Why You Need to Unlearn Almost Everything You Learned in School

Modern-day schools aren’t doing students any favors.

School, the good old place we are thrown into just a couple of years after being born for our so-called “education”. For the next fourteen or so odd years, we are “educated” with the sole intention of molding us into efficient modern-day workers — ones that obey and carry out orders without much questioning or thought.

This isn’t surprising when you consider the fact that the first schools were modeled after factories. Schools are factories, students are the raw material and modern-day slaves are the desired products.

Today’s world requires visionaries with creativity, imagination, and critical thinking, not obedient workers.

“Schools are factories, students are the raw material and modern-day slaves are the desired products.”

True education and learning can start only after unlearning most of what we have been taught in school. Mark Twain has rightly said,

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Comparing yourself with others

As someone that topped almost every single exam in school for 12 years straight, I was always called “gifted” and treated preferentially by the teachers while those that didn’t score well were treated with scorn and disdain.

Naturally, I believed that I had to constantly compare myself with others and try to beat them. If I was better than someone at something, I would gloat but if I wasn’t, I would feel disappointed and envious.

Beating the other person mattered, not my own success.

With a toxic hyper-competitive school system that portrays being the best as the ideal to strive towards, it becomes extremely easy to fall victim to the wrong belief that — life is a “rat race” until the bitter end where the goal is to steer ahead of others.

“It’s important to feel happy for your own success but it’s also important to feel happy for others’ successes.”

Life isn’t a race where you try to outrun others but a unique journey where you travel at your own pace. You needn’t compare yourself with others, you only need to move or get ahead of where you were yesterday.

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today.” — Jordan Peterson

It’s important to feel happy for your own success but it’s also important to feel happy for other’s success. Instead of being jealous, admire, and learn from someone better than you and instead of gloating, be humble and willing to mentor someone that isn’t.

Blindly accepting and not questioning anything

Growing up, I was an inquisitive kid, and as a result, I would have a lot of why’s and how’s at my disposal, which would always be received with indignation and frustration at school.

“Don’t ask silly doubts”, “You ask too many questions”, “Just accept what’s taught” were the most common phrases I would get to hear from the teachers.

Some would even treat my doubts or questions as personal attacks and retort with, “Who do you think the teacher is, you or me?” or “Okay Einstein, so you think you know better than me, eh?”.

Why is this correct? It’s there in the textbook so it is. How do you derive this? It’s not there in the syllabus. This formula doesn’t make sense, It doesn’t have to, just mug it up.

“We are taught to lull our thinking, not question anything, and just believe. Yes, plain blind belief.”

Been there? Yes, you have, I have, we all have.

What’s even more appalling is that we are taught to feel ashamed and embarrassed for asking questions as they supposedly make us appear “slow on the uptake” or foolish. This isn’t true at all as Confucious has said,

“He who asks a question is a fool for a minute. He who does not remains a fool for a lifetime.”

We are taught to lull our thinking, not question anything, and just believe. Yes, plain blind belief. We are essentially dumbed down.

We, humans, are rational beings and we cannot not ask why and how. This is exactly why you need to be critical of everything and take nothing at face value.

What you accept as true shouldn’t be just because someone says it is, it should be because you understand it is.

“Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.” — Ernest Gaines

Believing that you are dumb if you have poor grades

How do you get better grades? — For the most part, blindly swallow what’s taught and regurgitate it during the exams.

“Grades don’t measure anything other than your relevant obedience to a manager” — John Taylor Gatto.

Good grades might indicate a good work ethic and maybe a better ability to memorize and recall stuff. But where’s the connection between smartness and grades. I don’t see any and I am sure you don’t either.

But schools brainwash us all into believing there is.

“You could have good grades and be smart. You could also have the worst grades in class and still be smart.”

Heck, what even is smart? Is it only something like being able to solve a math problem fast or is it also being able to create stunning pieces of art or good at some sport? — There is no one “smart”.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” — Einstein

Your grades have absolutely no relation to how smart you are. An example I would love to give here is — Two friends of mine, a pair of twins that are obviously equally gifted and happen to put in similar efforts have vastly different grades.

You could have good grades and be smart. You could also have the worst grades in class and still be smart. So neither let bad grades make you consider yourself dumb nor let good grades get to your head and make you arrogant.

Thinking that your grades determine your future

As I said earlier, I topped throughout school and I would be blatantly lying if I said this didn’t help me. It helped me get into one of the best colleges in India.

But in college, despite my grades being average, I managed to land a job in one of the best companies during the placements. So do grades actually matter?

“Your creativity and imagination are boundless and no grade can measure them.”

Yes and No. Yes, as good grades don’t hurt and can be helpful. No, as neither will good grades guarantee success nor will bad grades doom you to failure.

“Don’t let a bad grade define who you are or what you will become”

I know quite a few that had amazing grades in school but aren’t successful and just mediocre in life and also a few that had bad or average grades and succeeded in life.

This is because every exam can only measure your ability to “copy” and not your ability to “create”. Your creativity and imagination are boundless and no grade can measure them.

Skills, innovation, and learning matter, not grades.

Ending words

Times have changed, the world has changed but our education system and schooling system refuse to. Since their advent in the industrial era, schools have largely remained the same.

Schools teach us a lot of things that we end up needing to unlearn later on but don’t teach the things that actually matter in the real world — relationships, finances, communication, and other critical life skills.

We live in a world that still largely values grades, degrees, and marks more than skills, creativity, and the ability to think.

Small changes are slowly creeping in and this is a whiff of hope that our school system might finally actually change.

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