Why Self Education Is Superior To Today’s Structured Schooling

A Hatred Of School

I, like many kids, always hated school. Now I am not talking about a petty childish hatred of school, or the “I hate being cooped up all day and want to go out and play” kind of hatred of school. Nor am I referring to a hatred of 1980s and 90s school social culture—cliques, status, sports, bullying, hierarchy, etc—which was often criticized in my day in the wake of school shootings. No, what I am talking about is a serious and legitimate hatred of the structured, regimented, formal, and forced “learning” of school.

I absolutely hated the structured learning and grading of public school and formal education. In school, I generally despised being told what to study, what to read, what to write, what projects to complete, what assignments were due, as well as the assigning of pointless busywork and homework and then, to top it all off, being arbitrarily “graded” by some depressed divorced wino with a liberal arts degree and a chip on her shoulder.

Now I could understand and appreciate that a certain point of these tasks was to teach responsibility, and to prepare students for the deadlines and pressures of the workplace and “real world,” but that didn’t mean I had to like it. It also wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy or appreciate learning and knowledge. I was always an avid reader growing up, so I much preferred to read the fiction and non-fiction books of my own choosing, at my own leisure, while independently studying subjects of interest on my own time.

As such, I pretty much skated through school and college with minimal effort and an apathetic attitude. I rarely applied myself academically, and was generally an academic slacker, with the exception of select projects or classes that happened to hold my interest. Luckily, I was always intelligent enough to pull in decent grades with practically little effort on my part, so I made the rational decision early on in high school and college not to expend a lot of time or energy academically, when just “half-assing” it would suffice with decent results. The only reason I even stuck it out in college, despite contemplating quitting after every semester, was the military—but that’s another story altogether.

Now I am not special. I’m not sitting here trying to compare myself to Einstein, who was also apparently bored by school early on due to his superior intellect.  The point of this brief anecdote is simply to say that I—like many kids—hated the structure and forced learning environment of formal education. Many kids, especially those that are academically gifted and of higher intelligence, hate the regimented structure of being told what to study, and how to do so.

This formal structure—by design—rarely does anything to encourage or promote independent thought and learning, or critical thinking skills. It only truly caters to the suggestible, the submissive, the conformist, and the over-achiever eager to please. And while the progressive “educators” still claim to promote individualism and creativity, it is only within their fascist guidelines of political-correctness and non-offensiveness.

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Problems With Modern “Education”

Yet this article is not really about the problems with today’s educational and academia system–of which there are countless–and I therefore don’t want to get too off topic by elaborating on these issues. Suffice it to say, that these problems will only continue to increase as the educational system becomes even more progressive, feminized, centralized, and geared towards the lowest common denominator.

Essentially, it is a system increasingly designed to indoctrinate, not educate. And although this indoctrination is primarily found in the subjective liberal arts subjects, a generation of students neutered in independent thought, independent learning, critical thinking, and creativity skills will eventually bleed over into the sciences, tech, engineering, and mathematics fields as well.

Yet the “STEM” fields are also not entirely immune from the systemic indoctrination and social-engineering of progressive education. For as these fields become increasingly feminized in a ridiculous politically correct attempt to encourage girls, it will inevitably discourage young men, while also stifling the creativity historically attributed to men in these fields.

Finally, when the system isn’t busy indoctrinating children, the remaining time is spent acting in loco parentis for the problem children, or the children of parents who expect the system to raise their kids for them. This then further diverts time and resources away from actually “educating” intelligent kids who may actually have a real future. Therefore, is it really any wonder why children, especially young men, are becoming more and more disillusioned with school?

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Seeking Self Enlightenment

So just because the modern educational system is increasingly forsaking intelligent young men, while catering to an ever-increasing population of lobotomized children devoid of independent thought, this is still no excuse for children and men to “lay down and die” intellectually. This is instead a call-to-arms for all men—especially those of you still in school or college—to understand that the educational system is broken, and to free yourself from the chains of indoctrination.

Seek and embrace the power of self-education. There is no excuse for ignorance.  In fact, I view the concept of self-education within the larger context of the MGTOW movement as a whole.

Men should view the acquisition of knowledge, and the strengthening of the mind, as one of the key pillars in overall self-improvement. As such, there is a liberating freedom and joy found in pursuing your own academic interests and study. While the structure of formal education is often intellectually confining and stressful, self-education should be relaxing, cathartic, and enlightening.

Self-education can mean many different things to different people–and there is technically no wrong answer–but the way I see it, self-education is the pursuit of knowledge and learning, in areas and subjects of one’s own choosing, and at one’s own leisure. It is the pursuit of constructive and intellectually stimulating and strengthening endeavors.

I understand that not everyone enjoys reading, but I can’t stress enough the importance of reading as a foundation of self-education and improvement. I believe that all men should take the time to read, and to study topics and subjects of their own interest. I also believe that these topics should include a wide range of non-fiction, as well as current events, news, editorials, and classic literature, as a part of becoming intellectually well-rounded.

Yet self-education can be much more than just reading, it can also include pursuing constructive hobbies, learning new skills, or engaging in group conversation and debate. It may also include learning to play an instrument or music, or perhaps taking up other artistic or literary pursuits. Self-education can also include teaching yourself a new skill through trial and error, or learning a new skill or trade under the instruction of a qualified teacher or class.

Simply because the educational system is broken, that doesn’t mean that one cannot benefit from a formal class, or instruction under a qualified teacher or mentor. There are still decent and qualified teachers out there, as well as practical or informative classes—whether college, community college, trade schools, continuing education, or community classes.  Self-education does not have to be solitary, it simply means pursuing your own intellectual interests at your own leisure, and for your own enjoyment and benefit.

I am also not advocating dropping out, or failing to complete your primary education just because the system is broken. This also does not necessarily mean that you should forgo formal education or college, if it’s something that you desire or need for a chosen career path, so long as you weigh the costs and benefits. In the end, all I am saying is to be the master of your own educational and intellectual destiny.

