Learning in Spite of Your Education

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." --Mark Twain

"OK class,"says Miss Appleton, "Who wants to be a genius? Please raise your hand."
"A millionaire? A famous athlete? An inventor? A creative artist?"

"Thank you for sharing. I'm sorry to tell you, our Board of Education school-approved curriculum doesn't provide for learning any of that. Maybe you can learn it on your own, as a hobby."

Thomas Edison, in 1854, only lasted 12 weeks in a one-room school house with 38 other students. According to the angry teacher, this 7 year old was too active, with too many questions. So his mother removed him and home-schooled him. Today's school psychologists would have ruined his mind with Ritalin. Yet under individualized teaching, by age 11, he had discovered the library and thereafter taught himself. By age 12, he was virtually an adult with several retail enterprises--selling newspaper, snacks, and candy on the railroad, and a separate business selling fruits and vegetables.

Is it any wonder home schooling is gaining such popularity? Any wonder that exorbitant college fees make parents doubt if the value is worth the price?

Lost and Buried in the System

Our massive dysfunctional educational system has buried the individual and his purposes through multiple layers of Political Correctness and Bureaucracy. Our public schools aren't tailored for individuals. They're designed and regimented for the masses. Grade schools try to teach to the average student. The advanced students get bored and the "slow" students get lost in production line education. In college,the students are just buried and overwhelmed with massive amounts of data.

Without a purpose you don't learn. When I was 11 years old my parents took me to Mexico. Struggling to communicate and speaking no Spanish at all, I vowed–one day I'd return speaking like a native.

A college professor, astonished at my Spanish speaking ability, wanted to know the secret to my learning. Simple. Setting a strong goal and hard work.

However, the same well-intentioned college professor almost buried my purpose. She would assign several chapters in Spanish literature for homework. Remember now...I was the prodigy. If anyone was going to survive college Spanish, I was. But...there was NO TIME to look up all the words I didn't understand. NO TIME to incorporate them into my vocabulary. It would've taken about 7-10 hours. Other classes were assigning ridiculous loads as well.

Forget about trying to understand. Forget about seeing if you can apply it to life! Just have a good memory and pass the test.

The Fight for Your Individuality

Let me ask you, "Would it be so hard to develop courses where students were treated as individuals?" How about an individualized study program where you could follow your purposes and were allowed to advance at your own pace? You could make sure you grasped information as you went. You'd have the opportunity to go back and re-study what you'd missed. Someone would actually care if you could apply the reams of data and get stellar results. You'd be guided to the end product of demonstrating competence. You'd graduate with confidence knowing you'd mastered actual skills.

My high school English teacher warned us, when you go to college you'll have a choice. You can get good grades or you can learn.

To those of you holding a degree, I won't belittle your hard efforts. I hold a degree too--graduated with Honors. What can I say? Good memory got me good grades? I hope you got more than that. If you did, give yourself credit and credit to some of your teachers who cared.

I'm not saying college was bad. College was a wonderful stepping-stone for self-discipline and persistence. You learned how to be on your own, how to get along with your peers and you grew up.

Learning doesn't end after getting a degree. The successful individuals in this world never stop learning and never stop applying what they've learned. Hundreds of self-made millionaires-- who never went to college--can vouch for that.

However, were I to do it over again? I'd go at my own pace and look up all those Spanish words. I wouldn't load up with courses. I'd figure out what I wanted to know. I'd set the bar for my level of competence and strive to attain it.

If I could start over, my choices would be different. In fact I did just that and so can you. Starting completely over isn't possible for any of us, but I did discover home-study courses that allow you to move at your own pace. AWAI courses are a good example. Their courses allow you to follow your purpose, move at your own pace and really absorb the data. You are provided with excellent guidance and you gain the ability to apply it. AWAI stands tall among home-study courses available.

I'm sorry to say, if you are learning useful knowledge, it may be in spite of your education, not because of it. Maybe one day that'll change. But you know what? To accomplish your goal, you just can't "run with the herd". That's true of many accomplishments. Look at all the successful individuals. Individuals...strong in their own decisions, courageous in their actions. At some point they all separated from the herd–and took the bull by the horns. I would like to be like that. Wouldn't you?

(Published in Freebird-zine at http://www.freebird-zine.com/. Freebird is the freelance writer's and graphic designer's guide to developing the self-marketing expertise you need to build your client base and land high paying jobs.)