on the world!
I’m sad that you were not born 20 years before me. Oh! I would have benefitted from your book & articles in so many ways!
Now at the age of 67 I still feel the need but it remains a dream! Such a pitty, a whole life’s vision wasted!
I am honestly impressed with every word !
If today’s education is irrelevant, it is because it’s being run by the government, which is always backward looking. If it’s overpriced, it’s because it’s subsidized, which allows schools to charge more, since the consumer isn’t paying the whole price. Everyone is eligible for financial aid based on need or scholarships based on grades or athletic ability.
Exhorbitant taxes and fees at every level of government are killing the entrepreneurial spirit and slowing job creation. On the other hand, by guaranteeing loans to small businesses, the govt. makes it possible for entrepreneurs to lose everything they have. Did you know half of SBA loans go into default in a year? If the govt. stayed out of the loan business (where it has no expertise), the entrepreneur wouldn’t have been able to fund a business that had little or no chance of success.
Young people don’t remember, but it used to be the American Dream to own your own business. Now, the government and the real estate industry has convinced everyone that the American Dream is to own a house. So where did capital go? Into more real estate than people could afford–funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And what does the government do to correct over buying in real estate for the last decade? It gave people tax credits so that more people would buy houses in a real estate market with prices that are still declining.
Today, in the U.S., the pioneer, the inventor, and the artist are not valued as highly as those who fit in, play by the rules, and are compliant. Creativity, original thought, and individualism are discouraged by schools, communities, and in large corporate environments. In low income housing developments, all the buildings are identical in order to save costs. Today, people are choosing to live in developments with half million dollar and up homes that all have to conform in terms of size, a palette of neutral colors, and grass that is kept so many inches high.
My advice to today’s graduates: don’t saddle yourself with a house, a mortgage, a lot of furniture to dust, and a lawn to mow. Go out and explore the world, travel, keep your options open. Start a business, fail, start another one, and another one, until you find your dream. Don’t let anyone tell you what the American Dream is. Make your own dreams come true.
The great thing about this country is that if you look, you can find people who share your ideas and beliefs. If you just want a job for life, with the company taking care of you from cradle to grave, you will be disappointed, because that does not exist anymore, but Warren Buffett said something to the effect that there will be more millionaires in the next 30 years than there have been in all of history, because of the Internet. Jobs that never existed before are being created every day. The opportunities for people who are willing to take risks and work hard are infinite.
When I graduated with an MBA in finance, it was hard for a woman to get a job in a bank–except as a teller or a secretary. Today, men can stay home and take care of the kids if they want, and women can do anything. It’s all how you see the world. One thing we know for sure, success is determined more by attitude than either skills or knowledge. Those who are flexible and see change as opportunity will be most successful.
As an executive recruiter, job search coach, investor, economist, and entrepreneur, who has had multiple careers, I can tell you that the recession won’t last forever. Some day, you’ll be telling your children that you lived through the Great Recession. If you have the character to survive and thrive through this recession, you will carry that self-confidence with you for the rest of your life. They call it the school of hard knocks, and it can make you or break you, but the choice is yours.
Open University is good because you can learn at your own pace, so do not have to suffer through the boring lecturers. Most of the lectureres they have are good anyway.
Thanks for a very interesting, though depressing, article. What you say about education, debt and (un)employability is equally true in the UK, where successive governments both of the right and the left have agreed on virtually only one thing: increasing standardisation of school curricula and introduction of more and more testing, including performance ratings for schools (both public and private) themselves. Then graduates cannot find work — but those with less education have an even higher unemployment rate: education still counts. And you do have to factor in economic recession: it’s at least as much to do with boom-and-bust capitalism, the same system that rewards a few outstanding individuals with excessive amounts of money, and tries to leave the rest with as little as possible, beyond the ability to buy enough products to keep the whole thing going at all. And probably those exceptional individuals would succeed under ANY system. The real problems are for everyone else.
However, when you quote people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, according to Malcolm Gladwell it was not just their pioneering spirit but for each, a very exceptional set of circumstances that enabled their extraordinary success. In the case of Bill Gates, it was notably at just the right time in the growth of the computer industry that he had access to a (privileged) school computer club and via that, to large amounts of free time online at a university computer (at nights) — when such time was charged at sky-high rates to anyone using it during the day. And so on. The point Gladwell makes is that even native genius and sheer application (vast amounts of it) is usually still not enough to explain extraordinary success in the business world or anywhere else. And the right contacts also count for a lot.