Conclusion

Self-education—and the pursuit of knowledge and truth—should be the goal of all men, regardless of how they may achieve it, or how they may perceive their own intelligence. There is simply no excuse for ignorance.

Although I personally have a college degree, I am not some sort of elitist snob who equates a degree or higher education with intelligence or knowledge. In fact, in many cases, a degree is nothing more than a very expensive sheet of paper. The pursuit of knowledge does not require a degree or formal education to validate it, nor does it necessarily require those things to achieve it. Self-education is liberating, enlightening, and is a lifelong pursuit, and it is up to you how you achieve it.

Read More: 5 Signs The American Education System Is Doomed 

108 thoughts on “Why Self Education Is Superior To Today’s Structured Schooling”

  1. School is a great system to make friends, get pussy, goof off, and create memories.
    Do not replace traditional education with a home-schooling or self-education model. You’ll miss out on a ton of pussy and booze.

    1. A sizable proportion of today’s college-going guys are already missing out of pussy. One doesn’t need high school or college for booze, either.

      1. That’s true, and if your child is reaping zero social benefits from schooling it’s time to move them.

    2. That is great advice, if we are to keep producing trainloads of dejected, lost hipster manginas. One or two natural alphas enoy it, great, for the rest of young men however it is close to a spiritual death sentence.

      1. I’m not a subscriber to the direct correlation between school and manginas. Effective parenting is the difference between becoming a mangina IMO.
        I would argue that homeschooling creates a higher percentage of manginas due to the lack of facilitating necessary social skills.

        1. Agree. Isolating a boy in a home school setting will pussify him. If it is a girl, she will most likely develop a spoilt princess syndrome.
          Youngsters look to their peers when developing social skils. Its a process of imitation. It all serves to teach about the brutal realities of life. There are hierarchies in all social settings, and a child most learn how to fit in.
          Sheltering your child from the harshness of reality will only weaken resistance to opposition faced in adult life. Its better to pick a private school which instills the right values and discipline.

        2. Isolating a boy in a home school setting will pussify him. If it is a girl, she will most likely develop a spoilt princess syndrome.

          Assuming that all homeschooled children are “isolated” is buying into SJW propaganda.

        3. No I dont think so. I am not saying that the child does not have possibilities to socialize in other settings. But this will normally require extra work on the part of the parents.
          And most of his peers will already have formed friendships in school when they meet up for team sports in their spare time.
          I have no doubt that you are a good parent. But less dedicated homeschoolers will risk neglecting the needs of their child.

        4. How old are you? 10-15 years ago, kids could come out of schools unscathed, if their home life and parents were solid. Now, I think it is almost impossible for a decent parent to allow their children to attend public school. The only kids who would come out of a modern, public high school without being a “mangina,” would be males who deliberately disconnected themselves from what was going on around them. That is what I did, and I can tell you that I wish somebody had given me the forum and opportunity to disconnect in a more productive way. I would have disconnected in either case, but having to do so while an army of aging lesbians bitched at me for it was a far more dramatic experience than it needed to be. There are plenty of men who need to disconnect from the modern schooling system. Let them do it together; let parents home school and get together amongst themselves.

        5. It’s six the one, an half dozen the other. Parents who send their kids to a modern-day public school are also gravely neglecting the needs of their children, especially if the child is male. In my experience with home-schooling, students are nowhere near as isolated as you imagine; sometimes even when both parents work, arrangements are still made for their children to spend the day with other home-schooling groups/families. But even if they were so isolated, this is simply a different, and equally heinous, malformation as would be received in public schooling.

    3. Do not replace traditional education with a home-schooling or self-education model.

      Disagree. SJWs own the public-k12 education system lock, stock and barrel. If you want your kids to be brainwashed into rabid leftist Marxist SJWs, send them to a public school.

      1. That may be true, and the public education system is probably much different from when I attended. That being said, are you really willing to let the SJW bogeyman isolate your children from their community and deprive them of the extracurriculars of a normal school setting?
        I’m sure most of us attended secondary school and even college. I happened to attend a fairly liberal university but surrounded myself with like-minded individuals. Now I’m here. Freethinkers will always question the status quo once it becomes fishy.

        1. I do agree that children should not be shielded from how the world works, even when it comes to dealing with aspects of it that we do not like.
          However, in their formative years, it is essential to keep them out of leftist indoctrination centers for as long as possible. Once the desired ideology is grounded into the child as the right way to think, then he can be let loose upon the world.
          As Lenin said, “Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.”

    4. “You’ll miss out on pussy, booze, athletics, music, debate team, journalism, politics, and any sort of group activity within the community.”
      I think that public schools have to let homeschoolers in on the extra-curricular. That’s how (IIRC) Tim Tebow wound up playing QB in HS when he was being homeschooled. Not sure how far that goes, i.e. dunno if the homeschoolers get to go to prom, etc., but also bear in mind that there will be sports programs, etc. that are not affiliated with schools (e.g. Pop Warner football, LL Baseball, etc.)
      Mistral

      1. You’re correct. Tim Tebow needed legislation to pass him through to high school sports. They called it the “Tim Tebow” law.

    5. You honestly believe that modern indoctrination, sorry I mean education these days is about making friends and getting pussy while still learning a useful life skill? It’s about perversion, retardation, anti-free thinking, and making the perfect wage slave out of you.
      Here’s what the proposed new Sex Ed Curriculum is in Ontario, Canada which is being set to begin in September, 2015.
      Grades 1 – 8
      Grade 1 – Graphic lesson on sexual body parts including “penis”, “testicles”, “vagina”, “vulva” and more
      Grade 3 – Will teach the theory of “gender identity”. This is the notion that whether you’re a boy or a girl does not necessarily relate to your physical anatomy. It is merely a “social construct”. Gender is “fluid” according to this theory, and any little boy can decide that he is actually a girl, if that’s the way he feels in his mind, or vice-versa.
      Grade 6 – -Encourages masturbation as a “pleasurable” way for children to learn about their bodies, that is “not harmful”
      Grade 7 – Anal intercourse” and “oral-genital contact”
      I imagine in America this shit is much worse with common core and planned parenthood.

