The Outlier’s Guide to Education — Part 1

How American Schools Set Students Up to Fail

Three ways our education system has let us down

Photo by Nicola Tolin on Unsplash

What is the purpose of education?

1. To get good grades?
2. To get into the best universities?
3. To get the best jobs?

Actually, it is none of these. The purpose of education is to inspire action to better the world and lead us to personal fulfillment. Yet you wouldn’t know it by looking at our education system today.

1. Our Current Education System Trains Us to Value Status Over Impact

The education system as it is today trains us from an early age to value grades for what it deems to be “requirements.” If we do well in class, teachers bestow us with an A. If we do poorly, we get an F. Year after year of this convinces young people that success is an A. This type of success changes our thinking. Instead of viewing success as an actual improvement to the world, the education system teaches us that success is achieving a certain status relative to our peers.