Perhaps what matters more is the rest of us — with not very satisfying jobs (if jobs at all), and possibly not too much chance of creating the jobs of our dreams — if we still manage to dream. But with another option at least: to pursue satisfaction outside of work. And as others have said above, it’s usually the intrinsic reward of doing what inspires us that leads to satisfaction (and possibly business success): not money rewards. Those are a bonus. It’s a legendary failing of most creative artists (including actors, writers, etc) that they are their “own worst enemy” in loving so much what they do, as to be willing to do it for nothing! Because the doing is its own reward.
I’m in the position of having only very recently realised that my father (now aged 91) is a classic case of ADHD — and he’s still hard at work, with his “hyperfocus” applied to a pioneering library classification which demands not only familiarity over vast areas of knowledge, but very complex intellectual decisions. And there’s no money in it: research funds dried up decades ago. He does it from love and compulsion. And though the overwhelming legacy of Dewey and UDC means that only a few specialist (university)libraries are using / will ever use it, it may yet blossom on the Semantic Web as a means of organising knowledge on a scale he’s not even dreamt of (using SKOS). . . though done by others, building on his work. But his astonishing ability to continue this stuff (it scrambles my brain) has always been accompanied by maddening inattention to everyday stuff — a lifetime of physical muddle, losing everything (front door keys, you name it), forgetting or mis-remembering anything you tell him (he doesn’t listen), total impatience with anything electrical or mechanical. . . (I have to sort it out).
And of course this ADHD-father discovery has also made me wonder how much of it I’ve inherited: with a tendency either to rush off in all directions at once, or else do the hyperfocus thing. It also makes me think about my own experience at school, where I was always interested in “too many things” — and though I did very well most at most things, otherwise I failed outright. And in retrospect, my performance fairly directly reflected the quality of the teaching — apart from Maths (poorly taught) and Art (no teaching at all — but endless drawing rendered teaching unnecessary): my two real passions. The quality of teaching really matters — those who inspire others with their own passion are always the best — and not just what is taught.
Yet I later failed as an architect not through doing anything badly (on the contrary, rather well, with application, insights and answers that surprised others) or even from being a woman (difficult) at a time it was still very dominated by men (and largely still is). It was through devastating bouts of depression and loss of confidence: yet another hindrance to “success” in any terms. So I think that even “following your passion” is still no magical recipe for satisfaction, or success — even though both may be impossible without it. Life is always a bit more complicated than that.
I really like the intellect behind this article. It might sound hard to digest for those in university, but the harsh reality is this article is completely true.
Im British and have just recently quit university and still I can totally relate to all the uni characteristics that are made.
I studied Tourism Management initially thinking it would be a good call, that when I got the degree I could use the degree as a passport into any leisure job, anywhere. The reality is im worse off now than when I started. I left a position of Team Leader at a 5* hospitality establishment, then I was offered progression opportunities, if i’d stayed i’d be a manager by now, but right now I cant even get a job as a bar man or sales assistant, or even helping out at the theme park.
As the article suggests employers are not concerned about people with degrees. The reality is you learn very little, if any interpersonal skills and knowledge required by organisations, let alone if you remember them, right. Such as, can you actually remember everything you learned at school years down the line?
I was on a management course and I always felt as though the pupils should be critiqued upon their management potential, such as on the tv show The Apprentice. But the real scenario is you end up stifling through books and books of ‘theory’ which are all past relevant, of which none you will actually bother remembering, let alone applying at work.
I also found university to be quite a narrow minded environment. Tourism is the widest and biggest industry area on the global market, yet this was never realised at university. They were rather interested in one or two little aspects, rather than the bigger picture.
My personal interest is more within events and entertainment, and when I asked the university if I could investigate these areas for study, or for work experience, I was given the cold shoulder. I felt like banging my head against a brick wall. I was ashamed of the mindlessness of it all.
As the article says, you work for grades, rather than your passion. You are treated as a number, a pay check, rather than an actual person.
Moreover there would be instances where id be sat in a lecture and the lecturer would be saying, i am right, everybody else is wrong, it drew parallels to fanaticism.
Universities are branded as places of free expression, but they are not. There were cases in my work whereby I would challenge the opinions of lecturers, it seemed they just turned a blind eye.
