The Era Has Changed, The Mindset About Schools Must Be Changed!

Based on the thinking of world-class successful humans about school.

What Elon Musk said About School

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long said that higher education is not essential if he wants to work at his company. This time he even said that the campus is not a place to study. This was conveyed by Musk during a speech at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington, D.C. An audience at the conference asked Musk about the importance of a university education.

In another interview, Elon also said :

“I hated going to school when I was kid. It was torture. “

- Elon Musk

Beside of that, he did not send his children to public schools. He formed an exclusive school for his children called Astra Nova. Where children who have different interests and ages are combined into one class together.

What Robert Kiyosaki said About School

Robert Kiyosaki, accomplished businessman from America. His name became more famous after he wrote a book called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Through his book, we are brought to compare between a rich father and a poor father. The contrasting mindset between his two fathers made him think in terms of “wealth”. Where the rich dad advised him not to go to school and study real estate with him, while the poor dad suggested to go to school and later become a stable employee with his finances.

After comparing the mindset between his two fathers, he worked on a mindset: “School can never make us rich,” or “No school, go to seminars!”

Unmitigated, through strange thoughts for most people, after that Robert released a book about the oddities that occur in school, “A” Student Work for “C” Students (2015).

And this makes us wonder, what’s wrong with school? Why these guys hated school?

Let us first equate our perception with the term “Success”, which of course the definition is different for everyone. Here I focus on the word “Success” as a situation in which a person has a financial condition that is far above the average of the average person.

So this is an interesting thing that must be discussed for you “Curiousers”, humans who are full of curiosity. Let me mediate between your curiosity and the mindset of successful humans that I have mentioned above. Let’s hypothesize for a moment, use reason and your common sense to start imagining and speculating.

Danger of wrong perception about school

In fact, the perception they throw at them is very dangerous and can become a “sharp knife” for those who misunderstand. Especially those who are currently studying. This can change a person’s mindset by making education something that can be secondary. It could be that those who embrace the perceptions of successful humans above, will change their school grades from A + to E−. Of course this is not expected. However, don’t we want to achieve success like the successful humans above? Well, this is a paradox.

So, start by answering these simple questions:

What was the school actually designed for? What is the purpose of school?

Before entering the world of school, what is the purpose of the school itself? What will it be when you finish your education? Why do I have to go to school? I am sure, you never thought about that before you entered the world of education. It is likely that you were sent to school by your parents, because it has been a cultural culture since long ago.

In fact, this culture wants to take you to earn some income in the future. Either income as a worker, or income as an entrepreneur. In essence, the culture wants you to be a “successful” person, to have an above average financial condition.

Let’s use your mind and mind for a moment to dare to argue a little against the cultural mindset of these cultures.

1. Industry and School

Let us emphasize this discussion between the needs of industry and schools. 

“Position yourself as the CEO of a company. Then you are faced with hiring employees. Which would you choose to hire, someone with a college degree, or someone with the skills your company needs?“. Which one do you choose?

So, I assume it is clear that you would say the second option, because people who have a college degree may not necessarily have the skills your employer requires. Conversely, people who do not have a bachelor’s degree also do not necessarily “not” have the skills that your company needs.

From this statement, it can be concluded that school will only lead you, at least the beginning to success (hired), if you have a skill in accordance with what the industry needs today. In addition, this is also the reason why students with an A + score will not necessarily be successful in the future. Because world of school is not same with world of Industry.

This is consistent with what Elon said:

“I don’t give a damn about your degree” — Elon Musk

2. Improving skills accommodation 

At least in the industrial world, companies need two categories of skills, namely hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are the main skills needed in a job in terms of specific abilities. Examples of these skills are: programming, accounting, writing, translating foreign languages, sewing, design etc. This skill is the main skill and the first one that is considered by the company.

Starting in terms of hard skills, the importance of school becomes a question, knowing that:

“Today is the digital era, which is certainly different from previous eras. All knowledge can be obtained just from the click of your cellphone. “

So I am very sure that the internet variable is included in the consideration of successful humans above to say that “School is not important” and ignore the college degree. Because you can get hard skill skills for free via the internet.

What’s more, there are skills you won’t get in public schools. As I have mentioned before, sewing skills. Which public schools provide training on sewing? Has their teacher taught them how to sew? or are there extracurriculars that provide training on how to sew? In public schools that I know of, that doesn’t exist.

