Why Education is
Better Than School
Many people describe school as the best days of their lives.
They remember the fun and the friendships – but how much do they remember about
what they were taught?
At its core, school is intended to transfer knowledge and
prepare young people to participate in society. Now, while there’s no doubt
that schooling intends well, I’m not convinced it delivers on its promise.
Let me explain.
Since we were small, we were told that going to school is
important and essential. You probably heard similar lines to me: “don’t miss
school”, “attend your classes”, “do your homework”, “listen to your teacher”…
With this endless pressure from parents and teachers, it’s no
wonder that dropping out from school has always been seen as a bad thing.
Failing to graduate from school is classed by almost everyone as a disaster and
often leads to difficulties in finding work.
However, as you’ll see in a moment, some of the most creative
and successful people in the world dropped out of school.
The
Better Alternative
While
school appears to be important, it should never be confused with education.
Education is more than school.
If you put aside your preconceived notions of education, you’ll
see that education is simply the process of facilitating learning, or the
acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits.
Education frequently takes place under the guidance of
educators, but – and this is key – learners may also educate themselves.
School is a specific place, but education can take place
anywhere, at any time and with anyone – including yourself.
Education can occur in any setting. And any experience that has
a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered
educational.
In short, education is a limitless form of learning.
As I mentioned in the introduction, some highly successful
people were school drop-outs. However, they certainly weren’t dumb or
uneducated. Instead of school, they learned on their own through self-study and
life experiences.
For example, Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, failed to
finished high school. (He dropped out at age 16.) You may already know that
story, but did you know that Branson also suffered from dyslexia and had poor
academic performance? No doubt his teachers wrote him of as failure. Today,
however, Branson is worth an estimated $4 billion!
Clearly, education can be above and beyond school.
At school, you learn theories, but you often lack opportunities
to apply the knowledge. And without the latter, have you really learned
something?
To succeed at school, you need to be obedient, and whether
you’re good or not very much depends on your teachers’ expectations. It ends up
becoming an aim of fulfilling other people’s expectations instead of really
learning what’s useful for living a happy, healthy and productive life.
School and reality are often at odds with each other. To succeed
in life, you need to think out of the box instead of simply doing what everyone
else’s doing.
There are many aspects to take care of aside from the school
subjects, for example, how to form and maintain positive relationships, how to
work smart, and how to lead a meaningful life etc. These are things that you’re
unlikely to learn at school. But if you keep educating yourself in different
ways (from experience and from non-school subjects/books), you’ll keep learning
and applying your new knowledge.
How to
Utilize the Better Alternative
Hopefully,
I’ve given you an insight into why education can be better than school. Now,
it’s time to give you some tips on how take advantage of this.
Firstly,
don’t limit learning to school
If you want to progress in life, don’t rely on learning from a
standard institute/place/educator. Instead, explore ways to learn and apply
knowledge that is actually useful in your life. This can actively contribute to
what you want to have and achieve the most. This ‘extracurricular’ learning
could be through books, videos, courses, conferences or life experiences.
Read
outside your interests
If you stick to what you already know and have an interest in,
you’re unlikely to experience significant personal growth. Instead, look for
ways of learning outside of your normal circle. For example, if you currently
work as a writer – start learning a musical instrument. You’ll be amazed at
just how much this helps your writing, and you’ll have a brand-new hobby to
enjoy!
Talk to
smart people
Have you noticed how successful people tend to hang around with
other successful people? It’s no coincidence. High achievers are always
networking with others and learning from them too. You can do the same. Lift
your self-confidence a little higher, and start spending time with creative,
positive and successful people. Once you do this, in a short time you’ll start
to pick up on their ideas, their mindset and their action-orientated way of
living. Let their success rub off on you.
Question
things and think beyond the obvious
Break though your mental conditioning and start to think for
yourself. Do this, and you’ll immediately begin questioning things you’ve been
taught when you were younger. A new, super-sharp perspective on life will open
you up to ideas and goals that could be the trigger-point for success and
fortune.
If you take a look back at recent history, the great achievers
all did something differently. Counted among those individuals would be: Henry
Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.
Education
is not only about learning and consuming
Learning should not be a one-way street. In fact, experience
shows, that you’ll learn much more through teaching, tutoring and mentoring
others. Even if you don’t think you have a high level of skill – there’ll
always be someone less skilled than you who would love to learn from you. My
suggestion is to actively seek out opportunities to share your skills and
knowledge. These are likely to be win-win situations.
Keep
learning. Keep experiencing. Keep applying yourself.
When
you put yourself onto a never-ending road of learning, you’ll discover so many
things about life and yourself that you’d never have thought possible. You’ll
also easily out perform your peers – even if they previously achieved much more
than you in the way of school grades.
Education is bigger than school. It’s a way to keep learning, growing
and enjoying.
So, what will it be? Are you going to rely on your past academic
achievements, or will you take control of your life right now by learning and
developing through everything you encounter?
I recommend the latter.
Brian Lee
http://www.lifehack.org/652066/why-education-is-better-than-school?ref=mail&mtype=daily_newsletter_v2&mid=20180112&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&utm_source=daily_newsletter_v2&utm_medium=email&action=click&user_type=member&sub_time=821
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