Do schools stop you from actually learning?

I think school helps you learn to think but only a fraction of what I learn is interesting to me.

I definitely have learned far more from "life" - work, reading, experiencing things, etc. - than I have at school, but school doesn't stop you from learning.

In my experience, school is mainly for teaching one how to successfully manage their life before going into the "real world". Things like stress management, time management, and learning how to prioritize responsibilities accordingly. Honestly, the best thing school teaches you is the best and most efficient way to accomplish the tasks you have to accomplish - sometimes that means finding a way to do tedious tasks outside of the "rules" just as long as you don't get caught.

If you chose a school specifically for the course and the teachers, yes you do learn a great deal. However, that's a super specific chain of events that leads to learning, so most of the time, it is just something I have to do...

for me, school was garbage but so was i

Part of the benefit of school (and liberal arts) is that it forces you to learn things you don't like - one of the reasons self-teaching can't replace college is because when you self-teach yourself, you only teach yourself what you find interesting, and ignore things that aren't interesting but could potentially change your way of thinking.

With a few exceptions, college is complete and utter horseshit. The educational-industrial complex is one of the biggest policy failures in America right now.

As OP and others have said, you learn from reading and experience (and increasingly from targeted videos and classes). College is a social club for credentialing. The call for free college by some is exactly backwards--college should not be accessible to the masses. College should be financially rewarding for a narrow set of career paths (doctors, lawyers, nurses, computer engineers, etc.), in addition to accessible to the wealthy for other studies that have no financial return.

School teaches you stuff outside of class, like developing social skills, being likeable, forming relationships, etc. Wish I knocked that into myself early on lol. I don't get people who say "college is useless" it serves many benefits outside of taking tests and attending lectures.

Did learn a lot of things from ex-BB profs in finance classes. But other than that, there are many meaningless classes, total waste of time.

i drank a lot and had sex with a lot of girls. that was about it.

I kind of feel the opposite. I update excel spreadsheets and powerpoints all day whereas in school I learned about scientifically, culturally and historically important topics EDIT: But I didn't study finance!

Depends what you want out of life. It was a total waste of time for me and I regret not dropping out sooner.

When I read stuff like this it makes me sick but I have to laugh because I know it is spawned from ignorance. Education is one of the most important skills someone can acquire. Whether you acquire an associates degree from your community college or a PhD from Harvard it is an accomplishment. It shows you set long terms goals and achieve them. It is good for the economy and it is helps everyone.

Reading WSO and watching a coupla YouTubes

Nursing, Healthcare, and other professional licensed/skilled work (STEM, etc) college is a place that needs to be able to filter and weed students out so only the best can care or work for the masses.

In terms of liberal arts, etc., it varies. My friends from foreign countries were sent here to get a check box off their list and go back home to work for their family's company.

College taught me both social and learning skills.

TechBanking - you're not wrong there. There are plenty of ads online and on college campuses where people can pay to get their essays done. These days professors will tell you to submit stuff online.

Lant Pritchett research shows that university education has zero impact on productivity... so yeah.

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Agree 100%. Schools were invented at a time when it wasn't as easy to learn on your own. Not only was there no internet but also fewer books which meant lower quality books. Now the ability to self-teach is 100x what it used to be and schools are fighting for relevance.

Fortunately for the schools, society has built a system that places great reward on brand name degrees. So people will pay out the nose to attend schools just for the name on the resume. You'll notice nobody tries to sneak into college classes without paying, because nobody values the learning itself.

Eventually people will value degrees less as well, and that will be trouble for the schools.

Schools have an opportunity to adapt and add more value to the learning experience, but instead they seem to be waiving the white flag by expanding their degree programs dramatically in an attempt to grab all the last nickels and dimes while they still can. Seems like everywhere I go these days, I see prestigious schools advertising continuing ed degree programs in online and short-course format on subways, online banners, etc. Columbia is the new University of Phoenix.

