Is Education A Big Scam?

I studied sports medicine. I got to do year 11/12 as a course which helped me already successfully pass the first year of uni/college. So when I left school to study, I was one year advanced.
I worked with a local rugby team for a little while, strapping lads etc.

That was my school/study/career. I don't do any of it now and I've forgotten a ton. Though my expensive study books are extremely handy when I do injure myself.

 

Another thought on this: it might be true for his experience and the specific college or field of education he went to. Some studies make more use of critical thinking than other and some educations focus more on it than others as well, it might even depend on having a sucky teacher.
My point is he seems to be basing it on his own limited college experience and perhaps on other people that went to college but may express a lack of critical thinking. My experience (albeit in a different country) is already completely different from his. And yours (Nox's) too.
So really, it does not seem a certain conclusion for education and college in general.

Yes, I acknowledge my college experience is very limited as well btw But i do not make a faulty claim on college as a whole or in general.

 

I am grateful that I was able to put myself through university, something that was never guaranteed to me. While I appreciate living modestly, and consider it a virtue, I also grew up very poor and bear no moral regrets about escaping that paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. It's amazing not to have to worry about your next meal, having your pipes freeze, having holes in your clothing, denying yourself most enjoyable experiences that money can by. I hope I never have to look back.

I enjoyed school, the pursuit of knowledge is great in itself, and although wisdom and critical thinking skills can obviously be attained anywhere, a great teacher accelerates the process and can be inspiring.

That being said, yes, some of modern education is a scam. The inflated tuition rates at both private and public universities is deplorable. At 17 or 18 when many kids are typically signing student loan papers, they are totally lost and don't really understand the gravity of the situation they are putting themselves in. Most of them can't even cook a meal for themselves and haven't had to do their own laundry yet. Easy victims to pile debt on top of. Obviously, there is an element of personal responsibility here, some of the burden is on parents and kids to avoid debt and chose a university or major that is practical and affordable. But not all young people have that guidance, and it's a shame that the system is so rigged against them.

And on another note, there is also an unfair stigmatization about not going to university. Like "uneducated" people are some how worth less or are less intelligent. Not everyone can make it work for them, and obviously cost and life can get in the way.

 

IMO education MIGHT be a scam but it MIGHT not... it greatly depends on the country, what you're applying for, why you need it, how much it costs, what rules they make etc. etc. so this is highly debatable.

 

once upon a time you could get a trade in high school. once upon a time you could go to the factory and work, and once upon a time if you didnt like that job, you could quit in the morning and be hired again by noon. once upon a time..

 

the way education is done, has problems that begin with how we think about it, but does anyone seriously believe that ignorance holds some sort of advantage?

 

it dosnt have to be one or the other. i had a friend that didnt go to college and owned a percentage of 6 different dominos pizza restaurants. sold them and runs his own mom and pop restaurant. its doing so well that he does little more than the paperwork at the end of the night now. is he ignorant because he didnt go to college?

 

of course not, but does that make colleges, or something like them, a bad thing, to exist? my father dropped out of grade school, my mom only made it through two years of high school. my dad started working for the railroad as telegrapher/towerman/clerk, before i was born and did so for the rest of his working life, but he didn't love it, and in the end, i won't go into the details, but when he was nearing retirement age he went ape-shit and they had to fire him. i wasn't around when it happened and i don't know if it would have been more or less likely if i had. myself i've had a couple of years worth of university classes but no degree. which i have no problem with, but would love to have spent every year of my life taking classes in things that interest me if it didn't cost anything to do so.

as for what orson said

once upon a time, there were more jobs then not, for a strong back and a weak mind, but i don't know what fantasy world in which the average person could reasonably expect to quit one job in the morning and be hired for another by afternoon, or at least get away with making a habit of it, unless maybe between morning and noon they'd hopped a freight to the next town two towns over.

even that lasted for less then a century. once upon a time, there weren't the concept of jobs as we know them, and what you knew and were able to do, weren't about money, which wasn't even a major aspect of most people's lives, but what you could build and do for yourself. the kind of hut you could build for yourself to live in, the kind of wild game and fruit and veg you knew where to find or grow and cook.

education isn't ABOUT money, its about the gratification of creating and exploring, because exploring is what sentience is about and creating is the only thing that makes sapience anything more then sentience.

 

thats an expensive exploration, i would prefer to go cross country 20 times. to each their own i guess.

 

both are expensive. i would prefer for both to be free.
everything wrong about how we do education is about money.
it's not the little green pieces of paper that are unhappy.
everything we explore, everything we learn, that IS education.
schools and libraries, are, or should be, an augmentation and assistance to that.

university libraries contain the good stuff, but people who aren't registered as students aren't encouraged to use them.
public libraries accessible to everyone exist of course, but they're mostly filled with fantasies and bullshit,
just like television, only not as bad, more on a par with what the internet has become,
but when the internet was starting out, and pretty much only technonerds were the only people who knew or cared it existed,
it was more like university libraries, except for when technonerds were playing games, and generally it was pretty obvious to each other when they were.

then the buizdroids came along, little green pieces of paper, and screwed that up too.

