SCHOOL VS. JOBS
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
- Albert Einstein
I had a pleasant conversation with Danny today and we discussed this subject; just want to put my 2 cent on this matter.
I remember clearly about 5-6 years ago when I was still in High School; Chester got into US Davis and I was at CSM, it was some of my lowest point in life, I couldn't see light in the future. My family always pressures me in school and gradually I started to think that what we learn in school will not apply to the reality at all.
Chester held an opposite view for various reasons, and we argued like we always did; the conclusion was usual: "THAT'S JUST YOUR OPINION BITCH."
So, a couple of years have passed, fortunately, after things we went through in life, we've become wiser. Here is my take on this subject today:
I believe that what we learn in school definitely applies to what we do in real life. To me, education is a harbor, and our future job is the ocean, school prepares the tools we need when we go in the sea. A lot of people may say, well, the tools I need in my life will be garnered through experience, we don't need to spend time and money in school.
Take architecture for example. If we spend much time in school drawing blueprints and learn about tools, it does not guarantee that we can build a good home. But a person who does not learn architecture but attends and builds his own shacks through job experience, he may be able to build a great home, so why waste the time in school with papers and tests?
To justify education in this case, I must say that school sums up the knowledge of experts and great minds, in another word, TEXTBOOKS are the sum of EXPERIENCES from those who had been through what we haven't been through; the blueprints we learn will prepare us in the future when we encounter the opportunity to apply them. The same person can definitely learn faster and build better homes had he studied in architecture in school, because what he will need to ask or figure out has already been researched and documented in the textbooks, and schools even hire teachers to tell them to you in easier words, and test you to ensure that you get this knowledge in you.
Most people can relate to that, but what happens in reality is that we often encounter subjects that seem to be pointless, perhaps subjects of sociology, history, politics, or complicated math courses. People claim that these subjects are rarely being used. What we need to know is that these subjects are basic fabrics that weave our lives; we may not see them everyday but they actually do exist in our lives. A person who has no background study in History will have a more difficult time understanding why the USA is at war; a person who has no education in Economics may have harder time when he encounters price inflation or unemployment; a person who does not take Calculus courses will have more difficulty understanding theories of interest rates we pay for our taxes, likewise, a person who lacks cooking lessons will have more difficulty understanding how unhealthy the diets are in local restaurants, and we're more likely to eat whatever we see and die with chronic diseases.
My point is that, we may think that some cold courses provide minimum knowledges, but they actually do provide great, useful tools. If we think logically, 80% of world's universities require similar subjects, why is that? do we just randomly need to learn the same subjects? I think not.
Another thing I want to discuss is that, the reason most people think that school does not do too much in our jobs is because they've chosen the wrong filed. For example, a person will find math totally useless if he were to go into Art. Most people, including myself, don't know what we want in our future, and it appears that the harder we try the dimmer the light seems. In this case, a person who engages into situation where he NEEDS the tools he's learned is more likely to APPLY the tools he learns.
When we don't know what we want, we should try to take what we've got and create values and opportunities, this way, we not only will find these school knowledges useful, we will actually thank ourselves for going to school and learn about these things that we never TRIED. I believe that we first believe that these knowledge are trash before we actually utilize them, that's like throwing away useful tools because we don't acknowledge their functions.
Also, I think another reason associated with not knowing what to do has everything to do with FEAR. The fear we created from "What if what I learn now will not apply in the future?" is the number one reason why we have not moved on. Fear limits our ability to approach the challenges, when we decide to play it safe, we also decided to give up chances to approach new things and learn new abilities. Think about this:
Person A graduates with an Art History degree. He thinks what he learns do not apply in real life.
Person B graduates with the same degree and same exact grades, but he BELIEVES that what he learned was meaningful.
Person A decides to look for jobs in totally unrelated businesses, such as hospital clerks or car dealing agency; he realizes that he needs more education and degree, so he goes back to school and work another job affording his education.
Person B couldn't find a job in any art related firms, he doesn't have money so he needs to get a job, he got a job at a custom mirror workshop, he gets hired as a sales rep as an entry job, his knowledge with art history impressed some buyers, and then he gets offered as a consultant in a museum, conducting more studies and prepare exhibitions.
I couldn't think of a better example, but I'd say similar cases apply to people around us. My point is, the fear knowing that what we want may not be what we really want, this fear will destroy a lot of opportunities in front of us. The only reason why we find things not applying in real life is because we CHOOSE not to apply them. We choose to do so because we fear of failure.
Nobody likes failing, but nobody learns from being successful all the time, fear of failing is the same fear of becoming successful. Michael Jordan couldn't do well with his jump shots in his early days, but he tried his best to overcome the problem and then his fade-aways had become his signature moves.
All in all, I think it is the attitude we choose when discuss in the matter of School vs. Jobs, there are more things about schools that will get you better jobs, such as going to super famous schools, the degrees, and other reference letters from professors, all these can get us a great ass job; but if we don't got what it takes, life will take everything we got.
Till next time.
Oh ya, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMMY! if you actually read my Xanga...
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