In this day and age, nothing's stopping you from learning on your own, but it's easy to be trapped in the same line of thinking. I think schools' purpose should be to challenge you to consider views other than your own, but I must admit that that's not an experience I've had with most of my classes.

Maybe 1/3 of my classes at university helped me prepare somewhat for a finance career. In particular, financial accounting, intro to law, and real estate fundamentals have been useful. Financial accounting and basic law concepts are hyper critical to success.

The classes that were more useless (maybe surprisingly) were many of my upper level business courses. Our advanced financial theory professor barely spoke English and has never worked in the private sector. Absolute bullshit - I understand more in one year out of school than she ever will...

It’s just credentialism. Nowadays, the point isn’t really to learn, the point is just to play the game and get the grades.

Nothing at a liberal arts school is directly relevant to what you’ll need to know on the job, aside from maybe a couple basic, introductory courses. Learning upper-level economics won’t help you anymore than taking a history class on the fall of Rome. I’d actually argue the latter will help you more, because at least the class teaches you how to think critically, give good presentations, and discuss with your peers.

You get out of what you put in. Its possible to learn at most colleges, even ones that aren't as highly regarded. But it takes discipline and dedication to actually wanting to learn.

All too many college students just cram useless facts because that will get them a passing grade in the easiest manner, instead of stopping to think about why what they're learning is important. That isn't surprising - many universities don't do a good job of forcing you to think. But much more importantly, college is the first taste of out-of-the-home freedom most teenagers get. Access to drugs, alcohol, and a huge new group of peers also discovering all this freedom means that actual learning takes a backseat to enjoying a new lack of structure in your life.

You're finding that book learning is great, later in life, because you are dedicating yourself to it. It's not as if all those books didn't exist when you were in school (well, presumably some weren't published yet but you get the point). So what is the difference? You are more responsible, more settled, more interested in learning now. Can you imagine if you had another 4 years with this attitude, where you had a universe of experts on a wide spectrum of topics to discuss some of what you're learning with? You'd be absorbing information and complex concepts at a MUCH faster rate.

TL;DR - nothing wrong with school, or school learning. Just that most people aren't at a place in their lives where they have any interest in learning when they're in their teens, and it's much easier to blame a school system for not forcing learning, instead of being self-reflective enough to understand that most high school/college students are actively avoiding the parts of school which encourage learning.

It depends a lot on the field. If you go to school for math/CS/engineering/hard science they will train you to think logically and it will teach you a lot of problem-solving skills.

Not all academic disciplines do that; some majors are little more than digesting and regurgitating propaganda

A lot of good points both for and against college on the thread; as far as actual learning goes most people seem to value hands-on experiences ("how and why") vs fact memorization ("who, what, when"). I don't think schools stop you from learning, they just primarily focus on the latter rather than the former.

I guess the "value" you attach to your college experience will vary significantly based on, a) you majored in a hard science or a liberal arts program; b) the quality of your social experience(both interpersonal relationships and things like clubs/frats/sports); c) the "name brand" or lack thereof ascribed to the institution that was on your degree.

I guess my confusion also lies in how people don't understand that you can basically get the same value out of college as described in my second paragraph above by going to school in-state and spending a moderately priced cars worth on your education, hell if you do CC for 2 years most states guarantee admission to any of the other universities in the State with an AA degree. How any person at any level comes to the decision that they should literally finance a house-worth of debt for a degree (without a very clear idea of what they want to do with their life) kinda blows my mind. Or that the gov't would willingly subsidize it but not subsidize the same amount of debt for said person to purchase an actual home.

The real reason you go to school is for the accreditation, not the knowledge. Sure, you will have a few classes that give you an introduction to the industry you want to work in by exposing you to the theoretical side of how things work - but most of that will not be practical, actionable knowledge. Most team projects are usually a joke because a bunch of 20 year olds have no real life experience to apply to a case study or research work.

At the end of the day it's all about the diploma to get your foot in the door for interviews, and the friendships you build with other students, who will go their separate ways and may or may not yield benefits many years later.