 

ignorance is no good in anyway, it doesn't have any advantage regardless of what we're talking about.

 

I don't know man. I thought math and quantitative reasoning were important for intelligence. If you're saying that teachers aren't good at math then it's possible that this is the reason that most kids are graduating high school without being taught any real math skills.

Also philosophy scored second highest and that's a writing subject like English, correct?

That still looks like a lot of money to me. I doubt most of my coworkers will break the 20k mark this year despite having college degrees. Most formal education just doesn't seem worth it these days.

Here's a video I found on this subject though I don't agree with most of what he has to say. It's still interesting to hear his viewpoint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eG7fd2ac7o

 

This guy has one of the most abrasive voices I have ever heard. Like nails on a chalkboard.

 

Yeah but elementary school is still 8 years. That's essentially 10% of your life. I've learned more about science and literature surfing the internet for a few months than I did in 8 years of elementary school. Honestly dude I'm really thinking that the education system is about to collapse. I hope it can reform itself and that won't happen but with the internet and everything, I just see it being gradually phased out.

Hmm good point. I just had a look at his other videos and he seems like a complete dick. good call.

Well it is a lot of money. This guy has a doctorate in analytic chemistry and he's discussing how to make a few quid trimming people's hedges. So 50k is a decent salary all things considered especially for a stable career and pension.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/malcolm-sutherland-32318611b

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0NdfyaW6sM

Yeah some fields are more lucrative but they're also considerably more competitive, and have much more intelligent and competent individuals working in them. They're much harder to break into. According to the data you only need an average level of intelligence to make a career out of teaching.

 

The problem with intelligence is that everybody overestimates their own. I've never heard anybody describe themselves as having an IQ of less than 100, although statistically it is the mean intelligence quotient.

So when somebody describes themselves as a genius, what I hear is "I'm an asshole".

 

there are a lot of things that making them be about money is a scam. education is not an exception in that sense.

 

I have a lot of feelings about this.

I got my BA degree in five years. I feel that it is pretty crazy that the USA can afford to spend 1.5 trillion on some damn plane that has never actually flown (google it) but funding higher EDU is somehow a tall order. Going halfway around the globe for years on end is no prob too, to start all these wars....ugh. That to me, shows UNI is a scam. The money is there, but it is much better to create debt slaves (and it really is modern day slavery) and illegal wars both known and unknown.

Also, the loans given to you are guaranteed, so even if you do not pay, the loaner gets the money any way but will STILL go after you. The way these CEOs of sallie mae, navient, etc. lobby congress to change the rules in their favor is disgusting too. But anyone who knows anything knows that corporations and the international banking cartel has 99% of politicians in their pocket. These CEOs earn tens of millions per year, the ones who are slammed are the working class. Plus, the money loaned to you is really nothing more than numbers on a screen, "money" created the second you signed the loan papers and backed by nothing of value. Almost literally *poof* money out of thin air.

So anyway, I went to UNI and got my degree. Was it worth it? In a way -- it allowed me to get some nice jobs in China (one) and Colombia (two, currently on my second). Trust me, without a degree, I would not have gone to those two countries and gotten any of these three jobs.

I also disagree with the critical thinking comments. Yes, some UNI courses do indeed encourage critical thinking and help you to kind of approach things in a more critical way and value your ability to analyze what you have read. I even had a critical thinking course and learned a lot on how to look at common things (like polls) in a whole new way. I also took a "sociology of religion and extremism" (or something like that) course where we really picked apart every major religion.

Is higher EDU a scam? In many ways, yes. But if you take it seriously and do your research and look for courses that are suitable to you (like one specialized in critical thinking) it is not SO bad. But the whole portion related to payment and all of these loan companies is indeed a scam of epic proportions (1.3 trillion in debt as of now) but people are too tied up with their newest iphone model and recent tv scandals, etc.

 

Yeah this is absolutely true. I thought I was decently intelligent but was administered an IQ test a few years ago and scored low with really bad math skills. My verbal skills are actually average but on the whole my IQ is below average. I should really count my blessings because if I was more intelligent I would have gone to college and ended up knee deep in debt. So I guess there is a silver lining to everything.

Here are some more articles on the subject of this thread. Maybe school was worth it 20 years ago but not anymore.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304096/Graduate-physics-PhD-31-fell-death-block-flats-taking-job-centre-qualified-for.html

http://thefinancialdiet.com/confessions-30-year-old-2-degrees-no-job-no-boyfriend/