Education is Important, but School May Not Be

I have to make a clear distinction between schooling and education, like I did between a job and work.
Becoming an educated person means you have access to optimal states of mind regardless of the situation you are in.
You are able to perceive accurately, think clearly and act effectively to achieve self-selected goals and aspirations.
(On my definition of education page I address the inadequacy of the dominant conception of education as the delivery of knowledge, skills and information.)




Schooling, on the other hand, mostly consists of jumping through the hoops of instructional accounting to get symbolic rewards like test scores, grades, diplomas, degrees, etc.




If the goal is only to get a job, then schooling is important.
But if the goal is to find your work and become educated, then schooling may not be important, it depends on what your work is.




There are three fears that arise from being made to do schoolwork:

1. the apparent absurdity of school rituals and/or the irrelevance of the "work,"
2. the fear that what students are made to do is truly a meaningless waste of time, and
3. the global context that makes it all seem pointless.

Given my distinction between schooling and education, then I take these fears very seriously.
If the child is correct that school rituals are absurd, the work irrelevant, that their time is truly being wasted, and the world situation makes it all pointless, then there is a serious problem.
But as I said before, we have to consider the deeper possibility that they are under the spell of illusions, rather than observing reality.