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Aries Eroles

Member, The Filipino Group (Good Reads)

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Do you think we still need school?

We have many drop-outs that became successful. Well, to say it safer, there are who became successful in life that did not enjoy education in school.

Topics: education school
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    Aries Eroles 10+

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    Mar 9 2012: I am happy about the optimistic views on education. Personally, I believe that we still need schools. Not because it is the only way to success or the only way to be wise and knowledgable but also because school will teach you many different things. Yeah, I think also that there quite plenty schools that are not really schools and that education is not that really promising (especially in my country). But there are still wonderful things inside the portals of each academe. I love school. :D

  • Alexander Miller

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    Mar 9 2012: "Do we still need school?" It is a great question with a complicated answer. There is no way to fit even a fraction of the answer within these character limits, but personally I do not believe that everyone needs school to be successful. Aries you had pointed out that there are successful dropouts. That premise brings to mind great minds like Steve Jobs, Zuckerberg, Branson etc. Please note though that those same minds still diverted their attention to the pursuit of something great. As you will hear in Jobs' famous Stanford commencement address, he began dropping in on classes that interested him. I believe that is the most concise answer to your question. No, not all of us need school to be successful. It is not enjoyable for many, but if a drop out can drop in on subjects that pertain to their interests than they will be going in the right direction.

  • Christian Garland

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    Mar 9 2012: This has been one of my biggest questions. I ask myself this almost every chance I get. Now that i'm college, it is probably a waste of my time. Especially when everybody is encouraging you to keep going forward. I find it hard to believe college is as necessary as people make it seem when we have people who haven't gone and ended up perfectly fine. I would hate to be the person who spends all of their life in school and doesn't get the opportunity to really enjoy myself because the book has been stuck to my face. At the same time, it seems like such a risky move because one who doesn't go to school does what next?

    • Alexander Miller

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      Mar 9 2012: Keep learning, stay active, and keep doing. As you are engaging within the TED community, I would venture to guess that you would be interested in auto-didacticism. I myself have struggled with keeping my interest in obtaining a degree. I found it much more enjoyable to teach myself via various reliable resources available to me. I find it common that many people sacrifice their happiness in pursuit of a degree that they don't want. Why do they get it? There are countless reasons but more often than not because their parents want them to and because it has become a necessity within the workplace. I wish it wasn't that way. I wish experience was still valued, but it seems that most employers are merely wanting their employees to have experienced college.

      • Christian Garland

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        Mar 11 2012: Thanks for giving me a heads up about auto-didacticism. I did a little research on it already just to see what it was about and I found some stuff I really liked. I didn't know ralph lauren was a college drop out until his name popped up under the reading I pulled up.
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    edward long 100+

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    Mar 9 2012: We need to be taught. Period.
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    peter lindsay 30+

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    Mar 8 2012: For the record I am a high school physics teacher. You need to consider the larger functions of a school. It's just as much about social development as it is education. As the teacher I feel it is just as important for me to model appropriate adult behaviors as it is to educate. My job is to guide a twelve year old on the journey to being able to interact with other adults when they leave at 18. Bill Gates might have better interpersonal skills if he had finished school.

    • Christian Garland

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      Mar 9 2012: In no disrespectful manner do I intend to offend you nor am I trying to play a game of wits with you because you are a physics teacher, but my teachers haven't been the people I necessarily choose go to when i need help with becoming an "adult". Sometimes I do have teachers I feel are very good at what they do. I am a physics student taking a class for engineering drafting at the moment. He is probably one of the teachers I would go to say I admire, if I had to pick anybody on my college campus. Still, I wouldn't go so far as to say he is somebody that I would use to learn more about how to become an "adult". I think that is something that I have learned from myself. I learn by mistakes so trial and error will teach me how I should act as an adult. At the same time, I will come across people who I will probably gain advice from on mistakes they have made and when a mistake like their is presented to me I will know what not to do. I do not wish to know how to avoid every mistake because that is a part of my learning experience at the same time. Through the decisions I choose to make will mold me into the person I want to be. I do not want to live in someone's elses image either so instead of looking to the next person for guidance I enjoy doing what I think is best. I go to school because it is important for my future. I have to get a job so I'm going to school so I can make sure I can make a living for myself. That is what I use school for.
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        peter lindsay 30+

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        Mar 9 2012: I agree in the end you are really on your own. Once again I can only speak from an australian perspective but, many of the kids I teach spend more time with teachers than any other adult. Both parents working full time and all. If you don't find your teachers helping with your social development then I think you need better teachers. Although most of what i'm talking about isn't conscious on the part of the learner. As social apes we naturally mimick the behavior of those around us whether we want to or not.
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    Josh S

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    Mar 8 2012: I believe the answer to this is of course!
    Without education, we are unable to communicate through text and writing. True, we know these skills by the time we are in 2nd to 3rd grade, but we continue learning about language until we graduate high school.

    I myself am still in school (high school), and i even see the importance of school. Without it, we would lose most everything. Yes there are the few exceptions, like Bill Gates, who dropped out of high school and became multi-billionaires. But i have yet to hear of a single story of a elementary drop out becoming successful. We must also look at what you mean by being successful, i take it that you mean a wealthy person that contributes to society. And i dont think i can imagine a single case where an elementary school drop out has become successful.

    On the other hand, you reference high school drop outs. If we look at poverty rates and average incomes of those who dropped out of high school (i debated this a few months ago) then we can see those people tend to be much poorer. Not only that, but in today's day and age, it is even more difficult to make it in the world if you were to drop out of high school, as compared to 100 years ago.

    Clearly it is beneficial and for the most part, required to finish grade schools to become successful. And while there are exceptions, we should not base our life decisions and government laws on the lives of a few exceptions when statistics show otherwise.
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    Xavier Belvemont 30+

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    Mar 8 2012: Someone who is intelligent is like a cat, it doesn't matter where or how you throw them, they land on their feet.

    You can apply this same logic to most things; Law for example.
    If it becomes legal to take heroine, steal and drive down my street at 100mph, will I do it? No.
    Most sensible people won't, so does that mean we don't need laws?

    Answer: Some of us don't necessarily need these things, but it doesn't negate the reality that most people seriously do.
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    Carlos Carvalho

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    Mar 8 2012: That's a good reasoning wrapped in a not so fine question. Think of it in these terms: We don't need schools or do we need different ones?

    First, check the talks by Sir Ken Robinson http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html

    He actually addresses this in a brilliant way. In sum (as I understand it):: The schools (educational system) can be viewed as a moribund child of the industrial revolution, killing creativity and dumping tonnes of "useless" rules and goals for people that might never use them.

    I agree with Sir Robinson's position, as in that we might need schools, but new schools, that respect individual goals and capabilities, that teaches not what might be important to engineers only, but what might be useful and interesting for each one of the students.

    The general disregard for arts and creation is a major problem, as is the academical "hierarchy" of sciences, defining what's "important or not" for everyone.

    The successful dropouts are usually successful in creating new things, in going against the norm, in shifting people's understanding of reality and what can be done in this world. That's the exact opposite of almost all the academic curriculum out there.
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