Julie, INFP, and 4 year community college student. I've completed 87 credit's worth of classes ranging from Beginning Clothing Tech (Sewing) to Music Theory/Ear Training to Positive Psychology. I am mostly done with the classes I need to transfer and earn an AA degree after this semester is over (I only need to finish a math course next semester). I was planning on transferring, but after some disillusioning reading about debt and unemployment rates, and some more reading about unschooling and uncollege, I've decided to quit degree-chasing formal education after I get my useless AA in "Music Business Employee". Maybe even before that if I get the guts to drop my paper-strong safety net.
"WHAT'S YOUR MAJOR?" "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?" "BUT YOU CAN'T SUCCEED WITHOUT COLLEGE!!!"
I am already stressed at the idea of talking about the inevitable small talk that will bring up the topic of my future. I'm worried people will think I'm ruining my life or that I'm trying to fight off the adulthood responsibilities that loom over people who have earned their degrees when the truth is I've been in school in order to put off having to grow up; I don't want to talk to people about how I've used school as a tool of avoidance either. I wish people would just stop talking to me until after I'm a successful writer-musician-public speaker-activist with a nice house a short subway ride from New York City.
This blog will be a diary of pursuing my life goals without formal education as a fulcrum. I will write about the things I watch, read, learn, etc. I plan to give up degree focused schooling, not learning.
School hasn't worked for me, and although there are some valuable things I've gotten out of it, the majority of my time spent in school has felt like an unproductive, draining waste of time. I think of my experience with school like trying to fill a pool with an eyedropper when I've been aching for a bucket. I'll write a more detailed post about it at a later date, but here's a quote that sums up my thoughts about college pretty well:
“I left college two months ago because it rewards conformity rather than independence, competition rather than collaboration, regurgitation rather than learning and theory rather than application. Our creativity, innovation and curiosity are schooled out of us.”
| — | Dale J Stephens, UnCollege
Some more quotes about education pertaining to unschooling:
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