The education system sucks

This post is mainly for teenagers who are stuck in high school and absolutely hate it!

Let me be brutally honest:  The education system sucks.

I don't care if you're in public or private school. Unless you're homeschooled by very progressive and enlightened parents, the education system sucks.

I'm telling you this because you may be in a situation where you hate school and yet people are trying to convince you of the merits of "working hard and getting good grades."

You're not stupid.  It sucks and you know it.  End of story.

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Beginning of a new story....

Education DOES NOT suck!  Education is absolutely amazing, fun, engaging, enlightening, and it makes you want to keep learning and growing.

Education means learning.  It means discovering new things, figuring out how different pieces fit together to form a whole, seeing the world differently, exploring new ways of thinking and interacting and so on.

The best education is self-education and pursuing subjects you're interested in.  There are so many things to learn and do in this world that you couldn't possibly do it all in one lifetime.  In fact it would take hundreds if not thousands of life times to experience it all (bonus for those who believe in reincarnation). 

There is learning in happiness and learning in misery, in easy as well as hard times, in illness and health, in great relationships and terrible ones, and in living and dying.

What's terrible is that we've twisted education into a dry, boring, institutionalized, life-killing, soul-sucking bureaucracy.  Ugh!

So if you're stuck in school and have a few more years before you can escape, what do you do?

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You could lose yourself in video games or TV, sitting around and bemoaning your fate.  You could simply refuse to participate, not doing the work or showing up, or even dropping out entirely.

Or you could decide to start on your own self-education.  Find something that interests you and throw your time and attention into that.  If the subjects in school support your interests (for instance math is needed in lots of different areas) then learn those solely for the purpose of pursuing your own interests.  Take advantage of the things they offer that fit into what you want (high school is free - you have to pay for college so learn it free if you can). 

If they don't support your interests then get by them but don't worry about acing them.  A "D" is still passing and while D's won't get you into a top college they also won't hurt you 30 years down the road when you've built a life around what you enjoy.

If you can get a job in what you're interested in that's even better because you'll be learning far more than you can in a classroom, spending time around people who have similar interests and bonus: get paid something for doing it.  Even if you don't get paid, you can still work as a volunteer just for the experience and sheer enjoyment.  Plus volunteering can turn into paid work.  Trust me I've done lots of free work that turned into a paying job later.

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So to sum up.  The education system sucks.  Education doesn't.  What do you want to start learning about?