The Racket of Modern Day Education

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From gradeschool to post-secondary, modern day schooling is a complete and utter scam! I completed highschool with honours, with very little effort, but it did not prepare me for university, which I dropped out of, college, which I dropped out of, and this scam tradeschool, which I also dropped out of. When I was a child, my dad had to teach me basic math, reading, and writing skills, because public school couldn't measure up. In school, I learned no useful skills that I can apply today to make my life better. Basic survival skills, basic woodworking, learning how to use tools, learning how to grow food, manage finances, job placement in the schools, so kids can have an opportunity to work and make a little bit of pocket change and gain a sense of pride and independence. School, at least for me, was just about completing worksheet after worksheet after worksheet, and then being too burnt out after school to pursue any interests, other than watching TV, playing lego, or playing nintendo. After a 6 and a half hour day of sitting on my ass, and forcing myself to fill out worksheets, I didn't have energy for a paper route or after-school programs.

There were good teachers here and there, who inspired students, but they were few and far between. Not that the other teachers were bad teachers, they're just subject to a system designed to keep people closed minded, hedonistic, and immature.

I have many interests: science and technology, philosophy, medicine, economics, politics, food, music, culture, art, horticulture, and...education!

School actively destroys these interests, by over-the-top forcefeeding of information (cramming as much as you can, as fast as you can in day's lesson), rote memory and regurgitation, memorization of formulas and information that has no use in every day life. From the 12 years of gradeschool, and 3 broken years of post-secondary, I have learned NOTHING! I always end up getting sick from stress, and dropping out.

I hate school! I hate college!

I'm 27 years old, I've done nothing with my life, despite trying my hardest. My girlfriend wants me to go back to school, and I don't want to. I don't want to work either. But I love her, and at the same time, my parents are getting old, and can't support me much longer. It's either do or die. Girlfriend aside, with the cost of basic necessities increasing by the week, I need a good STEM job, in order to have the comfortable life that I grew up with. She doesn't understand what I go through with school and work, because she's had her cushy do-nothing union job, which she got through nepotism.

Everybody has to work, and go to school. Why is so hard for me? I'm not lazy or stupid.

Welfare/disability is not an option, moving back in with my parents is not an option. Minimum wage is not an option.

It almost seems like I'd be better off with less intelligence, instead of more, and feeling like my creative and intellectual gifts have gone to waste.

I just wish I had a trust fund, and could drink and play video games all day, buy my girlfriend whatever she wants, and not have to lift a finger.

People say that work is good for the soul, but I find the opposite to be true. Work and school make me bitter and miserable.

Is it the system that's flawed, or is it me, who expects too much? Or am I just lazy waste of skin?

Like other industries, it's all about self-perpetuation of their product.

this.

School is a massive industry, vertically integrated with the pharmaceutical industry.

Make kids depressed and unhealthy through a stressful curriculum and terrible facilities, then kids either get hooked on street drugs, or pharmaceutical medications. The school wins, because they have the student's, his family's, or the government/bank's money, and the pharmaceutical industry wins, because now johnny or susie needs effexor, prozac, adderall, seroquel, or whatever other poison they sell to the sick and desperate. The recovery industry wins, because now johnnie and susie have to go to rehab, because they either got hooked on their meds and abused them, abused other drugs due to stress, and now these rehab places get cash. They don't work either (I know all too well from experience), so here are three integrated services, which provide the most superficial of care and information, all while scamming concerned parents, addicts, and staff, and creating a divide between parent and child, doctor and patient, husband and wife, caring and cared for.

They should abolish mandatory schooling altogether. It doesn't work, it never has. School should be available as a privelage for the elite, or very top tier professionals, and only those people...like it used to be.

some say university doesn't prepare them for the workforce.I concure. For me they had the expectation that my mum help teach me how to read. She was more than willing but for working parents that may find that difficult.

Arithmatic was taught years after I knew it. I asked old people and they said they did their times tables in year 2. I did mine in years 6 & 7 (I also didn't like how they repeated the curriculum accross two years, i.e. 7 was a repeat of 6 (combined class)).

Even though I went to school, I regard myself as somewhat of an "autodidact." I really didn't learn much in the classroom until I got to high school. Then, I went to a small school which had individual attention. I even had a couple of teachers who were interested in me

I was too hyper, really, especially early on. I went to "special schools" for most of my elementary school years. No teacher showed any interest in me--except to tell me to shut up. It was partially my fault: I actually didn't shut up LOL.

Even when I went to college at a older age, I still didn't really have decent study skills, even though I graduated Magna cum laude. I regret that--because I'm a poor tutor as a result.

I think it depends on the school, really. Most schools I went to were unpleasant places.

But I value education--when it's done right.

Me too ... any passion I had was destroyed by the system.

I think it would be better to have kids homeschooled through an online system. The government should fund this instead of the public schools. An adult would have to supervise, but I think a parent should spend their time with their child. Schools are more about supervision than education.

