Deciding What to Study Must Be a Conscious Process. Sadly, many people get pressured by parents/society to choose.
Little wonder that we continue to see Medical Doctors who become Fashion Design geniuses; Mass Communication graduates who become IT gurus, Lawyers who establish thriving farm businesses etc!
Those people arrived adulthood only to discover post school, that their interests and dreams were FAR away from subjects they spent years studying!
But why does this happen?
The answer is simple. Our educational system does NOT empower our children, or learners in general, to be intelligently involved in deciding what to study.
Now, in order to effectively and accurately find fault with a system, you MUST first of all gain a competent understanding of its nature and function. That is what I believe makes me – and any others who arq products of conventional schooling – uniquely equipped to identify the flaws in our conventional educational system.
I am a product of that system… and I know with a certainty from first hand experience, as well as observation of others, that it does a lousy job of preparing those who go through it to succeed in the real world – especially financially.
The evidence is glaring in societies across the world.
That’s why it irks me that more people today continue in the same mindlessly resolute manner their own parents did in the past, to push their kids through the same educational system, that has failed them!
Isn’t it said that madness is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different results?
I argue that every society needs to develop and encourage a culture in which members are taught to intelligently acquire knowledge and skills in line with their interests and passions.
The batch production system of education does not work – because it works against the natural human instinct.
People cannot be treated like catfish fingerlings or poultry chicks to be forced to GROW or MATURE at the same rate, by feeding on the exact same diet, under the exact same conditions etc!
Human beings are individually unique. In other words, no two people are alike – and that applies to the way they learn, as well as the things they are interested in learning, and doing!
Our conventional educational system is unwilling to accommodate those peculiarities in individuals – and tends to punish or discriminate against those who fail to fit in its mould.
The above was why Einstein had major problems fitting in at school, as did Edison…and Richard Branson…as well as many other people who went on to achieve greatness by developing their geniuses outside the school system!
Final Words: That’s why deciding what to study must be a conscious decision making process!
It must NOT be what happens often today, in which social pressures are used to force a child to choose what others feel would be best for him/her!
For instance, science should not choose your child.
Your child should be the one to choose to study science on her own. She must SEE and BELIEVE that doing so will help her pursue her passions/nurture her talents, towards achieving her dreams.
That would make her interested enough to want to devote his/her time and effort to studying it, and then DOING it in the real world, post school!
Otherwise, she’s likely to look finish school with formal qualification in a field that does not excite her, and decide to follow her heart/dreams in a totally different field e.g the Psychology graduate who dumps consulting to build an award winning musical career.