Education is. . .

overrated. Highly overrated. More overrated than Titanic, which is incredibly overrated.

I should probably state here that this will be my most uninformed post yet, so you will want to keep that in mind before you fly off the handle.

I have, sadly, spent the vast majority of my life involved in some aspect of the American educational system. Nursery school, pre-school, kindergarten (aka block time!!), 5 years of elementary school, 3 (horrible) years of middle school, 4 years of high school, 4 years undergraduate school, 18 months of graduate school, 5 years of teaching, and now I'm a sub. I won't even count the graduate school since it overlaps with part of the teaching, and that's still 24 years of my life spent in schools. Or 6/7 of it. Or 85.7142% (approximately) if you're a decimal person. The point is, I am not just talking out of my ass here.

Our system of education is ridiculous, and it's probably why we're stuck in a recession. I think we're still in one. I know the unemployment rate is still way too high, which means things aren't great yet. High schools are far too concerned with trying to push kids into 4 year schools regardless of their aptitude or desires. That means more people are in school and not working on important things like paving East St. More importantly, it also means that more people are saddled with crazy student loans, which means they have to spend money on those and can't spend it buying stuff to push the economy back into the black. I know this is blasphemy, but it needs to be said: not everyone needs to go to college to be successful.

Look, I realize that college is awesome. I hated my school and I would still do it again. It's 4 years of practically no responsibility and practically unlimited boozing. I pulled off a 3.33 GPA and skipped at least 40% of my classes. I am by far the least qualified Computer Science major east of the Mississippi. Clearly a good investment of my time and (Mom's) money. Would I have been better off not going to college? It's hard to say, but I'd be far less in debt, which I would love right about now. And I bet I'd be in pretty much the same place as far as career goals go.

I don't really have any ideas on what to do to make the education system better. But I feel very strongly that it needs a major overhaul. Maybe schools could teach some actual skills? I don't know about you, but I am positive that I would be better off having learned some basic automotive skills instead of how to analyze literature. Seriously, what was that all about?

-Jon