      1. And they’ll be surprised when the students start telling their teachers stories that sound like they’re out of a Lena Dunham biography …
        Oh, right, we’re already there.

    6. How is forgoing public school “isolating” kids? When else in history have kids raised each other in a locked down insane asylum?
      What a kindness to be “isolated” from that!
      Goofing off? Maybe after school. I seem to remember 7 hours a day sitting at a desk and watching the clock.
      Public schools are primarily public daycare that allow parents to spend more hours being “productive” cranking away at the wheels of the “economy.”

      1. Bravissimo, Giovanni. The assumption amongst so many is that farming kids by age-level within a caged campus is the “normal” socialization. Kids have never been treated this way and, obviously, grew up far more appropriately socialized.

    7. No, most home-schooling parents I know, have their kids involved in group activities through churches or cooperative efforts amongst other home-schooling parents. Their kids learn music, have dances, debates, chess clubs, etc. Sports can be harder, if there are only enough kids to form two teams… but, there are plenty of other ways to hook up with people and play some extra-curricular sports. Home-schooled kids also interact with a broad variety of people and age groups, so they grow up in a more natural way, as people have always done, rather than being processed through an affected socialization with only other kids of their own age. If you are a sheltered, fearful family, which will raise your kids in a bubble, then perhaps home-schooling will cause the kids to miss out on the things you mention above. In my experience, most home-schooling is not like this… at least, not anymore.
      I think it’s perfectly healthy for kids to miss out on pussy… I don’t have a problem with serious, responsible kids getting married at 16, 17 or 18, though, as has certainly happened for most of human history; this is when many “kids” in high school would be having their first sexual encounters anyway. A huge victory for feminism, has been getting women to wait until their late twenties before they even think of marriage; getting them pregnant and busy at home by the time they are 17-19 is a great way to allow them to develop their feminine, nurturing side in its first flower, rather than starving it for 10, 20 or more years… I agree that it is irrational to expect chastity from people, if you are also asking them to delay marriage for more than a decade after they have become ready for sexual activity. There’s no reason why the essential reading, writing and arithmetic done by most adults in the course of their jobs, could not be successfully learned by the age of 12 (if not before). Specialized training for particular trades could be well under weigh, if not completed, by 16-18. There’s no reason for people to be delaying adulthood until they’re 30. It’s pathetic.

      1. Yes! Young people should be prepared for adult life well before age 18.
        Why doesn’t anyone seem to recognize the perversion of public schools churning out millions of helpless young people so their parents can work longer hours and earn higher wages?
        This is all about short term orientation; eating one’s seed corn for the sake of the now.
        Eating one’s young is one of the most despicable and unnatural crimes imaginable. I would rather die than do it to my children.
        We see the horror of this in the story of Cronus the jealous father of the Olympian Greek Gods who ate his own kids so his power would never be challenged.
        Every other tribe and people on the face of the planet initiates its young people.
        “Modern” society has no initiation.
        Initiation is one of the basic duties society owes young people. If it does not deliver, it can no longer legitimately claim their allegiance or cooperation, it cannot ask them to pass down its traditions and values.
        The duty of a rejected young person is to create new traditions and spread those instead.

  2. I can see some merit to either approach, but neither approach provides a complete education. For example, it is virtually impossible to apply math in a practical sense unless you have formally learned it. But, all the formal classes in the world will not teach you to apply math critically to examine other subjects – like the 1 in 5 myth.
    But this article is a great conmpanion to the other article today about how are debates are predefined to exclude non-vetted choices and confirm societal narratives. For example, it would be easy to, and I think most people would, read this as a choice between alternative and traditional schooling. What remains unexamined is whether it is even worthwhile to have universal schooling in the first place, or whether education really does provide the value that is assumed.

  3. Unfortunately when you are dealing with children, most of them only want to learn the subjects considered “fun”, if any at all.
    For this reason structured schooling is a necessity. Applying libertarian principles to children as if they were small rational autonomous actors is a perversion of the natural order.
    The question is not if learning should be structured, even home schooling will require structuring, but the actual content of learning.
    Now most western education leaves alot to be desired, in addition to cultural marxist propaganda. and dumbing down. But that is a whole different topic.

    1. Unfortunately when you are dealing with children, most of them only want to learn the subjects considered “fun”, if any at all.

      This isn’t a problem in a homeschool setting as the parents doing the teaching have far more flexibility to make an otherwise boring and mundane subject interesting in a way that they know the child will appreciate.
      Contrast this with the one-size-fits-all forced approach in public k12 schools, coupled with the disastrous Common Core indoctrination methodology. Both will do far more to turn young kids off to “unfun” subjects.

      1. Perhaps. But introducing flexibility into the curricula does not make learning less structured. Some learning is just not very fun, its strenous and repetitive.
        Its a sort of postmodern idealistic notion that you can make all subjects fun by tailoring the subject to the needs of your special Little snowflake. The world just doesnt work that way.
        And sure by homeschooling you can cut out much of the common core PC indoctrination. No doubt about that. But I seriously doubt that parents on average are that competent teachers. On average they will be slightly incompetent at teaching various subjects, if not worse.
        Resorting to private tutors is a way out of this mess, but they are often quite expensive. Might as well place your child in a prvate school to your liking, which will both save time and Money. especially the opportunity cost associated with parents teaching.

        1. Some learning is just not very fun, its strenous and repetitive.

          Agreed, but adaptability as a homeschooling parent still helps here. We don’t gloss over the hard or unfun stuff, but we also do not want to turn the kids off to learning either. Ideally, we’d like our kids to embrace the fact that for some subjects, hard studying and focus is required, and to approach those subjects accordingly.
          Many of us when we were in school had our intellectual curiosities snuffed out because we didn’t want to learn things the way they were presented.

