Here's a topic which I consider, in my mind, every so often, so I thought I should write something about it here. Remember back to the good old days of the world of education? One of the things that was remarkable about the world of academia is how poorly it prepares you for the "real world." And, for the sake of this particular argument, not specifically in terms of what you learn, but about how you perform.
If you're in college and you get a 64% on a test, there are classes where that's actually a decent grade (well, at least there were where I went). In high school, you could take the AP test and get a 4, while the top score was 5, and still get college credit. A "B" was a decent grade. A score of 98% was, in most circumstances, amazing.
But now we're all older, and we're off in the real world. Here, you have to be perfect. If your job is a bridge designer, you have to get 100% every single time. If you get a 99.8%, as a bridge designer, guess what that means? People are going to die. In my job, simply working in a hotel, if I'm anywhere less than 100%, people are going to be pissed off. They're going to complain, my manager is going to get pissed at me, and so on.
So here's the question. Why does our education system prepare you for a life of mediocrity which is not acceptable in real life? Where do all these people who are nowhere near perfect go?
I guess it explains Enron, the Bush Administration, "Gigli," and half of this fall's season on Broadway.
Posted by Jon at December 21, 2003 10:41 AM | TrackBack