I came across a recent article on Linkedin by Joseph Millord
And it managed to stir me up enough to write about the subject.
“A 4-year degree isn’t for everyone!”
I happen to be a big believer in that. I mean how can a piece of paper decide the skills, talents and capabilities of a person? Why does the society expect everyone to go through a 4-year course of set schedules, classes and academic books to be stamped as an intelligent or reliable person?
The concept of education was created to pass on the knowledge. For example, our ancestors used to consume raw meat. Until someone figured out how to cook it on the fire, and decided to share that piece of knowledge with people around them and generation next-in-line so they wouldn’t have to eat raw meat anymore. That was the basis of education. That was the idea of education. It was meant to be a tool for sharing knowledge. And then one day someone figured out that it was a good source for making money. And viola! Just like that, education became a business!
Don’t get me wrong here. By no means, I am against getting educated. No, not at all! If you are someone who enjoys a university life and are good at being part of an academic institution to hone your kills and gain knowledge, I respect your choice! Everyone should have the freedom to choose their own path for achieving their goals and destination. What I am actually against is society defining a certain path to do a certain task expecting everyone to follow it. And if we don’t, well then, only God can save us!
I do not have any issues with getting educated, I just cannot digest the whole ritual of it. The ritual where you have to attend an academic institution because that’s what will get you a job in the end. The ritual where you are supposed to buy these fat academic books, each with an overwhelming number of pages, which no normal person can even finish reading in a course of 4 or 5 months, forget about understanding them or appreciating the writers and their hard-work behind them.
I will give you a personal example here. I decided against attending college or university. My sister, on the other hand, went to a university to get a degree in IT. Once, she brought 7 or 8 books by famous authors on various IT related subjects and fields. Programming, software development, networking, desktop troubleshooting, understanding Java, C++ and many others I can’t even remember the names now. I love computers, so I picked the ones on networking and desktop troubleshooting and read them both, page by page, word by word. She had to go through all of them in 4 months, so she read 35-40% of each, the main chapters which were supposed to help her get good grades. She did end up having really good grades, while I still fix all her networking issues till-to-date. 😉
Just because I didn’t have to worry about the schedules and competition, I got exempt from the stress that comes with it as well. That allowed me to learn anything and everything I wanted, freely. Some of us are born free! We cannot grow or learn within boundaries or set patterns. We are like vines, we tend to grow in every direction rather than a specific path. And that doesn’t make us any less capable in any which way. That just means, we decided to take a different route to gain knowledge and experience than the usual one.
Especially while working in the creative field, I come across with so many cases where so many talented artists get lost in this whole crunching and grinding of schedules and boundaries. Let’s say there’s this young & talented person, he has god-gifted skills in sketching. He creates these magnificent work of sketching arts, you wouldn’t believe your eyes when you see them! But he cannot sit through lectures or classes; schedules bore him. He is most awake and at his creative best at 4 in the morning but goes completely blank while sitting in an exam room in the bright light of the day. Is it possible for him to get out of that institution after 4 years with a degree in his hands and good grades? No, it’s not! Unless he cheats. Or bends himself so much to fit within the norms that he isn’t himself anymore. What choices does he have here? To get a degree and lose himself in the process? Or to be himself and lose a degree in the end?
I went with the second choice. I knew I was choosing a very difficult path. I knew it will be hard to convince the world to believe in my capabilities and skills without a college degree in my hand.
But I also knew that it was going to be worth it because at least I will be me!