As I was continually browsing through educational news, I've tried searching for racism or discrimination issues but I wanted to see something different yet interesting. Not only to realize, that the video clip that I've attached is very deep and powerful.
The video clip 'Why I hate school But love Education' is shown in spoken words which many people might view it as somewhat rude or unpleasant. But the core message of the clip is that education is not the only key to success. He mentions about several famous people such like Bill Gates and Steven Jobs who became successful without any educational degree and emphasizing that the society is making us to craze for education which really is not the only way to be successful. He also mentioned that the school does not teach you the necessary things for us to be successful. He strongly argues that learning is good but the education institution is not everything. This I absolutely agreed because I have many friends who could not afford to get tertiary education but their hard work and experience made them successful.
When I was watching this, something came to my mind immediately which I have been questioning myself for a very long time 'what makes people happy? is it educational recognition or what?'
Before I move on to the main topic, I would like to strongly convince that this is my personal view and thoughts and i have no mean to offend anyone. Moving on, when i was preparing myself for HSC I did not want to go to university. First of all, I didn't want education to be my identity and secondly I believed university is not everything. I've seen so many people struggling and having hard time at university but I couldn't understand why they are stressing out so much when they can find something they like to do and be happy? I believe the society is so demanding.. they think looking good is everything. High education institution may provide you opportunity but not fully guaranteed success. My parents including few friends around me pressured me to go to university for me to become a better person in the future. I totally disagreed because I believe doing what I do is more important than learning something what makes me unhappy. True successful and true happiness starts from doing what I love to do even if high education is not included.
It is so reluctant that many people are striving to be 'well educated man' not because they want to but because they want to 'look' successful. I am not saying that getting into high education institution is a bad thing but only emphasizing that it is so unfortunate that people are not doing what they like only to satisfy their parents. Just like the guy in the video clip mentions 'Education is about inspiring ones mind not just filling in their head' I believe we need to conceptualize that education is not just memorizing things that will be forgotten after exam.
Overall, although I don't totally agree to what the guy is trying to say, but I do believe that education institution is not a requirement for one to be successful. Learning is important, everyone needs to learn throughout their lives but learning does not exist only at institutions. People seeking happiness and success through their qualification may be pointless and meaningless in the future when they realize education isn't everything but doing what they love is living a happy life.
References
Education Is Not the Key to Success. StudyMode.com., 2013, retrieved from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Education-Is-Not-The-Key-To-1700304.html
Are degrees in education essencial to success in life? 2013, Retrieved from
http://www.debate.org/opinions/are-degrees-in-education-essential-to-success-in-life
I think this man's problem is with things such as standardised tests and deadlines.. I could not ever possibly agree with anyone who says that schooling is pointless, and from my understanding this man isn't saying that either. He is not the first person to ever say these things either. Many decades ago educational psyhologists were saying similar things- take a look at Ivan Illich's 'Deschooling society' where he talks about the positives and (many) negatives of running schools in this modern economy- where has their focus gone? What are they really trying to instill in students? Are they trying to teach students simply because they value education in itself, or are we just trying to produce a set of working machines fit for the market economy?
ReplyDeleteThis concern about the value of education and the direction schools are taking is not a new debate, and this man is not the first or last person to voice his concerns on this debate.
It is the same principle that guides the debate on things such as standardised testing. The debate in principle is that standardised testing takes away from the value of education because you are teaching to a test, you are not 'inspiring' young people's minds (as this man so readily suggests is what education should be doing). In my opinion, this man should get into the field of educational research or educational psychology and suggest some better ideas of how he thinks schools should be functioning, instead of telling people to drop out of school and become rich by other means. Just on that note, I think it is a little bit dangerous to encourage people to drop out of any type of educational institution and pursue a career because they can become rich just like Steve Jobs or David Beckham. It is extremely important to consider that there are very few people in the world who achieve success to the levels of these men (not that there is anything wrong with following your dreams)!
Erica,
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of your points as I am one who also believes that 'success' not only comes out of a university degree but since education has become increasingly marketised, it has simply become a norm for people to get a degree in order to get a job and earn your desired salary. This is not to say that I think education and learning is a bad thing as I highly value my education. I personally just always found it absurd to pay thousands of dollars in order to gain a degree and then work the next few years to pay off the debt. I find it more illogical if you do not enjoy doing your degree at all. I have a few friends who complain about university because they either do not enjoy their course or they did not know what to do so they just went with whatever that looked easy or may please their parents' wishes. I have heard from friends and overheard other people repeating that they felt rushed to go to university after completing high school and gaining their Higher School Certificate. Moreover, I always hear people changing their minds about their career paths and changing courses altogether. Why is this? Probably because the demand on a degree is great and they feel limited on options to get somewhere in life. Fears of “falling standards, dropouts, and illiteracy… are exacerbated… by dominant groups within politics and the economy” (Apple 1996, p. 6) which in turn places a large emphasis on “productivity and industrial needs” (Apple 1996, p. 6).
Education has seemingly created a 'credential' culture whereby a degree is heavily emphasised as ‘success’ in one's life. As Apple (1996, p. 8) states, the educational system is “basically anti-entrepreneurial”, whereby there is continuous emphasis placed on paid work in education in order to meet the needs of the economy. Schools are now “producers of human capital” (Apple 1996, p. 8), creating workers instead of creating entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. Conversely, the school system is failing to produce “sufficiently skilled, adaptable, and flexible” (Apple 1996, p. 8) workers. Maybe the reason behind the school system’s failure is because the people do not entirely enjoy their job to give their one hundred and ten percent effort? Who knows. So it seems that the problem lies in our educational institutions “around their sense of economic needs” (Apple 1996, p. 20) and there is a need to “define social reality and to interpret peoples inchoate aspirations and needs” (Apple 1996, p. 21).
Great post!
References:
Apple, M. W. (1996), Cultural politics and education, New York: Teachers College Press. Chapter 1.
I think you have found a really interesting point to start with with the video you presented. I like this man’s initial motive. I think he means no harm and only wants to present his own opinion, which we have learnt, if we didn’t all already know, that all have the right to their own opinions and to make these heard. I think the different things this man is presenting are in part true, for instance when he speaks about having to remember and recall information and facts for a test and then they are forgotten has some truth to it. I did a blog on NAPLAN and I found this exact point and it also frustrates me. I think a lot of our schools testing are forcing students and teachers to follow this path of not worrying about actually learning the content, but to just remember it for the test, regurgitate it and then forget it like it never existed. Having done my 13 week internship at a high school and working intensely with the Visual Art’s HSC class throughout this time I found myself thinking, if I had a dollar for every time I said “don’t you dare just remember your essay and write it out in the exam without looking at the question!!!” then I’d be a very rich Visual Arts teacher….. so I do understand his point there. I also like that he makes reference to different ways of being educated and successful. As I said being a Visual Arts teacher I am constantly told my subject is pointless and not an ‘educational’ subject, whatever that means. So his references to Picasso and David Beckham I really liked as I think students nowadays need to understand that talent and education come in every subject at school. There are no hard or easy subjects, just different ones, and if you are good at Art or Music or Drama then that is just as important as if you were good at Maths or English or Science.
ReplyDeleteHowever I can’t say I agree with your final statement, that educational institutions aren’t important to be successful. I think that students learn so much more in school and educational institutions than just the content presented to them. All those people he mentioned in his video would have learnt something from one school or educational institution at some point in their lives, be it content education, social education, cultural education or individual education, being things like motivation, passion etc in themselves to succeed. I think if this is totally taken out of a student’s or young adult’s life success would be a lot harder to obtain.