          But I seriously doubt that parents on average are that competent teachers.

          The level of book knowledge needed to teach pretty much any k12 subject matter can be had either through the myriad of teaching materials available to homeschooling parents as well as through online resources.

        2. Well neither did I want to learn in a certain manner, I hated school for various reasons. I only excelled once I reached college, especially graduate level. But I was a a grown man at that time, and was able to structure my time and effort independently.
          Children are not able to do this. And without strict discipline and guidance there are some subjects I would have completely ignored. No matter what way it was presented.
          I wont claim that elementary or middle school curricula is rocket science. But low educated parents will still struggle with this material.
          And some people are just not naturally good teachers.
          So overall, this will never be the optimal solution for a great number of people. For stong financially independent parents, who dont depend on two full time incomes, this may work out.

        3. Teachers are not all that well educated or bright. I live in an average middle class neighbourhood, and I would guess that the parents are at least as well educated as the teachers and many are well more educated than the teachers.

        4. Tell that to all the single mothers out there… too bad I suppose, they are too busy in their own bubble to really think about the kids.

        5. Absolutely. I’m trying to remember exactly how small was the amount of time, which John Taylor Gatto had determined was necessary to each anybody the necessary material from k-12.
          …actually, it was worth getting the book and looking up. He said: “What, after all this time, is the purpose of mass schooling supposed to be? Reading, writing and arithmetic can’t be the answer, because properly approached those things take less than an hundred hours to transmit – and we have abundant evidence that each is really self-taught in the right setting and time.” – Dumbing Us Down, 4.IV.(pg. 61)
          Whatever is essential from k-12 schooling is easily learned in a short amount of time. This is why I was such a “bad student;” I was irritated that they were still having us “learn” basic rules of spelling and grammar in my Honor’s English class in 9th grade… hadn’t we already learned this in 2nd grade? And why did “Social Studies” cover the exact, same material over and over again on a three year rotation – Ancient World History, Early Modern History and WWII + the Important Achievements of Baby-Boomer SJWs? If they really believed we were incapable of retaining information after Summer Vacation from one year to the next, why bother teaching us anything? What could a diploma mean, other than that we had mastered information with a three-month expiration date? I had checked out of the edumucation process by 5th grade… but I continued to teach myself plenty, on my own time, usually by ignoring the assigned busy work.
          In other words, public schooling is clearly not about education. Anybody can learn its essentials by the time they are 10, and whatever extra needs to be accomplished – Algebra, Music, Art, Trigonometry, Physics, Chemistry, etc. – will be within the competency of an enterprising parent or, failing that, easily obtained by networking amongst home schooling parents. I don’t doubt, as Jannik does, that most parents would be able to teach even Trigonometry with a bit of perseverance; and for those subjects where a parent may be incompetent, there is always another parent who can teach piano, or algebra, etc. Certainly the parents can’t be any stupider than the bitter old maids (or slatterns) who tried to teach us “Graphing Calculator Operations 101.”

        6. Home Schooling parents are generally adept at forming networks amongst themselves, often via churches or, increasingly, via the web and other communal resources. Not every parent can teach algebra or piano, but there is some other parent who will gladly teach these skills for pay or barter.

        7. This Network you speak of may as well form a small private school. Thereby acquiring the gains from specializtion by hiring private teachers. And saving costs form parents forced to stay at home instead of working.

        8. Most of these families view the mother staying at home as a feature, not a bug; the costs of a mother “working” outside the home, far outweigh the benefit and value she provides by remaining there. Also, in this day and age institutions and organizations have a tendency to go nuts and get co-opted. It also takes more money to get property, deal with all the paperwork, hire and fire, etc., when running an whole school. This way, parents simply form connections and interact with each other voluntarily as people, who are free to end or alter their arrangements in a way that is more difficult in an institution. Since mothers are home anyway, and already have these skills, it is easy to simply cooperate with each other. That way, there are also no questions of taxes, etc., since everything is barter or charity (or cash) and well under the table. Would you rather be stuck teaching piano all day to students not of your choosing, with your income taxed, in a school…. or, would you rather take on whomever it pleased you to take, and in however great a number, with the ability to arrange your schedule with flexibility, with a non-taxed income or beneficial trade? That’s why many home-school folks do as they do.

    2. At my public high school, most teachers were women. Almost every assignment in English/ Literature classes was an essay where we had to write about ourselves (i.e. some sappy shit about emotional self-discovery) and if you didn’t hand something in about how you found out you were gay or about how your father is pressuring you to go join the military but you want to be a dancer, the cunt teachers would say that you weren’t trying and give you a C. That school needed structure. Not just for the students, but for the bitch teachers who weren’t smart enough to have that kind of discretion when it came to the curriculum.

      1. Thats a problem no doubt. But this does not imply that home schooling is superior. Only that the standard of public schools in America is low and that there is a lot of PC indoctrination going on.
        A right minded private school is a better solution.

      2. Sounds like you lacked game. A friend of mine wrote an essay about how illegal street drifting defined him… he got an A because he played the emotional strings. Game or get played. AP English senior year for those doing fact checking.

    3. Both points are essential – what direction can a child get from an upbringing with little or no structure – which often involves things aside from the actual curricula? Simultaneously, how best to nurture a child’s potential to positive gain?
      No talent flourishes on its own, without a supportive environment, and equally, success isn’t achievable just by conformity and hard work alone. Middle ground is a necessity.

    4. If students see the real-life application of what they’re taught, they’ll have more motivation to learn. Also, a good teacher really helps.

