Education is changing
I am glad that many companies are starting to devalue traditional education and look at actual work projects when hiring. A piece of paper doesn't mean anything for some fields of work. Schools also don't implant the important value mentality into their students. I think attitudes towards traditional school education are changing because of online courses and self learning.
The benefits of education
There absolutely are good sides to schooling. There exist professions where an diploma is necessary. You wouldn't want a self taught surgeon to perform open heart surgery. If you aren't sure what you want to do in your life, a school education is a great choice. It gives you a small glimpse into a large variety of different subjects. You can then choose to specialize in a few of those subjects. Friends and family will also respect you for attending school, i wish the same respect and support was given to people who try to become successful without a higher level education.
The negatives of education
A school will give you a introduction for lots of subjects but it will not make you a specialist. It's better to level up one of your skills to mastery before trying to learn something else. You can actually produce value for yourself or someone else with skill mastery, but a jack of all trades will find it hard to utilize all of their skills when looking for employment. But the biggest weakness of schools is not teaching the value mentality
Value mentality
The biggest life changing moment once i understood the value mentality. The entire philosophy can be summed like this : "Everything should be learned to produce value" This is something that no school is teaching. Learning for the sake of learning is the biggest waste of time. You should always be learning something in order to utilize it. Start thinking what you want to build instead of what you can build. When i was school we had mandatory Swedish courses and learned how to use it as a working language. If i want to work in Sweden i will learn the language, learning it now is simply learning something which cannot currently utilize
There are a lot of schools which understand the importance of work experience and setup mandatory internships. Allowing students to produce concrete value to companies is great and we need more of it.
Final thoughts
Saying that all schools are a waste of time is ludicrous. You need to think logically and ponder the good and bad sides. Don't let your family members pressure you into a school, If you think you can learn something without schooling then learn it yourself. School can be used to enhance your abilities but you should never rely on a diploma to bring you success in life.