They didn't do work placement at your school? For me it was mandatory in year 12 (I hated it).Yeah, I couldn't understand how some of the other students could have energy for extra-curriculars. Do you really need those for your college application? I guess you didn't but some say it's necessary. I didn't even have enough energy for schoolwork though I was heavily sedated at the time.

Even worse is those who worked at McDonald's on the weekend. I was planning to do that myself but then the doctor put me on sedatives Is college really so bad? One of my big regrets of late is that I never went to college. Are you saying I didn't miss much?Until very recently I felt the same (except the girlfriend part). I thouth "I'm 27 years old and I've done nothing with my life and I've been in the same low paying part-time job for five years". I quit my crappy job and then a few months later I got this really cool IT job for a better company. It's full time, I have better colleagues, it pays a lot and I get a 33% employee discount off of high end computer equipment Are you on any sort of medication? If yes, maybe you should stop taking it. I stopped taking my pills and it's the best thing I've ever done. I have more energy now.No. That's what I thiught I wanted. It was fun for the first decade but then it turned into a nightmare.That's what I thought 'till recently. Then I got a job. Is the job fun? No. It's hard. Do I hate it? No. I love it. I don't enjoy being there but I live that I have a job because it means I no longer sit at home thinking that I'm a waste of oxygen.

Interesting you should mention those. In my personal experience they don't help kids learn. They made me go from top of the class to bottom of the class.

As for students having a stressful curriculum, at least you weren't a student in this country.

The school system is broken for K-12. Colleges have to deal with students who are horrible idiots. Some Math professors have complained about having to deal with dozens of students a semester who lack understanding of basic arithmetic.
Most colleges and universities try to "fix" the problem by breaking their own academic structure.

Your feelings are common.

"We've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert." - Blankenship, 1986"

Modern day education is not perfect (Far from it.) but it's not a racket. It's simply made for normal peoples, not aspies with high intelligence like those answering on this thread.
http://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=275830

Which lifestyle would you prefer: (1) Somebody who works 9-5 on an assembly line or in a cubicle with a living wage and basic health insurance, or (2) A nobody who spends 24/7 playing video games on his girlfriend's couch while her parents and family curse him for being a no-good lazy bum?

Stay in school. Stay out of trouble. Get a degree. Get a job. Be Somebody!

I hated public school, and I thought it was a massive waste of time, but I'm actually not minding college. Well, technically I'm not taking college-level courses right now, just high school upgrading, but I am doing them through a college. I attend a small online class about 4 days a week, with three one hour (more like 45 minute) periods, and one two hour period, which I usually miss the first half of. Actually attending the classes is optional, but it's a good thing to do so I can keep up to speed with what's going on.

Anyway, the material and workload are greatly reduced compared to what I would have been doing back in high school, since they cut out all the BS and get straight to the important stuff, and it's not an overly competitive environment either. I only have to do maybe two assignments a week, along with a quiz, and occasionally an exam. There is textbook work as well, but I don't do it because I don't need to; I've always found studying and practice work to be pointless for me.

I would have payed over $2000 for this if I got in the normal way, but it turns out one of the people running the academic upgrading program used to be a teacher of mine, and she thought I had a lot of potential, so she decided to get me in for free.

As far as the idea of getting a job goes, I'm DONE with working for other people. When I decide to pursue employment in the future, I am going to be my own boss, and run my own business. I want to be an entrepreneur, or at least a contractor. It won't be easy, but it'll sure be a hell of a lot better than being someone else's underling.

#2 Sounds a lot better, even if you drop the girlfriend.



That isn't true. It isn't made for high intelligence neurotypicals either. The valedictorian in my class hated school with a passion and found it incredibly easy. He is writing a book about how modern education is a racket.

I didn't said it was made for highly intelligent NTs, I said it was made for "normal" peoples. If for him being valedictorian was easy he's not well placed to judge either education work for normal peoples.

I hated public school too, but I stuck with it. Mainly because I had already seen the kinds of lives that were available to drop-outs, and most of them included jail time. I didn't want that.

Even when I was homeless, I had more going for me than the rest. I had no addictions and no prison record. Some of my skills were technical, and I could read and understand what I had read. None of the others I became familiar with had all of this. Most were semi-literate drop-outs who blamed everyone but themselves and everything but their own choices for putting them on the street.

I still run into people at the shelter who can't read a want ad or fill out a job application. Many of them also can't multiply two-digit numbers or make change. Yet, they can expound with great alacrity on numerous and sundry philosophic concepts and while participating in multiple conversations. Strange how the "gift of gab" doesn't translate well into lucrative job skills, especially when you can barely sign your own name.

The people who get hired, however, all seem able to function at the high-school level or better. They are also the ones who either stuck it out and graduated on time or went from GED to military training and eventually learned a trade.

Yeah, modern education may be a racket, but the alternatives may be even worse, or take too much time away from playing video games ...