  4. Read manosphere blogs. Read “books for men” – IE: philosophy, politics, social observation, self-help. Read a lot of non-fiction. Read only big name fictions if you expect to learn anything (eg: 1984, The Alchemist)
    I know men who hated school, very many of them. They never got to learn because all the problem kids were creating drama and really it was one big glorified nursery where actually learning anything of substance was nigh impossible. These same men left school, did courses and entered trades. Read books in their spare time and have, in many ways, discovered their inner intellectual.
    You know a system is broken when the intellectual potential in a child is not discovered, but rather suppressed. And then not until early adulthood do they discover the joy of trades and book learning at their own leisure. You shouldn’t have to wait until you’re 18-20 years old to finally get a chance to learn in the way that you like, discover things that are actually interesting and learn trades/arts which are both interesting and beneficial, but unfortunately that’s the way it is.
    Be thankful those crazy SJWs aren’t going around banning books and calling trade schools/vocations “misogynistic” or some other heretical shit.

    1. And if you’re REALLY intrepid, read esoterica along with all the other subject you’ve mentioned.

      1. Whatever you do, don’t read esoterica. Read Christian books that will help you grow spiritually.

    2. It’s the social science faggots tainting everything worthwhile with their feelings and relativism, it’s a mental illness

    3. Hey could you recommend any sources where I could get lists of such books? I live in eastern Europe so I’m not really familiar with american writers

    4. “Be thankful those crazy SJWs aren’t going around banning books and calling trade schools/vocations “misogynistic” or some other ridiculous shit.”
      Not yet anyway.

      1. Yeah no kidding. It’s early. Once they realize that men are simply happy with home schooling followed by vocational school and then a life of minimalism interspersed with trips to Mexico, Cuba, Thailand etc. they (the SJW’s) will come gunning. No doubt.

        1. “Yeah no kidding. It’s early. Once they realize that men are simply happy with home schooling followed by vocational school and then a life of minimalism interspersed with trips to Mexico, Cuba, Thailand etc. they (the SJW’s) will come gunning. No doubt.”
          Unless stopped there will be no end to what the SJW’s and feminist pigs want.

      2. Heh. Take a look at the brochures for trade schools, community college vocational programs, and the like these days.
        You can play “Where’s Waldo?” trying to find the white male among the various models they use to portray students.

  5. The most important factor in determining whether or not you learn something is whether or not you care about it. Do you remember?
    1) Your high school buddy who couldn’t name ten state capitols but knew the name and jersey number of every single starter in the NFL.
    2) The girl next door who knew every subtle detail and nuance of the relationship and history of hundreds of couples at school but couldn’t remember the ratio between hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water.
    3) The kid who never read To Kill a Mockingbird but could draw a bird perfectly.
    4) A geek two lockers down who hacked every computer in the school for a senior prank but never figured out what it meant to “make a layup” in twelve years of gym class.
    5) The crew in dirty jeans who couldn’t list all three of Newton’s Laws of Motion even if they worked together, but could probably build a car.
    This is why self-education will always be superior to imposed education. When we car, we learn. When we don’t, we don’t.

      1. Copy that. I felt I was wasting my time learning things that weren’t relevant to me and most likely would never be. Even some of my teachers admitted this, candidly saying that after High School you’ll forget 55% of it (unless you continue to pursue that field of study I guess) and that to pass the course you binge it, pass the exams and then you can regurgitate it. Sounds like an eating disorder.
        On my own, I studied entomology and microbiology and I knew stuff most people didn’t learn before entering med school.
        My grades suffered due to apathy and bullying that the school seemed powerless to prevent.
        Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the teachers there were amazing and you can tell that they didn’t choose this job just for the paycheck, but that doesn’t change the nature of the beast, though.

  6. The more women and incompetent, unprofessional diversity hires infiltrate industries, the lower the standard of excellence falls and the easier it is to be recognized for your basic competence and simple good manners. Of course, this means that everything is going to shit, and that you should demand that your surgeon is male (preferably an older Thai or Filipino), but, hey, there’s some upside.
    For more on how to counter the “education” system, consider the work of this guy: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
    He was a brilliant teacher who worked for years in New York City’s public schools and became an acclaimed consultant, author, and anti-schooling advocate. His work is essential to understanding the totalitarian origins and methods of the American public school system – it was designed to keep natural male creativity and drive to a minimum and cultivate the post-industrial consumer/prole.

  7. Imagine if we found creative ways to stop funding these schools. One way is: don’t own property.
    Every teacher “they” can’t hire means more kids not getting indoctrinated.

    1. Only works if the landlord of your apartment or rental does not bake in the cost of tax on his property into your rent. IOW, it won’t work.

      1. You have to take more control of things and be more careful and creative.
        Very often you can rent a room, even near a large city, for half what an apartment costs and you can pay cash too. I’ve seen that arrangement many times because the owner of the house might be doing it to pay property taxes, but he’s also renting out several rooms. So you figure if the mortgage of the house is like 1200 a month and it’s got three rooms he will rent out each for around 500 give or take, pay the mortgage which certain has property tax figured in and then pocket the rest. (Big deal)
        Those who do this with paid off houses make even bigger bank and good for them!
        I know what fear mongers would say “but… but…. what if the house if foreclosed on! Oh noez! Go pay 1000 a month for a 1 bedroom apt naow!!!!”
        I rented rooms in two houses that got foreclosed on. The advanced warning of this “process” is roughly a year and in one case, towards the end, the landlord was pretty much losing the fight and told me “OK I’m going to lose this house so you don’t have to pay rent any more”.
        Yes, it all depends on “the situation”. Yes it all depends on the people involved. Yes one must not be an aspergian fearist and actually THINK and use their judgement and take chances. When I think of the money I saved by not playing it by the rules (and not filling the coffers of the indoctrination centers) I’m happy.
        I’m sure “the state” will fight back of course by further trying to track and trace every damned little thing. After all Suzy the Marxist teacher needs her paycheck and full medical. But the ways of avoiding this is even more creative and the “rank and file” out there are less inclined towards “civic duty” and are giving less and less of a fuck.

