Schools Were Never About Education

I'll say something that might sting a bit... but you already know it's true.

Schools were never about education. They were about creating obedient workers who could show up on time, follow instructions, and not ask too many questions.

Think about it - the whole thing is designed like a factory.

Bell rings, you move. Sit in rows. Raise your hand. Ask permission to pee.

Learn what we tell you to learn, when we tell you to learn it. Test on Thursday. Forget by Friday.

Repeat for twelve years.

I remember this kid in my neighbourhood... sharp as hell, couldn't sit still, asked questions that made teachers uncomfortable. "Why do we have to memorize this?" "Who decided this was important?"

The system labelled him a problem. But really? He was just a natural learner in an unnatural environment.

Here's what schools actually taught us: how to suppress curiosity, how to trade time for grades, how to compete with our friends for arbitrary rankings. They taught us that learning happens between 8 and 3, that knowledge comes in fifty-minute chunks, that there's always one right answer and it's in the teacher's book.

Real education? That's something else entirely.

Real education is messy. It's following your curiosity down rabbit holes at 2 AM. It's failing at something until you figure it out. It's reading books nobody assigned you. It's having conversations that change how you see the world.

It's building something, breaking it, building it better.

The most educated people I know... they learned in spite of school, not because of it. They kept that childlike wonder alive despite twelve years of being told to colour inside the lines.

And look - I'm not saying burn it all down. Some teachers are warriors fighting a broken system. Some kids need the structure. But let's not confuse schooling with education.

One is an institution. The other is a lifelong practice.

The real tragedy? We still measure intelligence by how well someone performed in that system. We still ask "where did you go to school?" instead of "what are you curious about?" We still think a degree means you're educated and no degree means you're not.

But here's the thing about truth - once you see it, you can't unsee it.

So what do you do with this?

If you've got kids, let them be curious.

If you're young, learn what sets your soul on fire, not what some curriculum says you should know.

If you're older, unlearn the idea that you're "done" learning because you finished school.

Education isn't something that happens to you in a building for twelve years. It's something you do for yourself, for life.

Schools were never about that. They can't be.

But you?

You can be.