Already am, my life is picking up more momentum than you can possibly imagine. Also, for more direct examples of this, look at Richard Feynman. All of his work came out of pure interest and curiosity alone, there was nothing else driving him. He ended up winning a noble prize award. Trust me when I say its true.
This country needs people to work the cash register at McDonalds, not understand Philosophy! WTF are you talking about OP?
philosophy isn't taught throughout school because it teaches you to think for yourself. There is nothing more dangerous to schools and governments than entire schools full of free thinkers.
Some schools do teach philosophy, just not as core curriculum. I took a humanities class a few years back and we spent a great deal of time (a whole nine week marking period) on philosophy. Of course, it was an elective class and most of my peers went all through school without ever learning it though.
I completely agree with this. My dad growing up said he would get all c's and below in highschool and was a poor student. Luckily he was still able to go to college and go to an ok school because during his time college wasn't as competitive and hard to get into as it is now. He told me he ended up taking a chemistry class with a teacher who genuinely cared about the students and wanted them to know more about what they were learning rather than going through the motions. After this class he said he realized chemistry was something he was truly interested in and he finally began caring about school and did not worry about what might seem like a "cool" job or what job will make you the most money. Eventually he graduated with a chemistry degree and now enjoys what he does for a living, makes enough so that my family owns a relatively nice house as well as a condo up in Vermont and my dad owns around 8 surfboards and around 4 snowboards so he is still able to do his favorite hobbies. Also it's very fortunate for my sister and I he was able to find something he loved because due to him having a decent job my sister and I were told when looking at schools for college not to worry about money and that my parents would pay for all our tuition and we wouldn't need to take out a single student loan. Edit: I was just thinking about what I wrote in my first paragraph and I'm not trying to sound conceited and brag about my family's wealth. I looked up the average chemists salary and from what I read it's around $60,000 and I don't know how much my dad makes but I know it's at least double that amount which is more or less why I mentioned money when referring to pursuing what you find interesting. My problem through school and still now is I can't find what I am truly interested in and want to pursue. I had an ok gpa in highschool but did very well on the SATs so when I would go to my highschool guidance counselor to talk about college he would mention majors such as, engineering, pharmacy, pre med and other high salary majors. The problem is he never really asked me what I was interested so of course I thought, "Wow! Pharmacy makes 100k right out of college, let me apply to a bunch of pharmacy schools." The problem is I hate most science related classes but I ended up just getting a list of schools with pharmacy programs and applying to them not really looking into any school too specifically. After the applying process was over I finally looked more into pharmacy and I still thought I would go into because I thought to myself, "Well shit, I hate science classes but after 6 years I'll be making 6 figures so I'll do it anyways." Luckily I talked to my parents and a few people close to me and they all concluded it would be a bad decision to go for pharmacy just because of the money. The problem was at that point it was too late to apply anywhere else and almost all the schools I applyed were due to pharmacy being my intended major. In the end I decided to go to URI because it's a decent school, I get instate tuition and there were many other majors I could still choose from after deciding not to do pharmacy. Now that I am a sophomore I can easily say that if I had stuck with pharmacy, which is what my advisor originally advised as one major I should go into, I would have dropped out by now, switched majors with an extremely shitty gpa or probably would just be hating every second of college because of the classes I would have to take. Although I know there are people who are able to deal with classes that don't interest them and still do well I am not one of those people. Now as a sophomore I'm taking a variety of classes and trying to find out what I'm truly interested in and even though it may take longer for me to graduate in the long run I feel it will be worthwhile. I have slowly learned that although a class may be considered "easy", if you have no interest in it then it can be very hard. I was told women's studies was an easy class but within the first week of school I had to drop it because I knew there was no fucking way I was going to make it through a semester of that shit. I'm currently trying to study for a test that I have no interest in and ended up going on this rant because even though the class is supposed to be "easy", it's hard for me because I have no interest in the shit I'm supposed to be learning. Like the guy in the post initially said "When learning is forced, little motivates students. When learning is done through pure interest, mountains can be moved." I'm hoping I can soon find something that truly interests me and I can eventually work to my potential because my problem is even though I know intelligence wise I might be capable of pre med, becoming a lawyer etc, I also know if I lack the motivation then any intelligence I have goes to complete waste. tl;dr I agree with the guys quote because if you are able to find something academically that truly interests you and you could turn it into a career then you should pursue your interest and hopefully happiness and wealth will follow. And a side note is that taking adderall to study can sometimes lead to a complete distraction.
When I started reading more and getting into more philosophical reading and thinking, I was pissed I wasn't taught this in school, or by my parents even. Whenever I get to the point when I have a child, I'm definitely introducing philosophy to them at a fairly young age.
I completely agree. Until the system recognizes everyone is individual and not grouped together and viewed as numbers on a chart, education isn't going to go far.
my guess is because highschoolers aren't mature enough to talk about differing philosophical ideas. it would just turn into a shit throwing match. kinda like on here.
The structure of our educational system may have something to do with that, no? Like the fact that philosophic discussions are essentially taboo in school, and so therefore people may have extreme views that are completely illogical, and have no comprehension of other viewpoints. Therefore, when it is discussed, they may act as you describe. Actually making it a regular part of learning would fix that, methinks.
Holy smokes, a digit thread.... Were you guys digging around with picks and chisels looking for fossils or some such nonsense? I have a friend who takes philosophy in college. I once asked him if entertaining a logical fallacy was a logical fallacy itself. He told me "It's not as long as you're entertaining it by doing a jig." That's what our youth needs to be learning.
Logical Fallacies should be taught in school considering the fact that most people mistaken fall into the traps of making one.
You make a good point. I went to school in the bible belt and so many people live and die by the bible, philosophy is blasphemy to them. I feel like if it was a regular part of learning the bible beaters would throw a fit saying the schools are pushing ideals on the students. Probably compare it to separation of church and state. I did take philosophy at juco (probably remedial compared to 4yr colleges), favorite class ever. the discussions were great, plenty of different viewpoints. there were some conflicts but nothing serious. but a person matures a lot between high school and college.