A social media minute can feel like a millennium or a second depending on how you look at it. For about a week now, I have been thinking about whether to reveal the truth behind my disappearance like a has-been famous person no one asked about or to just write the next thing and pretend there's nothing wrong. Then it dawned on me that in fact, no one was waiting, and if they were, it must have been for the truth.
So here goes.
Since I was a teenager, I have been trying to figure out how education can help me not only get a better job, more money, a better lifestyle, but everything in between. Most importantly, how it can shape my journey.
Education used to be associated with learning, creating, building, solving and thinking. Today, I believe education is a complex capitalist construct that, if you pay proper attention, can help you become a better employee or entrepreneur or simply give you bragging rights.
Cities have become hubs of education in many countries. But what does that mean? Education is at the crossroads of three different groups of people with entirely different agendas. Students and parents get a standard of education that meets society's standards for what is acceptable, teachers are either too passionate to last in the system or have given up and hope for the bright ones to keep up, and the third group is companies that fill in the gap without ever speaking to the two stakeholders on either side. In all of the world's marketing, this is the greatest feat humans have accomplished to surpass all of our logic and reasoning combined. Certainly, there are many people who want to learn but there is a greater number who seem to know what each of these people who never speak up themselves, could need in the future.
The product of this is a confused individual who is supposed to wear a mask at all times, Covid aside. The mask of being a young bright mind with potential that can move mountains of money, at the least. It’s unfair. In my opinion, this young bright mind reminds me of my dog's mind, which presumes that the world only consists of scheduled walks and food for him. I think the only thing my dog truly learned that probably makes him a liability in the wild is that everything is made for him. There is no question in his mind.
I've always questioned, fortunately. Having said that, I seem to be questioning ever more things as I get older. From the start, I knew that in a world that asks what part of science should I focus on? My question would be why science? Needless to say, this has gotten me into a lot of trouble. It was funny, when I chose design, people who 'seemed' to choose science began asking me why? I am not astonished by their fake sense of entitlement, but I am upset by their ignorance. This sense of ignorance among students is instilled through golden certificates and giant billboards showcasing the 'best of the best.' If you stop and look at these children a little deeper, you will see they don't understand what science is or why it's important to them. In other words, what education has created through name, power, corner offices, and fancy holidays, it has destroyed by removing choice and the ability to think.
This is not meant to be a dig at the children who work hard and strive to do well. However, I must remind them that the ability to make choices and act upon those choices is the hallmark of freedom, something every human should evaluate. Both not choosing and choosing to please are dangerous practices that slowly but surely stifle any form of growth.
There is a reward that comes only from choice - it is the reward of passion. I have days when it seems that everyone around me thinks I am much too passionate for my own good. It is, however, without passion that you are nothing more than a corpse. Show me otherwise, and I'll take this down.
Passion, as it relates to education or work, is often viewed as an elusive thing. Sorry to inform you that passion does not mean that you will never be upset, but it is an ingredient that will ensure you will always be content no matter what the day brings. Passion is the sigh at the end of the day. It's passion too when you clink your glasses at the end of the day.
We need to instil passion through education. Education is not a shortcut to success, growth, or change, nor is it a magic pill that will instantly grant you a huge mansion with a lawn. I am certain one day, when you are sitting on that lawn in your comfortable lounge chair with that margarita in one hand, the only thing that will run through your mind is - Did I miss out on evaluating my choices? Eventually, you will inevitably come back to your college degree framed on the wall as a relic of an era when others praised you, while you suffered, only to think that it was then that you changed your thinking for the worse. It was an irreversible transaction in which you thought you were studying and learning. However, you were doing something else: fitting in.
As I sat through rounds of interviews at the end of yet another course, I realized that what tires me is not the part where I learn, but when I am told I will accomplish great things or have great success simply because I'm in a program. Education does not work that way. It's like that green tea ad claiming weight loss when you are not even exercising or eating healthy. Education cannot and should not claim success when you are not using your brain to evaluate why you are doing it in the first place.
Stay tuned. Dismiss my absence like you would anyone trying to sell education for a brighter future. *wink*
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