    2. Or, keep your kids out of the public k12 school system. Most school districts receive state-level taxpayer funds based on the amount of students enrolled. Keeping your kids out of those schools reduces that number.
      As more people quit the public k12 system, the political support to fund it will similarly collapse. It won’t happen overnight, but that’s how you starve this particular beast.

  8. More on this topic can be found in the inspiring talk Sir Ken Robinson gave back in 2006, “How schools kill creativity”. And, as Pink Floyd says, “We don’t need no education”.

  9. Women should never teach or lead in schools or powerful leadership positions over men. So what you want about Islam but they did know how to keep a woman in line. Muslim countries have a lot of problems but a bitch ain’t one. A few red pill gems from Prophet Muhammed.
    – “Never will succeed such a nation as lets their affairs carried out by a woman.” (Bukhari, Maghazi, 82, Fitan, 18; Tirmidhi, Fitan, 75; Nasai, Qudat, 8; Ahmad b. Hanbal, V, 43, 51, 38, 47).
    [The Persians allowed the king’s daughter to assume the throne after her father’s death. The prophet said this after hearing about it. Less than 2 decades later the ENTIRE Persia fell to the Arab Muslims]
    – Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (s.a.w.s) said, “If I were to order anyone to prostrate himself before another, I would have ordered a woman to prostrate herself before her husband”.[At-Tirmidhi]
    -Ibn `Umar (May Allah be pleased with them) reported: The Prophet (s.a.w.s) said, “All of you are guardians and are responsible for your subjects. The ruler is a guardian of his subjects, the man is a guardian of his family, the woman is a guardian and is responsible for her husband’s house and his offspring; and so all of you are guardians and are responsible for your subjects.”[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
    -In another narration: Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s) said, “By Him in Whose Hand is my life, when a man calls his wife to his bed, and she does not respond, the One Who is above the heaven becomes displeased with her until he (her husband) becomes pleased with her”.[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
    (Commentary: This Hadith makes it abundantly clear that obedience of the husband is compulsory on the wife. If, in the absence of any lawful reason, she refuses to obey the orders of her husband, she will be liable to the Wrath and Curse of Allah until she returns to obedience. This Hadith has a stern warning for those women who do not care for the displeasure of their husbands because of their bad temperament, stubbornness and habit of dominating their husbands.)

    1. Hahaha that is some good stuff. But I am afraid to say that even Muslim countries are not really as opposed to women’s empowerment as you might think they would be. As I was applying to grad school, I looked at KUAST, in Saudi Arabia. A huge number of their graduates are young women.
      The Muslim world will cease to be truly patriarchal any day now.

    2. “Never will succeed such a nation as lets their affairs carried out by a woman.”
      True indeed.

  10. High school= prison
    Guidance councillor= parole officer
    College= transferring to maximum security prison

  11. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this article was. I agree totally. It is especially useful to teach yourself certain skills, such as web development, mathematics, and coding. Sometimes you can teach yourself this stuff better. The world is moving to cyberspace, and so is the economy.
    While the education system obviously will not work for everyone (does anything?), this should not be an “excuse” or a “reason” to slack off. College is still a better way to make a good living than manual labor. Yes, some men do well in trades, but ALL men do well in engineering. ALL doctors end up well-off. I do not think that Roosh would advocate giving up on school to the younger readers. It is, on average, a bad idea, and especially bad if your IQ allows you to succeed in the knowledge economy.
    There is this poisonous line of thinking in the manosphere that you should just say “f*** it” to the world whenever the world makes you anxious or unsatisfied. Doing this does not leave you more well-off. It does NOTHING to make you happier.
    If you fall into this category, stop giving a crap about the world and start pursuing your self interest. If you must live alone to focus, do it. Are you expecting the world to help you, to work for you? You shouldn’t. You will find inner positivity not from women, but from your own will, and from your fraternal relations with your brothers. The world will not properly appreciate you, but you can use your money to REWARD YOURSELF.
    This is actually your natural state. This is how you were when you were a kid, do you remember? This idea that you must constantly please women, please your mother, be a supplicating beta, etc. is an artificial belief instilled in you by women who want to ensure that womankind will constantly get attention from men, though men naturally have absolutely no obligation to give women attention, if we find it unnecessary. It goes against your nature.
    Basically, what I am saying is that you should be an asshole who exploits the world, while at the same time satisfying your need for positive social involvement through a kind of “lad culture” you create for yourself. The world (and women) wants to use you, which you feel acutely in the education system. You should just use it back.
    The modern world calls for a completely different way of relating to society, and it is indeed possible to adjust. You have to work hard to root out your negative beliefs, and replace them with beliefs based on positive self-interest.

    1. “ALL men do well in engineering. ALL doctors end up well-off”
      well, not necessarily…even so, doctors and engineers make up a very small part of college graduates
      Getting into debt for a B.A. degree and even some B.S. degrees is NEVER a good plan.
      The Knowledge Economy rewards those who can apply knowledge in the real world. A degree in business or psychology or English, etc. does not facilitate this. Spending tons of money to memorize outdated facts and figures and spending time among professors – a majority of whom are not good enough to work in the field that they attempt to teach to others is no way to get ahead in the Knowledge Economy.

      1. Yes, Yes, and yes. Absolutely agree. Avoid stupid degrees.
        I guess my grammar was bad… All employed engineers and doctors working full-time do well, maybe not filthy rich, but they pay their bills. Unless the doctor lives in a town of like 1000 people 100 miles from civilization, and gets no patients.
        It is fact, though, what I said about college graduates making more on average than high school grads. It is also fact that the elites are doing everything to let in all the illegal hispanics we can handle, who do the kind of “red pill” manual labor I do for MUCH less.
        If you have brains, I mean if you really do, put them to use and work as an analyst, programmer, IT professional, accountant, engineer, medical professional, something real. University is VERY useful for this, even necessary.
        Rather than people commenting about how useless universities are, one should write an article about how to game universities to your benefit, rather than being gamed by the blue-pillers around you who want you to waste money on their useless degrees at second-tier universities.
        We should be imparting useful, strategic advice, not negativity and whininess, Generalize when it is useful, be specific when it is useful. This is an issue we need to be VERY specific about, because people’s future is on the line. Once again, Roosh would agree with me, and I think you would too. Not trying to argue here, just thinking out loud.

