Formal education is not enough

I never finished school. I blame my dyslexia. Not sure if that is the real reason for dropping out, but it’s the one that makes sense to me. You see… I love learning. I am always curious, asking questions and on the move. But formal education just didn’t offer me the environment and system to support my way of learning. If anything it stifled me, and made me unhappy and insecure.

The one big eye-opening moment for me was the realisation of how I could learn outside of school as well. School did not have a monopoly on learning; I discovered what I now know as informal education. But I did not have access to the internet during those days. Yes, I’m old… No Google, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit or Wikipedia. Just TV, Radio, libraries and friends. How on earth did we manage?

If we look at the landscape of available content now, formal education is not your best resource. Formal education should focus on personal development, how to learn and critical thinking. We should up-skill people to find and make sense of all the weird and wonderful information out there.

Hopefully, this newsletter will help you a tiny little bit as well.