Let's start promoting education, beyond the system

In the past, your ability to succeed in the world career-wise was determined primarily by your knowledge of, and aptitude for, the requirements of your desired job. During this time, people were not nearly as educated, by and large, as they are today. So, we began to put more of an emphasis on formal education. This has led to a large increase in the amount of formal education which the average citizen receives. Along with this increase in education, there has also been huge technological breakthroughs, most pertinent being the internet. At this time, there has been a shift of requirements from pure knowledge and ability, to a huge emphasis being placed on the amount of formal education received. Yet with so many more students receiving higher levels of formal education, the effectiveness of this education in assisting you in success in your field of choice has been minimized. There are 17,000,000 people with a college degree in this country working jobs that do not require a college education. There are over 5,000 people with a PhD who are janitors in this country. As a formal education is being more and more emphasized, the effectiveness of receiving this education is diminishing more and more. Oddly enough, coinciding with this shift towards an increased emphasis on formal education is the rise of the internet age.

With the internet, people can essentially learn anything they could ever want, free of a formal education. This is also free, in comparison to a college education which is ridiculously expensive, and most students end up having to pay back loans for years after their education is complete. I find it very strange that now that information has become so widely available, the importance of being educated itself, in the truest sense of the word, has for all intents and purposes lost its value. Now it's all about the degree, which, coincidentally I'm sure, has huge costs associated with it. With public libraries and the internet, you could quite literally receive a better education for free, or minimal costs, than most people receive after four years at a University. Yet as this is now so possible, society has essentially decided that true education has no value. You could know everything there is to know about a subject, and yet you will not be able to obtain a job in the field without the piece of paper that is the college degree. You see, this is all being done under the guise of supporting education. Yet we have become so indoctrinated by society that we quite literally associate “education” with the formal educational system, as opposed to the acquisition of knowledge, which an education is in its truest sense. Therefore, under this supposed promotion of education, we have quite literally made true education meaningless. Knowledge means nothing, only the piece of paper you can acquire after paying thousands of dollars. This is all being done under the guise of the progressive world, in which education is supposed to run abundantly. Yet all too often, the progressive world is that which is preventing us from further progress. We saw a good thing in promoting education, namely the formal education system, and then we became so narrow-sighted that we began to mistake “education” itself for this system, which is only a means to an education.

In terms of practical steps we could do to continue to support education, but now in a broader sense beyond the “system.” What if there were to be a system put into place, which would place a “stamp of approval” or something of the like, to websites aimed at education. The stamps of approval could include verifying that there is accurate information presented, and/or concluding that the thought process which drove the ideas presented was legitimate. This would encourage people to share their knowledge on the internet, as well as promote the sharing of accurate information, and legitimate thought. It would improve upon the already vast database of information available on the internet. Beyond these “approved” websites, there would still be infinite room for, as there is now, more questionable or controversial information, which people could study themselves, and determine for themselves the merit of it. The internet is the ultimate tool for education, and I think we should start treating it as such. The emphasis on the formal educational system has led to an unbelievable devaluing of education, and I think it is time for us to begin to rectify this.

 

I agree with you! In the past, the people who received education ENJOYED that they were being educated. Now, with education being thrust down our throats so much, people find education to be "boring" and "a chore." This all comes down to the fundamental role of society, which is also its fundamental flaw, that it promotes the "right" way, in opposition to the "wrong" way. There is this idea in society that "enjoying yourself" and "being educated" are mutually exclusive ideas. This is due to our tendency to compartmentalize things. People have their time in which they're "learning," which is in the classroom. Then they have their time for "relaxation" and "fun," which is when they're not in the classroom. Beyond this, they have their time of "work." Due to these differentiations, combined with the obvious preference for "relaxation" or "fun," when an individual is not being forced to learn, they have no interest in learning. They so associate learning with being something that is opposed to fun, due to the nature of the system, that they grow an intense dislike for learning. So this whole system, that is supposed to promote education, in fact severely stifles it, regardless of how many people go further in the system.

I envision a world where all enjoy themselves, learn, and work freely. No more compartmentalization of reality. People so indoctrinated by society believe this will lead to some sort of unbelievable reverting back to a primitive time. In fact, it seems quite obvious, particularly with the advent of the internet, that this would cause the goals of the system to be realized much better than they possibly could be within the system. People could learn about things that interested them. People could do things that interested them. Happiness would skyrocket. Abundance of knowledge would skyrocket.