Aside the content of the stuff I wrote was always largely holistic in nature. It was as though they couldnt be bothered to read into it. The scope for exploration was minimal as the article as suggests.
I got the impression I was frowned upon at university for airing my views. It seems that you have to conform to a certain disposition in order to achieve. If you dont conform to that culture you are dismissed and treated as an idiot. As the article says you are told to follow instructions.
There were even cases where I had helped people in their work, and actually achieved a worse mark than them. On merit how does that add up? The whole system is a con. Even if you dont put your name on your papers, you may use a unique student number, which identifies who you are. Favouritism is always conducive to education.
Its true, the timid of the pupils tended to achieve. I was disgusted by the robotic culture of university. Its lacklustre, uninspiring. The only way to achieve is to be a teachers pet.
But then again, why would you want to achieve at something thats not considered viable by organisations in the economic world?
My advice to aspiring students would be this. Uni is like going out in a storm. Only do it if its wholly necessary. If it will get you the qualifications that are entirely relevant to your desired profession, such as teaching or nursing then do it.
For others remember there are other ways of getting professional qualifications, such as through college, night classes, computer courses, that will save you the time and money of actually going through university. Moreover consider doing apprenticeship schemes, you actually gain relevant experience of the industry, which are more highly valued by employers and you can actually figure out if its the career path you want to do.
For me university is over, im a dropout and thats something im happy to say.
I could not better agree with the last comment of Eugenia, we can’t really blame teachers as they are bound to rules and regulations set by the Departments of Education run by Government. Both my parents were teachers, my eldest brother is bipolar and has Tourette syndrome. However, he had the best general knowledge as he was always reading, couldn’t sit still, so doesn’t fit in. Maybe life could be different for him and others if at that stage, more attention has been given to how to productively use their differences., but society is also guilty of forcing one in a mould, because of the way things need to be. I have two boys with ADD and ADHD, who are bright, but sorry to say are on medication to help them focus to fit in. I know they will become very successfull, but they will be thinking out of the ordinary, because we let them explore in their own time. We encourage them to be exposed to lateral thinking and to think of themselves as the next generation creating opportunities for others. I am a senior labor advisor, but on the side also a network builder with our own networking business. That assist us to think differently, else you will always be like the majority.The majority are in comfort zones, getting a good salary and benefits sometimes kills our passions and desires. This article is inspiring and I agree the internet is like unions, here to stay, the difference will be in the way you either embrace the era of technology (I am still learning) or want to be a victim of intrapment instead of thinking out of the box to lead a life of significance. I applaud you for encouraging us through your book and article, and comments of others. We need to become the person God intended us to be, which definetly is to make a difference, that we grow through others, learn from our mistakes and never give up to try again, like John Maxwell says, “fail forward”. Success is a process, not a race, you just need to know what you want, everybody has a dream, some just forget, because we were taught to dream according to budgets, etc.
there is no better learning instituton, like the university of life.
no barriers, no indoctrination, just raw knowledge that comes in all shapes and sizes and you become a first class graduate depending on how you choose to use this priceless reasouce.
This article and the comments below it is the holy grail of truth and reality.I totally agree with Eugene ,Teachers,and about professors in general.I am currently a senior in college studying Chemical Engineering,supposedly the toughest undergrad major.Why did i do it ? I was told it’s the most challenging and a small % of students eventually finish it.That was all i needed to hear and boom,i enrolled.I have been diagnosed with ADHD and my journey hasn’t been great so far.i get bored easily and do it just for the sake of doing it.I have no passion in it but i just wanna get the so called degree and proof the professors wrong who weed out whoever they consider ‘dumb’.I have used my creative mind to beat them at their own games. I always screw up in my first test receiving a D or an F AND my professors tell me the same thing i have always been told,you can’t do it,drop the class,but guess what,i don’t.My adrenaline pumps and i ace the next two test,final comes my grade is a C.Satisfied ? yes.I always find a solution to my predicament,it’s been a rough ride,broke down,numerous times but i still stand and will to the end.You probably wondering why i am doing this to myself,well,as the society has laid down the rules for all,you just have to follow it till when you can bail out.I am in a different predicament than most people.I am an orphan and the only way out is get started in this world by getting that degree then have something to lay back on just in case.I know i will be the best worker in the real world but tell that to a recruiter who is blind sided and knows only to look for a solid, nice GPA.I tell you this,we are all talented and the smartest people out there.Trust me,i have wowed people for being myself and i always get the complements as being the best out there and i just say to myself,tell that to society or wait till you see my GPA.All in all,know that we are called ‘special’ by the society but we are the best in all that we do.Love you all folks.
