Education – A landmark of life

Education is a path to enlightenment. It is a path that opens up doors to the minds of our greatest thinkers that ever lived. How can that not be exciting?

Statistics today points to a higher unemployment rate for college graduates compared to someone without a college degree. The main assumption here is that education equates to money and that is where the problem begins.

Education provides you with the tools to think more clearly and to see the World in many different angles and light. Just because you have education, it does not automatically make you a winner. There are lots of MBAs but they are not all CEOs of major companies and businesses. I have friends with only high school Diplomas and they built a $30 million business and they are CEOs. Education is not about monetary success and knowledge is useless unless you apply it.

In the past, liberal studies like philosophy and literature were considered to be superior, which were seen as true intellectual pursuits, compared to the studies of medicine or engineering, which were seen as a study of services. How things have changed as many would today point the finger of higher unemployed college graduates as graduates of liberal arts. I will end this with a prime example of a liberal art graduate, Mary Meeker, a top ranked US Technology Analyst. How does someone with a Phd. English be so good at analyzing technology? She is a critical thinker.

Closer to home, the majority of George Brown’s web design and development instructors are educated in liberal or fine arts.  They now do and teach technical courses. Education sharpens your mind so you can do more. The biggest take away when an employer looks at a degree is that this person can learn and can commit to a difficult long term endeavour. At a personal level, the more educated the more enlighten you are to see the truth. And, that is priceless.

If you go to University, make sure you go there to learn something and not to study for a job. When you study for a job, you study to pass the exam and forget. When you study for yourself, you enrich your mind for the rest of your life because you remember. If it happens your passion is also a technically challenging and in a high demand market, you must have died and gone to heaven. If your passion is in arts, apply yourself to create your own path to an end of your design not what the market place dictates because you were taught to be a free thinker. Education is a major act in life not to be missed.

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” John Dewey.