What's the point?

This post is largely inspired by a comment made by Chris Horrie yesterday. He said 'the outcome of education is enlightenment.' This comment has being going round in my mind because until yesterday everyone I have ever been taught by has instilled in me the belief that the outcome of education is knowledge and success.

As we move through the motions of the education system, being rewarded with what can be simply explained as pieces of paper with various letters of the alphabet on to reflect our achievements we are taught that by ticking all the right educational boxes we will grow up to have successful lives; the closer to the top of the alphabet your letters are, the better you will do in life.

Of course as soon as we learn of the success of people such as Richard Branson, with no qualifications to their name, the theory that top grades lead to success flies out the window, onto the street below and gets run over by a Lamborghini driven by someone who dropped out of school at 14!

If you were to look at my GCSE and A-level results you might assume that I have worked incredibly hard at my education my whole life. The truth is I have spent the majority of my educational life being certain that I would drop out after taking my GCSEs, then decided I would drop out after my A-levels, and then thought I would drop out of University after my first year; but each time something stops me. Until Chris' comment yesterday, the thing which has stopped me dropping out at various points of my life has been the belief that by staying in education I would have a successful life.

The idea that the outcome of education is enlightenment is not something I had ever really considered. I completed coursework and exams purely based on the belief that they were building blocks to a more successful life.

Since yesterday I have been considering why we are not taught that education is valuable for more than being vocationally successful. Had I spent my time in education being given the encouragement that I was moving towards some form of enlightenment I am quite certain that I would not have considered quitting at so many points!

I believe that no one should be forced to be educated in something which does not interest them, or causes stress, confusion and unhappiness. While vocational or monetary success do have a places in society, if they do not have a value in your life then don't worry if you are not moving towards them! I would urge those of you reading this, whether you are in education or not, to educate yourselves with things which are going to bring you happiness and enlightenment.

Year Two!

Next week I will be starting my second year at Winchester studying journalism and after a long summer off I have to say I am looking forward to it. Last week I bought the Oxford dictionary of philosophy so I think it is safe to say that I have my University head back on!

This year along side studying the history and context of journalism I have also been given the role of a feature writer for WINOL. I am really looking forward to writing because it is my goal in life to be a writer and last year I got a bit bogged down with the broadcast side of journalism rather than the writing.

As you can see it has been a number of months since I last posted on here but as of today I will be updating regularly so keep looking on here for a variety of posts!