

The Unschooled. Does an education matter? - rblion
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/111376/the-unschooled

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rblion
"Entrepreneurship is not a full human education, and living is never just
succeeding, and the humanities are always pertinent. In pain or in sorrow, who
needs a quant? There are enormities of experience, horrors, crimes, disasters,
tragedies, which revive the appetite for wisdom, and for the old sources,
however imprecise, of wisdom—a massacre of schoolchildren, for example."

I used to think that school/college was just an assembly line. You enter as a
child and are filled with facts and formula until you are a productive member
of society. Boy was I wrong. School is about forming relationships, exploring
your interests, and developing an identity. I did well in k-12 without
applying myself and being the class clown, so I never took the whole
institution too seriously. However, after dropping out of college to start a
company, which didn't go as I thought it would, I realized a few more
semesters would not have killed me. I really just wanted to say to the world
'I made it without that piece of paper, defied the odds, and did what I set
out to do.' I've been humbled quite a bit as I've seen college graduates make
tenfold the money I do, have more social encounters, and still somehow pursue
their side projects.

I'm a first generation American without a father figure, so my whole life I've
tried to be a man even though I was only a boy. That definitely has had an
impact on my world perspective. Today, as my prefrontal cortex has almost
fully developed at age 23, the 'angry young lad' in me has begun to calm down
into a simple, passionate member of civilization. I've decided to go back to
school (Gwinnett Tech) and finish my CIS degree. I hope it can provide a
steady income while I attempt my second startup. I have learned to avoid
extremes and see the world in a more balanced way. As the old saying goes, you
live and you learn. That is definitely true. All in all, I have learned a lot
that could never be taught in a classroom but I find myself in need of
something to fall back on for those rainy days that no one ever wants or
expects.

I think Dale Stephens is a nice guy but seriously missing the point. His
followers mostly think just like him too and need some "authority figure" to
justify their experience to themselves. I hope he learns that the future of
education is a hybrid of in-person and internet models, as it should be.

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rhcpfan1
wise words. thanx for sharing.

