The usefulness and necessity of education.

So there was a video I watched this morning by a british spoken word artist, no not a rapper, a spoken word artist. About how education has been passed down and become a norm. This is not a bad thing, but I like the fact the artist goes beyond the given. He speaks of how we have been misled as a generation, to think that educational success will translate into real world success. "You have to go to college to get a good job" is what we have been told. While it's true that college graduates earn more on average than high school graduates (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/08/college-gradutates-pay.html), I think its a misnomer that college is required for life. Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg all did not graduate from college. I know they are not the norm, please don't think I am against education. My point is education needs to have an end goal. Most of my generation graduates from college with no idea how to transition to the real world. $40k worth of debt for a job that pays 25 to 30k, sounds like a rip off to me.

So I always complain that our generation has a lot of critical thinking and yet a large debt when it comes to creating solutions. This may not apply to everyone, but here goes. 1st, 4 year schools should cost more (wait what, you think). This would make people think about whether or not education is worth it. Our Student loan crisis has to do with people borrowing money they can't pay back. I think community colleges should be funded more. They are a great place to test and see if higher education is for students. From there the students can decide if the investment in a four year degree is worth it. I also think individuals (the students) need to take stock in the loans they need for school. I've found that students that have to pay for their own education, take a lot more stock and ownership in the cost and use.

I also think the liberal arts portion of 4 year degrees have become useless. I don't mean that a History major is useless, I mean a Computer Science major having to take a history, philosophy and arts course is a waste of time. We have a generation of people that are mediocre at everything and great at nothing. To my friends that have their PhDs in education, I am not speaking about you. You have spent years refining your craft as an educator and have worked toward a purpose.

All in all I think that our education system needs to find a balance between memorization and creativity. I find that creativity and thinking outside the box is not encouraged in our society. Maybe this is why school doesn't work for many innovators and visionaries. Not sure if this rant will make sense to some.

Integrity

So I have been really annoyed by people lately and it seemed to be for all different reasons. What I realized was at the core, all the things annoying me involved integrity. From a "designer" not telling a client they are selling them, or my landlord repeatedly lying to me. It seems like integrity is lacking in a lot of people's lives. So I guess I would ask that people be honest with me, even if it sucks. I just hope and pray I can do the same for you.