Greetings, in this article, I discuss 9 problems with the school system. Here is part 1 of a multi-part series regarding some of my thoughts about everything that is wrong with institutional education today that hinders most of us from reaching our goals in life. Today’s “modern” educational institutions, even the most prestigious universities in the world, remain deeply rooted in behavioral conditioning and boring, repetitive rote memorization tasks that kill individual creativity and critical thought, and consequently, we are conditioned in classrooms to think robotically and convergently instead of intellectually and divergently. In life, being able to think critically and divergently is paramount to success, regardless of our specific goals. By the time we graduate from high-school, university, or graduate school, the academic system has excelled in stripping most of us of our individual creativity and our critical thinking skills, and unfortunately, we apply this close-minded, conditioned and modified way of thinking to our careers, and more tragically, to our lives. In fact, this process occurs in such an insidious manner that most of us are oblivious to this end result. In my opinion, here are the many things that are, in general, wrong with the global education system today:
9 Problems with the School System
(1) Focuses on rote memorization, not true learning
(2) Focuses on achievement of useless high exam scores instead of any real-life application of knowledge
(3) Stresses same mind-numbing knowledge regurgitation in homework exercises instead of any real learning applicable to life, thereby continuing to waste students’ energy outside, as well as inside, the classroom
(4) Stresses success in gaining entrance to prestigious schools with end goal of obtaining a high paying job instead of stressing maximization of one’s creative potential, contribution to society and humanity, and achieving high levels of satisfaction with life
(5) In business curricula, actually spreads and disseminates a mountain of lies about money and the financial system to brainwash young adults and prevent them from understanding the true origins of financial crises and the true destroyers of the middle class
(6) Behaviorally conditions young adults to assume a hive mentality and blindly obey “authority” figures instead of teaching critical thought and independence
(7) Divides academic settings (classrooms) rigidly by age instead of encouraging learning across age groups that better enhance learning and development of critical thought, falsely teach students that may progress at a slower rate in a certain topic that they are dumb, and falsely equates high score exams with intelligence
(8) Rarely encourages young adults to seize personal responsibility, but instead encourages them to scapegoat and blame others for failures by encouraging all students to become part of the hive
(9) Fails to utilize peer to peer learning in which students can more efficiently learn from one another as well as a teacher, and learn the benefit of cooperation versus the narcissism of egoism. In addition, when the system teaches cooperation, it still teaches poor principles of cooperation, administering the same grades to all members of a group project, even if that member contributed zero effort and work to the final product
Far too many among us accept, without challenge, articles, ideas and information presented to us by a very rigidly controlled and mainstream media narrowly-funded by a few extremely wealthy people, and this is precisely the reason why most of us must necessarily deconstruct our present belief system before we can ably start the process of arriving at the truth. Unfortunately, many of us fiercely cling to a very rigid belief system, whether these beliefs are about politics, religion, finance, education, and culture, and whose origins are rooted in the exact opposite of intellect. If we are truly honest with ourselves, the overwhelming majority of us would acknowledge that our most deeply held beliefs about life have not resulted from any analytical research, reflection and critical thought, but simply were beliefs we adopted and blindly embraced as a result of cultural norms, traditions, or endorsement by someone in a position of authority. For example, how many of us blindly accepted the societal norm of pursuing good grades and high test scores to gain entrance at top-tier schools to secure a good job at a prestigious corporation without ever questioning if this process would make us happy?
Again, this indictment is not an indictment against our individual intellect, because I truly believe that there is a creative genius that resides in all of us that is at its most vibrant in childhood. Rather this result is an indictment of the institutional education system that kills our abundant levels of creativity, individualism, curiosity and critical thinking skills with each subsequent year we are processed through the system, and instead implants a collective hive mentality in all of us. Thus, for all of us that attended a traditional brick-and-mortar school and university for the duration of our academic life, we are not at fault for our current uneducated state today, unless we do nothing to reverse the damage that has been inflicted upon us. For example, how many of us blindly accept the societal norm of pursuing good grades and high test scores to gain entrance at top-tier schools to secure the highest-paying jobs at prestigious corporations without ever questioning if this process is one that will make us happy? In fact, as I have condemned the institutional educational system for well over a decade now, I have discovered that many people, to this day, still conflate my message, and believe that I am promoting a dangerous message that advocates “education is not necessary in life”, when in fact, I am promoting the exact opposite message.
