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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

An education in futility

Kathy Shaidle frequently points out that a "college education" is generally a severe waste of time and money for most persons who are tricked into taking on the debt load; as does Vox Day, in his own inimitable way; as do, no doubt, many others.

Myself, I realized at the time that in the eyes of the university, I was just a cash-cow, or a sheep to be sheared. And I realized that most of my "college education" was (or would have been) high-school material in a previous, more adult, generation. I mean, specifically, there was nothing at all I was taught in college, including the more technical and field-specific aspects of it, that I could not have learned in high school.

Here (h/t to Matteo), is Charles Hugh Smith explaining the situaltion -- Students: You Are Exploited Debt-Serfs

A real education isn't something that just happens to you, as a passive "consumer" of the "educational system" ... at most, that just gets us to indoctrination; or, these days, more generally, propaganda. Rather, an education is something you intentionally do to yourself; it's kind of like love in that regard.

2 comments:

Joan of Argghh! said...

James Altucher would agree.

Drew said...

I learned some pretty good stuff in my college classes, particularly the economics classes. And my high school was fairly high-quality, too, so I wasn't ignorant before college. I think the main problem is that college people pick a bunch of dumb majors with fluff classes. And then you've also got the people (mainly girls) who basically become professional students, getting degree upon degree in subjects like english or "administration" or whatever.