I’ve been thinking about this lately, because my niece is going off to college this fall. Can’t believe she drives, let alone is going to college.
I’ve been thinking about my high school and college education. Thinking about what was useful and what wasn’t that helpful.
My conclusion is that schools are good for teaching people how to study and learn. They are pretty good at giving us practice socially. They are pretty lousy in preparing people for life and pretty good at filling our heads with useless information.
I won’t even go into the fact that American schools lag behind others in the world. In a big way.
But schools could make such a huge difference in people’s lives. They could really start people down the path of success, rather than mediocrity.
Mediocrity is mostly rewarded in school. Teachers often, not to their liking, teach to the lowest common denominator in class. This is great for those lagging in skills and horrible for everyone else.
I work with many college students who have no clue how to study. They somehow made it all the way to college and haven’t figured it out, nor were they taught.
How is that possible?
These days, many people are in financial quicksand. I never had a course in successful money management. At least, never a course in school.
How is that possible?
Relationships are key to your success at home and in the workplace. Why aren’t there classes on this? Classes on navigating office politics, for example. Young adults have a naive view of the workplace, in that everybody behaves like an adult.
To me, most people in the work place behave more like high schoolers (at best).
How is it possible, that the very critical skills needed for success today are barely taught in school? Isn’t school supposed to prepare you for life? Maybe not.
How was your education?
Jeffrey A. Betman, Ph.D. is a psychologist, author, and life coach helping people toward the easy life. For a FREE newsletter ($197 value) on making your life easier and FREE report titled 5 Steps To An Easy Life That You Probably Know, But Don’t Do Yet, go to www.LifeIsEasyCoaching.com/sq
Copyright 2010 LifeIsEasyCoaching
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Great post! Definitely made me think. I attended some college. I am more autodidactic (self taught). I agree with you about the socialization that attending school provides.
Admittedly, I have always been a social butterfly.
None the less, posts like yours illustrates the abundance of vital information one can find by a simple keyword search.
Kudos to you for providing such valuable, thought provoking content!
Jacqui
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. It is appreciated.