Instead of truly educating people, we’ve used our school system to push out mindless drones. That is not to say that the average person today doesn’t know many things that some of the smartest 500 years ago didn’t. Rather, we no longer make people earn knowledge. While that’s the case for traditional schooling, there are outlets offering true education. Children and young adults are looking to online courses, job trainings, and other alternative modes of education to make an impact.
New course on the Golden Mean – buy it here>>
"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."
-Diogenes
Where Education Goes Wrong
Knowledge used to be something that was discovered for oneself, rather than spoon-fed by educators. Sure, you may memorize your multiplication tables or dates of historic events. But, much of the knowledge you came to was due to exploration and real learning. This means that you didn't simply know facts, but had a worldview and an epistemology to work with to know what is true.
If we want to truly educate our children, we must find a way to fix this broken system or build a new one. Personally, I think building new would be far more effective. The education system is entrenched and pushing back against reform. The administrations, lawmakers, and teachers unions are not seeking to improve education, but to help teachers get as much as they can from the school system for as little as possible.
Teachers unions are holding the “education” of our country’s children as a hostage, and leveraging that against the taxpayer. And the thing is, they really don’t have any leverage. They aren’t actually providing an education. Rather, they’re instilling a prideful ignorance in our children, and sending them off to be drones of the state.
New course on the Golden Mean - buy it here>>
Alternative Solutions: Online Courses & More
It has been nearly one year of “15 days to slow the spread,” and it seems like school is permanently, radically altered. And many people are seeing the weakness in our education system. Because COVID made schools worse, these options became much more tenable, and people seem to be happier than they were with “normal schooling” before COVID. Kids are failing more, ADHD diagnoses are up, and the teachers are making impossible demands. This has forced people to look elsewhere.
- Homeschooling
- Charter schools
- Private schools
- Alternative solutions & Online Courses
New course on the Golden Mean - buy it here>>
How I Continued My Education
How do we move forward? What can we do now, in our own lives, to improve our education? Despite the bleak diagnosis, I see two easy changes each of us can make in our mindset and our actions to improve our education.
- Use school for training
- Seek your own liberal education
School has become necessary only inasmuch as it is a credential for a career. But, that is changing rapidly with new ways to get job training like coding bootcamps or other digital tool certification. If you need to go to college, do that. However, if it can be avoided, you should avoid it.
New course on the Golden Mean - buy it here>>
Benefits of Online Courses
Furthermore, you should still get the liberal education that puts you in touch with our history. We shouldn’t shrug our responsibility to pass down the wisdom, art, and beauty of our culture. It just can’t be found on the college campus. Each of us has to go and read the classics, learn about our history, and find alternatives to the college campus.
Online Courses allow you to find the things you're passionate about and dive in. That's what I did in order to continue my education. By exploring ideas with podcasts and YouTube, I found new topics, books, and authors to look into. Then, I could go and read more online or in an actual book. With all the technology we have at our fingertips, we can get a real education.
That’s what I’m providing here. I’m launching the first installment of my new course on the Nichomachean Ethics, which will be a greater part of my course on the Golden Mean. This is just a teaser of what’s to come.
New course on the Golden Mean - buy it here>>
240. What happened to yesterday's episode? - Conversation of Our Generation
- 240. What happened to yesterday's episode?
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