I tend to agree with pretty much everybody here. I am dealing now with my son in high school, and it is clear that they do not know how to deal with someone who thinks.
I blame the teacher’s union. Unions are a product of the factory workers, and they try to run the schools like a factory. They have no room for creativity, or students who actually use their brains to think. Someone like that gets plucked off the conveyer belt because they will jam up the machine method of teaching.
This year in our school system, the teacher’s union took a stand and told the teachers that any afterschool lessons were not allowed. Kind of a ‘work slowdown’ process to try to make a point. And then have the nerve to say that my son did not live up to their expectations! It is time for the people to organize against the tyrany! Wait! Where have I heard that before?
Uniions used to be about people, making things better. The problem is when things got better and the unions should have disolved, instead they became the very thing that they themselves fought against. They are no longer about wages and conditions. They are about money and power, for the union leaders, or should I say bosses!
Schools don’t teach about the Union history, because then people would realize that they have become just as bad, if not worse then what it was in the past.
But as the schools try to use the factory approach to teaching, they have no clue how to actually ‘teach’ kids. Instead of encouraging ‘thinking’ they encourage memorizing the words of the teacher. I am left with telling my kid ‘just do the work, get the grade, and learn on your own.’ THAT is very sad.
Thank you all, the author and all those who have left comments. You are definitely a special kind of group, the kind of people who will go after change until they find it. It reassuring to see that there are people who have refused to conform and are still making it out there in th real world.
I refused to conform as a young child. and my life has been very different and I cant say that its always been nice. I went to school (Kenya, where the education system completely smothers a child and snuffles any original thinking they may have), went to uni and was spat out of the system. Fortunately, I was mentored by non-conformists but still in a conformist world. I held jobs, rising steadily, swiftly changing industries (I get bored easily) and eventually I realized I was chasing my own tail. I was fired from 2 jobs for disagreeing with ideas that I thought were just not very good. I left the other jobs after realizing that employers expect you to sit there day in day out, 8-5 and for years with nothing more challenging to do than peck away at a keyboard. Deciding to go out on my own business was hard – Its working out.
I went against the grain and put my kids into a system where they are coached and mentored and left to find their own way; everyone thinks Im crazy to take such a risk but they always say what exceptionally insightful kids I have – makes you wonder!
Its very comforting to know that there are against-the-grainers out there who know that no matter what, if you know who you are, you’ll find what you want. Thanks all.
This article should be sent to every school and every school administrator in this country. Too many children (myself included) have been destroyed by our school system. It breaks my heart to think of what my daughter had to go through. I should have just let her drop out.
hi garret ,
article marvellous- let me get straight to points i wish to say…
i dont totally disagree, but its not the fullest i get convinced.in any enterpreneur system most of the time its the commercialization of things ,(1)things that are a product of science weather it be a chip,toothpaste,car,bricks.the second fact that its an (2)enterpreneur that needs the contended workers 100s and 10000s. now what a society needs at maximum is happy contended people satisfied with work with least issues..if every one is taught to be an enterpreneur or a big buisnessman what increases a little is %of lead takers and leaders and decreases darastically is % of miserable workers who all couldn’t make out that big…this would all wont you think to a severly unhappy miserable society(coz still maximum class would be the employee ones)..what i think is that this is a system with minimum lethality yes i agree it needs some change but not thinkin more of 1% bpd but majorly 99% but with balanced implementation plans…..its this education system that has made america no.1 power.. i am an indian but i still know that america is the country with most unbiased education all through the globe…
. and at last i like you garret, you do a great job managing miserable lives incorporating them more thoughts of hapiness.
nishant singh (medical student MBBS 4th year)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
A few similar ideas, and the need for a personalized and broad education.
Hi Garret
The article made complete sense and to be honest I did have a sense of dejavu because I usually start of with a brilliant idea that is a little less than conventional but get side tract on something else completely different and before I know it the dead line is upon me.
Still its nice to know I’m not loony!
when we fail in the path of success, it will pop open our ears and eyes, so we can to bring to hear and see. just take of the training pants and the wheels, in some colleges it seems like it is a big four year learning process to write your resume to get that good job!! Thomas Edison failed more times trying to find a way for the light bulb. the road of success in paved with failures
I enjoyed reading the artical and i find it most true.I have noticed the advantages and disadvantages of what is there in the text.
