Once in a while, stumbling onto a piece of history bring back a flood of memories. While I was going through those boxes in storage labeled “university” last week trying to find my degree for the insurance company, I started reading through some of the notes I took during those four unbelievable years.
Education is Not Just for Academics
I have heard countless times that education is useless. That those classes we all took were on subjects that had no real world value. Some even called it a waste of time but for me, it was priceless.
School is not just a place for learning, but also a launching pad for real life. It provides a stage to:
- Allow You to Experiment – How many times have you changed your mind on what you wanted to do while you were in school? And how many times did you feel like you couldn’t anymore after you started working? If you were just thrown into the first career path you ever set your sights on, would you really be happy? Staying in school gives you time to gain life experience and decide.
- Learn the Social Skills – Many people believe that friendship is purest at the high school and University level because the relationship didn’t involve alternative agenda. The school years were also a time when you can really meet a ton of people that share the same values and interests.
- Gain Experience – There is obviously a limit to how far this goes, but many people had experiences that would be much harder to gain once they are in the work force. Some might call it reckless or some other names, but these experiences will be cherished by those who were bold enough.
Why Skipping School May Not Make Sense
I remembered in high school when I had to convince the school counselor that I was mentally ready to take classes that were a higher grade than my age suggested. My reasoning was that age shouldn’t matter as much as maturity, and that I was much more mature than some of my classmates.
In the end, I took a bunch of classes with people who were older than me. It felt good at the time just to know that I could do it, but I’m not so sure it was right for me. While academics was never a problem and my grades turned out okay, I missed the chance to socialize with people my age. Most of my classmates saw me as a kid (even though they were only a year older) and they interacted with me differently. In an obscure way, I felt like I was cheated somewhat of the whole experience.
Why My Education was Great
I am the first to admit that knowing first principles in Calculus didn’t help me one bit out of school, but that wasn’t the point my high school education.
I would go to school because:
- I learned about the real world while still being insulated from it.
- I made a ton of friends.
- It allowed me not to rush into everything because there is no hurry to find the results.
- Some of the experiences I had will be cherished for the rest of my life.
Even those seemingly useless English classes turned out useful. Who would’ve thought that a computer geek like me would be so involved in writing?
Stay in school. You just never know.
{ read the comments below or add one }
One of the unmentioned benefits of higher education is the network you gain… the people you meet all on the same track of improving their credentials…
This network will become a valuable reference for the rest of your life.
It’s been an year now when I was a student. It is a rocking part of life whether you are studying at School, College or University.
I also have bundles of notes and piles of books of my academics which makes me memorize my golden period of life. I agree that skipping does not make sense but today many parents believe in home schooling, which I guess a little boring and monotonous. I have learned socialization from my school and how to react in a society is what I have never learned from any where but just from INTERACTING at academic institutions.
Great post and you deserve an applause:)
thanks. i just finished my 5 page paper on the importance of education because of this website.
You know education is your life. Because of it you get your value in the society and you made your personality so you have to learn in order to enjoy your life. Even if you fail it doesn’t matter. Try, try and try again until you succeed. “Failure teaches Success”.
Nice post…thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Education teaches you to be flexible, learn to adapt to new situations and seek constant self- improvement. You learn to work in a team and finish projects on tme.
Last but not least you get to network with a lot of people, which is awesome.
I agree to most of you viewpoints.
It’s really ture that school is also a place where students learn how to communicate,cooperate and deal with others.
Your points for education are good.
It’s never to late to start or return to college and get a degree. Sometimes people aren’t ready and/or don’t appreciate college right out of high school. Many students I work with have returned to college after working many years. They know what their goal is and tend to get a lot out of college. I can relate to them, because that’s what I did.
Side note: Isn’t it awesome that we can find the areas of odd shaped things by using Calculus? Or is it just me? 🙂
Education is like exercise for your brain. Yeah, that calculus may never come up again but it works your mind in such a way that builds “muscle” for later on. It will help you to critically think in other situations. And that goes for other classes as well.