  12. I went to a good college in the midwest. Not Ivy-league, but definitely a good school. I was appalled by how dumb most students at the school were. Real dumb motherfuckers.

    1. Most college students are dumb, worthless pussies. What other group of people will pay for school in the free information age?

  13. That’s the great thing about the education system: if you’re intelligent you’ve already won school.

  14. Ah yes, another man who didn’t use his boyish coyness to use the system to its fullest extent. I was chatting with girls and performing much above my level at a young age. Every parent teacher conference laid down with “he completes all of the work to a superior level but socializes to the point of distracting other students.” Sure, you may not have developed the cranium to excel and rebel at a young age but some of us did. Even got suspended for hacking the school system computers and was given a letter of recommendation to college from the principal soon after. Some learn how the system works at a young age and others whine. Game or die brothers.

    1. If you are implying I did not use the system my friend, you are quite mistaken. I spent senior year skipping school, hanging with friends, and getting by with absolute minimal effort. I did the same thing in college. I made the rational choice to make decent grades with 0 effort as opposed to excellent grades with actual effort. I gamed the system quite well. That was the entire point of this article, to tell people to choose how they play the game so long as they understand the rules are not geared towards them

  15. Do any of you know a red pill book about education?
    The only one I know is “The Education of Millionaries”

  16. Public education serves two goals: (1) educating and indoctrinating the next generation of decision-makers, enlisting them in the fight for social progress, and (2) closing performance gaps by slowing down the smart kids and concentrating resources on girls, nonwhites, and the borderline retarded.
    Does anyone familiar with American education not see that the second goal has utterly obliterated the first? Maybe the smart kids will get bored out of their minds and start browsing some very un-Progressive websites.

    1. Right on..^^^^
      Public education’s purpose is to produce drones, worker bees. It’s also to warehouse kids while the parents toil to make more $$money so as to buy more crap . Consumerisms evil cycle.

    2. (2) is especially true. Educated, driven men are simply too dangerous. Best to nip that problem in the bud. Gladius is also right, below, to say that it dovetails with another important goal of feminism: free women up to work and buy and work and buy and work and buy and work and buy….

  17. I’m glad you wrote this article – very well written and concise.
    I noticed the most successful people weren’t top students at school.. heck my ex-cuntassgirlfriends boss was a high-school dropout that bagged groceries at your local Jewel Osco (Albertsons).. He ended up creating a company from a simple dream that’s worth millions.. This is just another example that school isn’t for everyone. If you put in 100% into your goals you will meet them eventually and become successful!

  18. While I blame myself more than the system, my journey through school was one of constantly being told ‘you’re more of an english-history guy, so don’t bother with STEM.’ This is despite getting above average grades in math until I got a particularly crappy teacher. I didn’t understand him, so I gave up. I think a lot of kids are like this; they hit a wall in a certain field, the teacher doesn’t encourage them to try harder, so they dismiss it. I think teachers should quit telling kids that they ‘don’t have a math brain’ because that is bullshit. Teachers should devote extra time to STEM and leave most liberal arts crap out of the curriculum apart from English (I’d include history, but it seems that this field is so overrun with stupidity that it’s best studied alone).
    If conformity to state and federal curriculum was not required, a fantastic business venture would be to set up a ‘STEM’ and trade-oriented school where adolescents could go to learn trade skills, math and science. It could almost function as a STEM undergrad or pre-med type course, providing the knowledge and skills to go straight into, for example, a medicine or engineering major. I’m very libertarian when it comes to education because I think the government has fucked up education beyond repair. You can be sure if I have children I will home-school them.

    1. Holy shit, are you me? I had the exact same scenario with being told I’m an ‘english-history’ person. In the first two years of high school I smoked math (and every other subject), easily scored higher than the guy who ended up becoming ‘Dux’ of the school (highest marks across all subjects). He went to a science and math academy for 2 years before coming back; in that time he had competent, passionate math teachers and I had awful PE/gym teachers filling in. Naturally I lost interest and my grades dropped off, this is when they told me I’m ‘not a math person’. He’s now at university studying physics with a perfect GPA (in Australia this is 85%+ for all subjects, exceptionally rare for harsh grading my university is known for).
      I’m still trying to figure my shit out because of the bullshit I was fed about my ‘strengths’. Example: I was told that I especially sucked at accounting and statistics in high school; yet at uni I scored the highest in intro accounting (course of 1200 students) and I was in the top 10 for statistics (~1400 students). This isn’t to show off at all, it just shows how easily you can go astray when you stop listening to your intuition and instead blindly follow advice from people who “know better”.
      What did you end up going into? I feel you might be similar to myself where you can write essays in your sleep but you don’t derive nearly as much satisfaction from that as succeeding in technical subjects.

      1. You are spot on in your assumption. We’re eerily similar. I’m Aussie too, and my crappy maths teacher was the PE faculties’ unwanted leftovers too haha!
        I ended up studying exercise physiology at uni after a few gap years. I needed that time to sort through all the bullshit I’d been fed, much like you. I blasted through HSE, bullshitting my way through lit, history, legal etc. Scored second-highest ENTER of the year level, despite spending the year ditching class to play basketball. I eventually decided to go into a STEM undergrad (yeah yeah I know ex phys is light STEM) because I realised how unfulfilled I was by the humanities. I believe every human should be able to write A+ essays on many topics, I don’t really view it as an achievement at all. I discovered science much like I discovered the red pill – a reality that I’d never considered relevant to me, but once it dawned on me I realised how much better it was.
        I enjoyed that degree but I quit last year with six months to go, and went into building haha (you need a masters to do anything with ex phys, which I wanna be able to self-finance. Dumb choice of undergrad in the end but at least I proved to myself STEM is not beyond my reach).
        Current goals are teaching myself maths methods (slowly) and finishing the remnants of my degree OC.
        You should take all the time in the world to figure your shit out man, and I think a few fuck ups are worth their weight in gold in terms of what you can learn about yourself , as long as they don’t end in kids, divorce or debt. Just whatever the education system tells you, do the opposite. You can teach yourself ANYTHING and we have the benefit in Australia of (relatively) cheap and extremely flexible Uni degrees, as well as really underrated and dirt cheap trade programs. A lot of good options.

