The academic system, from grade school to college, drains the mind's most precious commodity- the way Exxon-Mobile is draining the earth's crude oil. That commodity is creativity; and through creativity students all over the world are being stripped of their full intellectual capacity. As a part of the largest generation to “develop” with higher education I think we must change the system before future generations are run dry as well.
The three main motivators in the world are religion, money, and education. In the 1900's rose industry and with it, constructed by academia, was the modern educational system. The curriculum was constructed to prepare the student for the workplace; they needed mathematics and science, an overview of the humanities, and for a break they could finger paint or dabble with the piano.
Think about your education, which subjects were always of more importance? Not much has changed has it; art classes and instructors are the first to get the shaft when a school district's budget isn't balanced, that is if the music programs have already been phased out. So where does that leave the left side of the brain and all the creative things it contains?
In the modern day system one quickly learns not to make mistakes. A mistake, like answering a question wrong, can lead to peer ridicule or even worse a failing grade. But if one is not prepared to be wrong then how can anything original ever be? And so grades and the concept of right/wrong have managed to educate generations out of creativity and into the workforce.
Just in the last few decades has the system turned for the worse. It used to be that state schools would fund research of all kinds. Sometimes funding would go towards scientists, authors, or even poets (see Bukowski), but the days of giving back to intellectuals is gone and with it the last great American authors.
If the trend continues “academic inflation” will keep a degree from landing you a job. Soon it could take a Master's to get that entry level position with no respect. Stop worrying about grades and jobs and start taking the classes you want. Find your path to your “calling” not a job. And please quit trying to find lasting satisfaction in the bar.
