In life it seems we tend to separate people into two groups. There are the educated people who go on to higher education. These are generally considered the “smarter” people of the world. And then there are the people who graduate high school and do not go on to pursue any other education after that — they usually tend to be perceived as less intelligent.
I have been to post-secondary school, and as a result I’ve had the opportunity to meet people from both groups. In my opinion, I believe that people who don’t go to post-secondary school are actually smarter. Contrary to popular belief, the more time you spend in school actually makes you less intelligent in my opinion.
When I think back to the types of people I’ve met in my life who happen to stand out in memory as the “most intelligent” (to use such a weird, somewhat vague description), I’d honestly say the people that have spent less time in school have been the smartest.
Talk to people that have spent a considerable length of time in school and you will almost never be impressed. They will never really tell you anything you couldn’t have already learned from Wikipedia. They are just a collection of memorized thoughts and learned opinions, but it’s almost like they have no core belief system of their own. On the other hand, when you step out into the real world and talk to people like mechanics, strippers, and ex-convicts you find yourself pleasantly surprised. These types of people don’t just think from the mind, they think from the heart. They’ve learned things organically, and there’s no sense of pretension from them. That isn’t to mock being pretentious entirely, because I do feel the attempt to impress others with your knowledge can serve a purpose sometimes. But college graduates often get stuck in a certain manner of thought for life. You hear this in people who say things like, “I went to _______,” as if it’s a permanent get out of jail free card. That is code for, “You have to take me seriously! I graduated from an accredited institution!”
Of course, I’m speaking in a broad generality here, but I think when you look at how a school really functions you might begin to notice a few unfortunate patterns. Even though it might seem like the whole purpose of going to a school to learn from professors deemed professionals in their field is to come out being a distinctly experienced individual, on closer inspection all the right ingredients come together perfectly to ensure the conditions for the student to learn are actually the complete opposite of fostering knowledge.
First of all, the very nature of structure is not always conducive to learning. The repetition of having to get up early, to the same classes, and interact with the same types of people over and over, for 4 years or more does not necessarily teach a student what life is all about. It would be like the difference between trying to explain what pain is and actually feeling it: the guy who slips on a banana peel is smarter than the guy who sees it happening, in a way.
The real lessons in life begin when you’re out of the classroom. Actual life lessons are not taught, they have to be learned and felt in real life. For example, the act of writing a paper isn’t really a valuable thing in the real world. If you’re able to do that, great. I guess it shows you have discipline, but you shouldn’t really be thought of as having a bright & original mind, only a capable one.
Universities tend to encourage some of the worst behaviour for young people: it gives them the message that they can slack off for years and years, procrastinate as much as they want, write a paper at the last minute between hangovers, get a good grade, then still get a pat on the back and feel good about themselves for being mediocre.
When I was in university one of the dumbest aspects I remember was the idea of “participation marks.” That meant you would have to put up your hand and volunteer your opinions, regardless of value, in hopes of getting a higher grade. Some people would offer their interpretations of a movie or text we read, and say the dumbest fucking things imaginable. What life lesson does that teach a person? How to operate within an idiotic system and follow orders, I suppose.
Imagine this: a person who has done nothing but read Jane Austen books and write papers about Austen’s approach to literature for 4 years. Something about that is antithetical to nature and feels really man-made, but for some reason we’re still encouraging this as a society. That same person could have spent that 4 years learning several other skills, maybe teaching themselves a trade or starting a business. The earlier they would have started, the better.
In the past, the reasons for going into higher education were generally for getting a good job afterward. In today’s world, the economy has become so rotten it makes no logical sense to spend so much money on a university or college education when:
1. Everything can be learned on the internet.
2. The jobs are just not there anymore.
3. We are probably living in what could very well be the last century of existence on this planet. What is the point in going to school: are you planning to pontificate about literature on one of the last melting ice caps at the end of the world someday?
The existence of costly post-secondary institutions is a total sham, and it’s so clear to anyone paying attention now that people still paying good money to go to school anymore are actually dumb, insecure marks. These people are, although well-intentioned, being taken advantage of and used as pawns. Universities are the equivalent of snake oil salesmen: they are selling you a dream that does not exist.
Any form of schooling you have to pay money for should be now considered as the appendix of sorts of our current time (I am writing and posting this in 2020). Anyone that says you need to get a degree for something to be an expert in it is lying or doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.
It’s hard to write critically about a topic such as higher learning without coming off as some idiotic, bitter, cynical guy who is angry for no reason. I should remind you: I’m not complaining about any of this, I am merely offering you a viewpoint unemotionally. I’m just making a point: schools are just failing businesses at this point. If you want to spend your money there, feel free to do so.
But also be aware it has become something of a cottage industry: there are majors and classes that are completely ridiculous in the age of the internet, and some people still believe they need to drop thousands of dollars on earning some kind of title. Whether you graduate from a school or not makes no real difference in the real world: what matters is what you actually go on to do, what kind of person you are, what your values are, who you are, if you have what it takes to survive in life, etc. The paper you acquire from a university might help your confidence, but you could potentially also be a lot better off staying home and googling things on the internet you’re actually curious about learning, or going out and getting into a fight with someone, driving across the country, fucking up and failing at something a few times.