Breaking the mold

We've all had times when we felt completely ostracized somehow, whether it's by the popular kids at school, people at work, or even society at large. I, for my part, have never felt more shunned as I did when I left college. I can't even count the number of raised eyebrows I met when people got the idea that I left school by choice.

I once read that in the field of sociology, an "institution" is something that people just accept without questioning. Well, then by all means, college really IS an institution.

People no longer ask "Why are you going to college?" Instead they say, "Why AREN'T you going to college?" Or, more often (in my experience) "You SHOULD go to college because [insert propaganda here]."

The problem with institutions is that when we stop questioning them, we also stop knowing whether they work. But merely a year into my education at a university, I started to get the feeling that college wasn't working. It wasn't what I'd expected it to be, or what people told me it'd be.

I started wondering, "What am I doing here?" When the next year's financial aid statement came in the mail and I realized that I'd have to go deep into debt in order to graduate, the question became "What is being here going to do for ME?"

I spent an entire semester pondering the question and teetering on the edge of debt before I finally decided to take a break. I wanted to figure out my reasons for going to college.

Leaving school voluntarily was my first experience in questioning the system. It was also one of the most difficult and challenging periods of my life. But what I learned during my time OFF from formal education proved to be invaluable, especially when it comes to sustainability.

The Truth About College

We're all born into some kind of economic and cultural system. It dictates the norms that we live by, and we often take it for granted--unless, of course, something happens which jolts our awareness.

For me, that something was college, and the frustration, disappointment, and anguish that came with it.

I remember sitting in class and taking notes, only to reciprocate the information during an exam. I'd discovered the recipe for success: Show up, remember, and repeat. And it worked. By my second semester of college, I had a 4.0 GPA. But I can't even tell you what classes I took that semester, not to mention who my professors were, or what I was supposed to have learned.

Eventually, I came to realize that the purpose of college was not so much to teach you, but to TRAIN you.

You see, our economy, which is based on Industrial-Age principles, depends on millions and millions of people spending the majority of their lives doing something that they don't particularly like doing.

Think about the mass-production line at a factory. Who wants to spend all day putting a particular screw on a specific part of an arbitrary product, over and over again, day after day?

Our modern economy is no different. I barely know anybody who even remotely enjoys what they do for a living, aside from the compensation they receive for doing it.

--And that's what college really comes down to, if you think about it.

I recently came across something I wrote when I was in college, and while feeling particularly bitter: "The most crucial thing that college teaches you is how to drag your miserable self out of bed and do what's expected of you in exchange for immediate gratification (parties on the weekend, paychecks in the future) and vague long-term benefits."

I'm not saying that you can't learn anything in college. But I HAVE observed that success in college and a passion for learning are largely incompatible. Don't believe me? Try pursuing your interests uninhibitedly and getting good grades at the same time. Your GPA depends on learning what your professors want you to learn, not what YOU want to learn.

I share this sentiment with Mark Twain, who once said "I never let schooling get in the way of my education."

Soon after realizing that the purpose of college is to train you to be a good worker, I found out that my financial aid package had been decimated to half its original size. This meant that I would have to go into debt in order to stay in school, which made me wonder what role a college degree would play in my future.

What worried me most was that if I DID choose to stay in school and take out thousands of dollars' worth of student loans, I'd be forced to take a job right after college in order to pay them back--even if it was a job I didn't like.

For most of my life, I'd wanted to make a career out of helping the environment, and anyone who's tried knows that those jobs are few and far between--and NOT the most lucrative opportunities in the job market.

But massive student debt would've severely limited my alternatives after college. And this was not a sacrifice I was prepared to make.

Unfortunately, it's a sacrifice that most people DO make, often without looking back--or ahead. With tuition bills hiking at phenomenal rates, a college degree is becoming a one-way ticket to wage slavery, a topic I discuss further in another article (Work, Success, and Sustainability).