Of course, there are the absolute exceptions that you have to attend formal schools. Because, not all hard skills can be replaced by the presence of the internet. Skills possessed by: doctors, pilots, soldiers, machinists, nuclear technicians, civilians, etc. Where a degree is indispensable and very important in their field, as well as the availability and accommodation of the tools to be provided by their agency of work.

From this insight we can ask, that:

Does your school accommodate the skills you want to achieve?

If so, then it’s definitely good for you. If not, then the term “School is not important” has a point. Also, don’t forget about the internet variable. Is the internet that you use can replace the position of the school itself? 

If so, then you have more free time to explore your main skills on the internet, than having to go to school with homework you need to do. What’s more, if the school is not providing the skills you want, then you are absolutely wasting your productive age on things. Pretty sad, isn’t it (?).

Moving on from hard skills, we need to review them in terms of soft skills, which are invisible skills. These skills are no less important than hard skills, they are the foundation or foundation of your hard skills. This skill is closely related to your personality in mental work.

At least some of the skills (soft skills) a person must have before accepting a job, namely :

1. Communication

2. Leadership

3. Time management

4. Public speaking

5. Team work

6. Problem solving

If you have mastered at least the six soft skills he has above, then “promotion” should be an easy thing for you in work matters. So, what we need to ask about this is :

Does school provide/push you to learn about six soft skill above?

If so, then your educational institution is driving you to success. If the answer is no, then you are in an ecosystem which is clearly wrong. In addition, it is possible that your education agency has provided this, but you do not want to take advantage of it. That way, at least you know who is obliged to blame for your success in the future.

In essence, in this chapter, educational institutions will only lead you to success if the ecosystem directs you to have skills that are available, in terms of hard skills and soft skills.

“Find your ecosystem, find yourself!
If it’s not school, then get out! ”

3. You Don’t Need College

The interesting thing about these successful people is that they certainly have received education. They can argue that school is not important, because of course they have attended school.

The curiosity that we need to ask is whether they can be successful without school? Could Elon Musk fly his SpaceX rocket if he hadn’t previously graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in business and physics?

Returning to the previous question, in an interview on Youtube Elon Musk said that:

“You don’t need to go to college to study and learn many things. Everything is available for free.“

So I, as a writer, am not surprised by this statement, because Elon is someone who really likes to read since he was a child. He really likes reading books, because he realizes that by reading he can achieve what he wants.

Does Elon have a background in aerospace (spacecraft) education? No. However, with reading and a little background in physics as well as business, he was able to found SpaceX. That’s why he said “You don’t need to go to college”.

In this case, we see that books can replace the college itself. If you can get aerospace knowledge from books, of course you can get other knowledge. So that is why there is the term “Book is a window to knowledge” and not “College is a window to knowledge”.

4. Screws and Machines Can Prove That Schools Are Useless

Position yourself as a mechanical engineer. You are asked to build a car engine. In this machine there are many components, namely spark plugs, pressure levers, pistons, screws, etc. Build a car engine from these components. So, of course you will try to learn one by one these components, what they are used for, and how they work.

You start learning from the simplest components:
What is a screw? What is the use? and how does it work? After you learn these things one by one, later you will design them into a car engine.

Let’s assume this with school. In school, you will learn about Newton’s Laws, gravity, thermodynamics, fluids, Mendel’s Law, Calculus etc. This means that you will learn anything in all fields. However, after graduating from school, most of these students do not know what he will make of this knowledge. Why does this happen?

The answer is quite simple: he departed from a screw, not from a machine.

Try to think, What’s the difference between a student and you (machine builder)? The difference is in the purpose. You will study the components of a car engine, because you want to build a car engine. In school, you will learn everything in all fields, because you want to make a “…” nothing. This is why I say they start from a screw, not from a machine.

If you were asked to edit a photo using Photoshop, would you start by learning all the uses of these Photoshop tools one by one? Of course not, you are wasting your time, you can get frustrated. Surely you will edit according to your needs.

This is the importance of knowing the Input-Outputs of education. Because, if you don’t know it, you have spent and sacrificed your life for nothing. Like humans without purpose and direction, carried away by the culture and culture of society.

Thank you for reading my article, i hope you get my point 😊 

Success for your future, buddy.

- Gallium