I came across an excellent quote today:
“We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.” - Chris Hedges, Empire of Illustion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
In an ideal world (which by all measures this is not), education would be this pure process of learning and self-improvement that you take full responsibility for. The connection between one's education and one's career would actually be made deeper and stronger. When you feel ready, if you wish to get a job, you would seek it not on the basis of a piece of paper offered to you by an institution of learning, not on the basis of the grades that your teachers said you got in certain courses, but on the basis of skills, knowledge and abilities that you could prove to a suitable employer (over a probationary period) are sufficient for that job. Or you would choose to use your abilities and skills to do something entrepreneurial on your own that you would personally find rewarding. Importantly, your learning would help you identify and pursue as the best career for you one that offers you great freedom and flexibility to balance work, personal life, relationships, and voluntary activities.
In an ideal world (which by all measures this is not), education would be this pure process of learning and self-improvement that you take full responsibility for. The connection between one's education and one's career would actually be made deeper and stronger. When you feel ready, if you wish to get a job, you would seek it not on the basis of a piece of paper offered to you by an institution of learning, not on the basis of the grades that your teachers said you got in certain courses, but on the basis of skills, knowledge and abilities that you could prove to a suitable employer (over a probationary period) are sufficient for that job. Or you would choose to use your abilities and skills to do something entrepreneurial on your own that you would personally find rewarding. Importantly, your learning would help you identify and pursue as the best career for you one that offers you great freedom and flexibility to balance work, personal life, relationships, and voluntary activities.