What really got me angry was the cultural brainwashing that convinced people it was OK to go into debt and paint yourself in a corner. Everywhere I went, I encountered people who would in one way or another try to convince me that I MUST go to college at all costs....even people whom I'd never met before in my life!

The idea that "college is always good" is another relic of the Industrial Age, which, up until a few decades ago, pretty much held true. As Daniel Quinn put it:

"In the era I grew up in (nearly half a century ago), getting a college degree was almost like getting vaccinated. It was something you HAD to do if you had career expectations of any kind (as opposed to being merely a blue-collar worker)....Things are different now, as I'm sure you know. Just having a bachelor's degree doesn't automatically put you on the high road to success. A bachelor's degree won't automatically put you financially ahead of high-school graduates or assure you of higher lifetime earnings. To make matters even worse, today's graduates often begin their working careers burdened with heavy student-loan debts." From Ishmael.org.

This idea that there is only one right way to do things, and that everyone should conform to this ideal, made itself clear to me every time someone I didn't know told me I should go to college. It was no different than Europeans telling, and later forcing, indigenous peoples to change their way of life.

It was this profound insight that sensitized me to one of our system's biggest faults, which I might've never noticed if it wasn't for my willingness to challenge one of the most common institutions--college.

To Go, or Not To Go?

I'm not anti-college, nor am I insisting that nobody should go. To say that "college is always BAD" would mean perpetuating just another "one right way to live." In fact, as of this writing I've returned to college, but with a much better understanding of what it is and what it can do for me--and not without a healthy dose of skepticism and caution.

The most important thing to remember is that college is a means to an end--it is not an end itself, to be accomplished at all costs, as our culture will have you believe.

I, for example, have chosen a career path in which having a college degree is extremely helpful. That, combined with my decision to attend a state school where I can stay free and clear of debt, makes my time at college worthwhile, and much less frustrating than it used to be.

Thomas J. Stanley writes in The Millionaire Mind that "If you are without goals, college may be a nightmare. The earlier in life you determine what you really want to do, really want to become, the easier and more purposeful your training will be" (p209).

On the flip side, Daniel Quinn observes that...

"The worst reason people have for going to college (in my opinion) is a vague notion that the SHOULD; they have no specific reason for doing so....(Kids whose parents didn't go to college themselves are especially vulnerable to this reasoning.) I would speculate that nine out of ten people who go to college for this reason come away feeling that they wasted their time and money, that their college experience wasn't nearly as enriching as they expected it to be." Ishmael.org.

Yet that's the typical route--graduate from high school, go straight to college, graduate, and next thing you know you're in a cubicle with a college degree in one hand and a student loan bill in the other.

I recommend taking time off, whether it's before college or in the middle of it, to get an idea of what you want to do with your life. I spent my time off working full-time at a bookstore, where I was able to save money AND explore my interests. I worked side by side with Ivy-League graduates who were in the same boat. And when I felt it was time to move on, I did, with a much better idea of where I wanted to go.

Odds are, you'll go back to school like I did, but with your head on straight...Or, you might even decide that college does not fall into your plans. My boyfriend, who's an independent inventor, decided early on that college would not be worth the investment in his situation, and has never regretted his choice.

In the process, I suspect you'll learn a lot about yourself, as I did, and will gain some useful practice in challenging the system. I've observed that most people's life's purpose, and the greatest achievements by humans, are centered around a desire to change the system. I myself am driven by a desire to transform our social and economic system into a sustainable one.

So if you want to get more out of college than social conditioning, a piece of paper, and debt, don't be afraid to challenge the system. College is a great place to start.

When figuring out what you want out of college, it helps to know what's out there, especially when it comes to sustainability. EnviroEducation.com is an amazing resource I visited often during my soul-searching sabbatical...I think you'll find it helpful, too.

It's also good to know what lies outside the college box. One of the books I added to my library during tough times was The UnCollege Alternative by Danielle Wood. It's nice to know that there are other ways to go--it makes going to college feel like more of a choice, rather than a requirement.