Life
The Perils of Youth
Lastly, we’re telling young people that “This – pointing at school – is what needs to drive you. This is what should wake you up in the morning. This is what you need to live for, because if you get a good education, you’ll get a good job, and your family will be happy”. We are telling them what needs to motivate them, rather than paying attention to what they are inclined to do or what naturally or actually motivates them and then teach them how to use school to pursue it. So what if we took a different approach? What if we stopped expecting young people to be motivated or driven by school, but taught them how to use school as leverage to pursue what actually motivates them? Or help them to see school as a way to unlock their passion? Where they’re no longer just chasing the degree, but they are chasing the knowledge, and the degree becomes a byproduct of that. What if we get them to see the bigger picture. Where school isn’t just a destination, but rather a tool that you have access too.
I’m not enrolled in a university, but sometimes I’ll still drop in on classes when I have the time, because it’s the knowledge I’m after, not the degree. But it’s also because I’m motivated by something other than school. School and education is a part of my bigger picture, but it isn’t my bigger picture. We need to stop expecting these young people to be motivated by school. I’m really asking you (border line begging you, all of you) to ask a high school student why they’re in school. There is a problem that our young people are facing and it’s so much bigger than laziness or attention deficit disorder (ADD). They are falling through the cracks of society.
