Wisdom from Violent Acres
From the latest Violent Acres post, College Will Kill Your Entrepreneurial Spirit While Simultaneously Turning You into a Worker Bee:
We’ve all been indoctrinated into believing that a college education is our ticket to a happy, comfortable lifestyle. But, think about it for a second: how many college grads do you know personally who hate their jobs? How many are downtrodden? How many are on prozac? How many haven’t yet gotten the chance to regret their degrees because they can’t even get a job in their field? Personally, I’d rather make half the money of a college grad if it means doing something I love. I don’t want to spend my life making some college drop out richer while simultaneously ignoring my personal potential and forfeiting my future happiness.
“Despite what your guidance counselor may tell you, college does not turn people into free thinking individuals who will someday have the whole world at their feet.”
This is no “five-step plan” that guarantees the creation of “a free-thinking” individual that I know of in existence. But academia does present, in a very structured manner, a plethora of ideas that one may not encounter otherwise. Also, what constitutes a “free-thinking” individual by definition of the media means one who has left-centered political and social views and is unreligious. Anyone else who isn’t is close-minded. Come again?
“It turns them into worker bees that will spend their lives in cubicles just so long as they get 2 weeks paid vacation time per year…”
I disagree with this claim. A person must be a hard-worker to start with to get through college… at least to obtain a worthwhile degree and GPA that would spark the interest of companies. Sometimes folks confuse merely working a lot as being equivalent to working productively and efficiently. There is a difference between working smart and working stupid.
“We’ve all been indoctrinated into believing that a college education is our ticket to a happy, comfortable lifestyle. But, think about it for a second: how many college grads do you know personally who hate their jobs? How many are downtrodden? How many are on Prozac? How many haven’t yet gotten the chance to regret their degrees because they can’t even get a job in their field?”
Hmm… I thought for a picosecond. I know of many people with no college degree that have to take Prozac, are unhappy, depressed, and hate their jobs. Three years working at Wal-Mart will teach one this. Its true a college degree is no guarantee of happiness. Although it does represent completion of a structured program designed with the end-goal of instilling an expertise in a particular field. At completion, the quality of an individual’s expertise is measured with respect to ones peers (GPA) and the quality of the institution from which it was obtained (college, university, vocational school, prestige of the school, etc.) There is no guarantee of success upon obtaining a degree. There was one seedy character that circulated the cafeteria at UMSL who had 7 college degrees and the mannerisms of a five year old. If one can’t interface his or her new skill set productively, then the degree is in fact worthless. However, if one can, the degree is very powerful.
“Personally, I’d rather make half the money of a college grad if it means doing something I love.”
Well, it is possible to be a college grad and do something one loves. And college graduates do on average make more money than folks who are not. That’s a statistical fact partly due to the increase in opportunities college graduates receive.
“I don’t want to spend my life making some college drop out richer while simultaneously ignoring my personal potential….”
Personal potential I would think is different from academic potential. Clearly, one does not know one’s academic potential if it is not tested. This doesn’t mean one is a bad person if one does poorly in school or doesn’t go further in school. And high academic potential/accomplishment doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to make loads of cash and have a perfect life. Personally, school has help me self-actualize as it has served as forum to grow in knowledge and learn how to interface with a VERY diverse set of people (on a personal, international, and cross-disciplinary level). Also, some intellectual concepts are difficult to learn on one’s own. Having a professor and peers to talk to regarding a common interest is very powerful. A class helps channel this very effectively.
“…forfeiting my future happiness.”
As stated before, college is no guarantee of financial success and certainly not personal happiness. However, given the opportunities a college degree can bring and acting as forum to explore one’s personal interests, college definitely stacks the odds of future happiness in one’s favor.