Formal education vs. reading and learning

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It's one of the subjects I found is surrounded with the most hypocrisy. Shortly after I left highschool, a mother of a friend (who I was doing English homework for when I came to stay over, by the way) sat me to a conversation about how I need to get a formal education in order to qualify for work in the future. On the other hand, I asked her, and she didn't agree to lend L'Étranger by Camus, that was lying around in the house and not yet used and I promised to return shortly. Really?! She lectured me about the importance of education, but didn't think I can learn from reading??? I find that attitude baffling, I see it everywhere, and it pains me.

She wasn't talking to you about LEARNING, though, was she? She was talking about getting a degree or certificate or whatever that would help you get a job. Nobody is going to hire you on the strength of your private reading life.

Well, true, but from a wider point of view, you'd see the benefits in reading if you were the type of person to value education wouldn't you? I understand some people get educated for the perks and social expectation, but at the same time it makes me feel like knowledge isn't really being valued. I don't blame people who 'buy' degrees, it's the same result for much less hassle. I find studying in a class just draining, and not rewarding since social rewards don't really make me happy.

I wish that somebody would have encouraged me to get a degree instead of discouraging me to do anything. If nobody said anything, I would have gotten a degree. Books are important too and I think that woman should have lent you the book, if she knew that you enjoy reading.

I do wish I'd done a lot of things... But the fact is, at the time, I couldn't; I left school because of a severe anxiety attack, and didn't know what was wrong with me, so basically, I tried to rationalise it by saying I don't fit into certain structures, and that is that. Nowadays, I'm not sure what options I have, for someone with no qualifications or degrees who is considered crazy and disabled.

Thank you for the supportive reply, CR.

I find to, if anything, surpress creativity and the desire to learn outside of school. We are in a new era than we were in the past, pools of knowledge are not readily available outside the classroom, school no longer has it's original value.

That's also a good point - I don't have an access to many resources daily, and I sometimes can't use them well, but I learn a bit from the internet, and while I used to feel insecure about knowledge, I don't feel terribly amiss at the moment.

Unfortunately people put out hoops and expect you to perform little tricks for amusement. Maybe, you could learn a trade that most people can't do for themselves, and then you could spend your time reading and developing yourself as you see fit. Employment doesn't have to be your lifestyle.

Maybe she didn't trust you to return the book and it was nothing to do with whether or not you'd learn? Maybe she didn't want to loan the book to anyone?

The only person of note whose name springs to mind as one for whom "Book-Learning" trumped his lack of formal education was Abraham Lincoln. Times have changed, Bun ... and you're no Abe Lincoln.

Well, I knew she didn't want to loan the book, but her reason was that her daughter had to study it only later that year. I promised to return it after a few days, so I thought it was way too pedantic. Mind you, her daughter never loaned me anything, so it's not like I had a history of not giving things back. I was just out of school and wanted to read it as well.

We come from different places, Fnord, but I actually know of more than one politician who didn't have formal education, if we want to nitpick that.

I think people see someone doing a "Degree" and therefore they think equate that to them being smart and also getting a job.

If your read to read or simply learn for the sake of learning, many people see that as nerdy or "a waste of time".

Sucks, and I wish it wasn't that way but it's true. I know what you mean though because I've had people try to push me to do the same thing when I was younger.

The piece of paper they get from the degree, what it represents and what it can do for them is more important than the learning involved. Most would rather skip the learning part altogether I think.

Do you think many of those people would bother going to college if it weren't a prerequisite to getting a job? Do you think a large majority would go just to learn for the sake of learning?

I highly doubt it. And that they feel that way sometimes makes me feel kind of sad.