Becoming a Lifelong Learner

I  graduated from high school almost 29 years ago.  I did a little community college, but didn't graduate.  When I graduated that didn't matter.  You were still able to start at the low end of the totem pole and work your way to management.  Today that is not as much the case.  What has changed is the world view of education.

I saw little value in a college education when I graduated from high school.  My classes were all advanced and college prep.  I was burned out and didn't understand why I needed to take more of the same classes I took in High School.  I loved my cultural exploration, psychology and elective classes, but I didn't see the value in continuing with additional English, Math and Science classes.  Part of it was that I didn't have an end goal in mind, but part of it was being required to learn what someone else thought I needed to know.

Don't get me wrong.  I understand the need to learn things required to function at the career you choose to undertake.  That makes sense to me.  I don't even have anything against learning in general.  I just didn't want to waste my time learning something that I found no value in.  I tried to take the basic English 101 at the community college level.  The problem was that our first assignment was to summarize an article we were given.  I read the article and wrote a summary and was promptly told that was not what the teacher wanted.  The teacher wanted the main idea sentence.  Then why didn't the teacher ask for that?  I dropped the class and then I ended up dropping school.

If I wanted to go back out to the work world, that lack of a piece of paper that stated that I had a college education would stop me from getting a decent waged job.  In fact two of the jobs that I had previously, now require college degrees to do them.

Somewhere along the way the world at large forgot that there are more ways to become educated than going to college.  Now more than ever we have access to any information we want at our fingertips.  We can search the internet for articles, watch YouTube videos or if we wanted to go old school we could read a book on any subject we want either electronically or through printed media.  Knowledge is everywhere and yet it is only the knowledge in accredited institutions that seem to have value anymore.

I don't profess to be an expert at anything, but I have learned a little bit about a lot of different subjects.  I keep myself informed of what is going on in the world around me and if I find something of interest I look for more information.  When I need information for something I am trying to accomplish, I seek it out.  I have taken free online courses just because I enjoy the subject matter.  I have read countless books and articles.  I have talked to others who have done what I am trying to do.

Education isn't about getting a piece of paper so that you can get a job.  Education is about knowledge.  It doesn't matter how you obtain that knowledge.  It has been said that knowledge is power, but others have said its specialized knowledge applied appropriately that has the real power.  I seek after knowledge not because someone else has said I need it, but because I want it and that is what becoming a lifelong learner is all about.