I agree that education has diffent kind of visions in one’s eye.
Some people don’t have what it takes to be an entreprenuer they know nothing about following one’s desire.Some graduates prefer to make R2 million for another person and get R150 000 for himself per month.I am a student in Central University of Technology studying Information and Technology.I just realized know education was never intendent for entreprenures because they have minds of their own.Education is costing and post graduates are crying for better jobs and good salaries but what they are finding out is unemployment and bills of Study Loans.Some are going back to a different field of course just to be employed.Education can braek your self-worth as a human.You can’t enjoy your life if you are getting F in your grades.secondly you spend hours preparing and learning just to pass an Exam while you are failing the people you live with and shorten your life.Their more you know the more worry’s to come.So i say dropp out of school and do what you wanna do if you still have time.
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” ~ Albert Einstein
What good will be your education if you can’t find the job you studied for?
Why earn R150 000 per month and one day you wake up and find you are retrenched you are no longer an asset to the company?
” If you give a man a fish it will be enough to feed the whole family,but if you teach a man how to catch a fish-he will be a life time provider and his family will never get hungry”
So do the things you like and follow one’s own desire.
Thanks for “speaking my mind” Garret. These are topics that I’ve been thinking about for over 25 years. I went to graduate school in Child Development and School Psychology thinking this would give me the background to create a school for children in a community context. I was naive.
My saving grace was pursuing my Ph.D. thesis on “Children and Education within Contemporary Intentional Communities”, but even there, I believe I learned more the first DAY I stepped foot in an actual community than I did the previous two years I spent studying the topic.
I then spent a year working with kids at Findhorn (http://www.findhorn.org) and, while there, a friend brought over some college students for a short program and I saw the same thing happen to them that happened to me. I felt like I had found my purpose and went on to found Living Routes (http://www.livingroutes.org), which partners with the University of Massachusetts – Amherst to run study abroad programs based in “ecovillages” around the world.
While not utopias, I believe ecovillages represent the best “campuses” to learn about sustainable lifestyles. You can learn more about our core principles at http://www.livingroutes.org/programs/education.htm.
Thanks again for promoting these important ideas. Take care and perhaps there will be another opportunity to connect in the future.
In community,
– Daniel
This article is fantastic! There are some kids I know who need to read this.
I was always the child that annoyed the teachers with the questions of how will this help me as an adult? What is the purpose of learning this when I know I will probably never use it again after this homework assignment (most of the time I was right). Yes I did graduate from college in June 2010, but the really I only went to college because my parents were breathing down my neck that I had to go, so to please them and get them to be quiet I did. Also another reason I went was so I could have the satisfaction of knowing I got my degree before my sister did…who by the way is only one class away from getting hers and has been for years. But when I went to college I actually really enjoyed it and wouldn’t mind furthering my education not to make money but just because I have always had a thirst for knowledge. I have a degree in psychology and have always been fascinated with how the mind works…I think I have always been fascinated because I have BPD and ADHD. I want to further my education to try to figure out to help people out there not suppress these diagnosis but to use their creativity, inventiveness and so on. I’m tired of people telling me I have to be “normal” in order to survive in this world and I just do not agree with that. God created me and he created me with these beautiful diagnosis and I know God has wonderful plans for me. So i do agree that education can be a waste of time and money if your going just to go and fit into society’s norms. But if you are going to further your knowledge and you want to use that knowledge to help people with understanding that there is not a societal norm we have to follow then I do not think it is a waste of time. I hope what I just wrote made sense but if not…Oh well. God Bless everyone and I hope you all have many great and wonderful adventures in this journey we call life.
The cornerstone of every great human being is EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Does the current school system/curriculum embrace E I in a consistent way? NO
Why? well at the least, on an unconscious level the thought of handing children their power in a realistic and effective way, through emotional intelligence education in every classroom everyday, is a frightening thing!
I, however, having been doing what I can to bring E I to the classrooms of the world, see something AWESOME. Children who regain a sense of empowerment excel in many ways, not least of all, in confidence, enthusiasm for their life experience and empathy for others!
Emotional Intelligence ed in every classroom everyday for a bright and sustainable future!
Todays Children Tomorrow’s Leaders let us teach them well!