If I wholeheartedly believed that real learning (in any business-related degree) occurred within the hallowed halls of prestigious universities, then I would advocate pursuing and gaining entry to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, and Stanford. However, for the reasons I listed above, I do not believe this is the case. In fact, I believe everyone should pursue education throughout one’s entire life, but only in arenas where opportunities to truly learn are offered, as real learning must embrace the 9 things wrong with institutional academics I listed above that are largely absent in nearly all traditional universities across the entire world. For this reason, I’ve spent many years developing 20 courses for skwealthacademy, specifically to address 9 problems with the school system. In fact, when I finally launch skwealthacademy at some point in the future, I believe the earlier a student completes our coursework, the more beneficial it will be to his or her future life, as the ability to critically think will grant this young adult the insight to discern the very things about the institutional education system that I have revealed in this fact sheet, and then make the critical decision about how best to pursue the education necessary to fulfill his or her life’s goals.
Do or Do Not. There is No Try
Have you ever thought about the reasons why the saying, “Ignorance is bliss” is known by nearly every single person in the world, regardless of culture, religion and race? Those that set economic and political agendas in every nation know the answer to this question – that a behaviorally-conditioned, unthinking world is an easy population to control. Of course, if we remain ignorant, we will never do anything in our lives to actively improve them. And with all knowledge we learn, we must simply “do”, or apply the knowledge, to make any progress towards our goals. However, more importantly, we need to discover, recognize, and understand the academic tools they implement to keep us desirous of remaining ignorant. I’ve argued, ever since graduating from an Ivy League university, and then further attaining an MBA and a Master in Public Policy, that these pursuits were mistakes after I began my career in finance and realized that a traditional business university “education” had almost no utility in the real world, and was indeed, harmful to my ability to succeed in the real world. Unfortunately, after attaining all these advanced degrees, I was horrified to discover very little correlation between the knowledge I gained in school and the knowledge necessary to succeed in the real world (click on this link and read a full brochure for SKWealthAcademy, an academy we’re preparing to launch soon to combat the systemic problems in institutional education, for a further explanation of this belief).
Regarding the pursuit of specialized degrees such as engineering, medicine, nursing, and so on, I firmly believe a university and graduate level degree bestows a great deal of essential knowledge, unlike with a business education, though if you’re not sure what you want to do with your life and get one of these degrees, it can still be useless. This was the case for me, as I attained a degree in neurobiology but never did anything with it after graduation, as I decided I did not want to go to medical school. And even if you are sure you will pursue a career that requires a specialized degree, one must still remain very wary of the heavy behavioral conditioning that occurs through these degrees as well. If you really want to discover the truth about any matter, you can do so by merely “following the money.” If we do so with the pharmaceutical and medical industry, we will discover that many top-tier medical schools and associations have maintained a decades, and sometimes century-long, relationship to the US banking Rockefeller clan. And as we all know, nothing in life is given for free. Once knowledgeable of this connection, we should at the very least, be very suspicious of possible correlations between the Rockefeller’s enormous monetary contributions to hospitals, medical schools and national medical associations and the subsequent widespread and often times, unnecessary prescribed use of pharmaceutical drugs throughout the US population. In fact, if curiosity inspires you, you may start your research into this connection here with these two sources (Sources: Ruesch, Hans. “The Truth About the Rockefeller Drug Empire: The Drug Story”, http://www.whale.to/b/ruesch.html and Webb, Otis. How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012.)
Click here for Part 2 of this series to learn more about the 9 problems with the school system.