        1. Hahaha that’s scarily similar. Did you get that teacher during trig/pre-calc too? I was having to relearn that while learning calc later on in Year 11/12.
          Well played with the ENTER score, that’s an impressive proficiency in bullshiting. Interesting choice of degree, unfortunately the graduate-level requirements don’t make it too friendly. Have you looked into working with sport clubs by any chance? One of my mates is doing Exercise & Nutrition Science at uni, scored a part-time gig at a local rugby club with an entry-level strength & conditioning coaching certification and is making $55/hr during studies.
          Yeah mate, I’m with you on learning from mistakes…I’ve made my fair share. I started an ‘International Studies’ degree (you can guess how that went), I lasted 3 weeks before quitting that bullshit circle-jerk. I’ve had a few trades offers from some local businesses, mainly fridgey/sparky; probably not for me but it’s something to fall back on. I’ve been trying to check out the path as a merchant mariner; tough to get information and probably even tougher to break in without contacts. That $100k+, 6 months on/off contract is tempting though.
          What would you have done leaving school knowing what you know now?

        2. Yeah it was around Y10 that this happened so it was right when we were starting trig etc. Frustrating time to bomb out.
          Knowing what I know now, I would not have worked a dead end job as I did, nor would I have gone to uni; I would have smashed through an apprenticeship ASAP and got experience. There’s a good reason a lot of guys choose that path. I would probably have tried to make it lead into civil engineering, or would have headed over to mine in WA. Who knows, but I would have given uni a miss until I’d saved money to self-finance the degree.
          With ESS, I’ve had a few mates go ahead of me with the degree, working with AFL & NRL clubs along the way. It’s a great start, but a shitty choice of career. By far the most interesting future you could hope for out of ESS is Clinical Exercise Physiology; a fast growing field and better than medicine (I believe honest dieticians and ex physiologists offer better preventative therapy than most doctors).
          I worked as a coach during the degree, but I’ve branched out into a trade because while ESS is an okay course, it’s functionally useless for anything beyond personal training without a costly post-grad venture, which by extension limits the scope of your career. I’d like to eventually start a Victor Pride style ‘blue-collar side business” with the trade while etching out a ‘main path’ in the exercise side of things, but it’s all just a vague plan while I’m still so young. Still, that’s food for thought with the electrical trade type offers you’ve had. Trades are lucrative and its a great, masculine environment to work in. Easy to turn into side money once you’re experienced. Beyond that, the mariner merchant idea actually sounds like an awesome path, I’m sure with a bit of determination there would be a way in.

  19. Ha.. you described me in high school. Smart enough to skate through and pass. I only applied myself in classes where I respected the teacher, which was very few. On my own, I constantly read and try to learn something new.

  20. I couldn’t agree with you more ,I’ve learned on the web and reading books also being out in the world then I ever did in a classroom.

  21. There are pros and cons to structured education, but the problem today isn’t with the fact that it is structured, but rather with the way it is structured, which is designed to favour girls’ learning needs and to undermine boys’, particularly in terms of pussified curricula and coursework assessment that penalises male learning styles, and genuinely competitive aspects of education. All learning is ultimately autodidactic if it is to be anything other than training and indoctrination, but the best structured education provides a framework for independent thought, and further research
    We need to claw our way back into the academy, while at the same time recognising the potential opportunities provided by alternative less structured learning environments, particularly online learning.
    Re. the latter, for example MIT open courseware etc you can get access to quality resources, but even if you could ‘make the grade’ (which is difficult given those parts of the learning environment which aren’t just about private study) how are you going to build on that without accredite qualifications – although obviously there’s potential for some online courses etc to become accredited ? Further online course have even greater potential to become blue pill vehicles for indoctrination given the degree to which indoctrinators / educators can control the learning environment

  22. Even NO education is better than half the college courses out there
    At least the country bumpkin doesn’t end up believing equality is real, or end up learning about how to act like a professional victim

  23. Public education in America today is a joke. I work with a retired 5th grade school teacher who is borderline mentally handicapped and needs constant and complete supervision. The poor guy can’t even remember his own work email address yet was entrusted with the education of young children for decades.

  24. I work as a High School Teacher for 10 years and I quit. I wasn’t really good with discipline but there were other things I had a hard time with :
    -Our schools are feminized and they naturally favor girls over boys ;
    -School personnel is mainly feminine, but also leftist, liberal, and impose its bias on kids ;
    -The system rapidly kills any teacher who has original initiatives ;
    -Many kids, mostly boys, are drug due to “attention deficit disorders”, but in reality, many “move too much”, like any normal boy, and some teachers cannot stand it, so they put pressure on parents to get those kids on Ritalin and other drugs
    … and the list could still go on!

  25. Having been in prison in a mediterranean country, I can attest to learning things on your own. Survival, foremost, in the wilder parts of the world, but the skills of the builders, the innovators, that is what the USA lacks and it’s infrastructure will fail before the marxist bankster overlords squeeze every last pennies out of you. Survival soon will be the skill that many Americans will have to learn before they can learn the greats of history.

  26. US does not have education system. It has indoctrination system. A very sophisticated brainwashing to create mindless slaves deprived of any critical thinking skills. Entire structure of society rewards ignorance and punish individualism and creativity.

  27. After I graduate high school, I am returning to my home country, and hopefully never returning to the USA.

  28. Hermann Hesse hit this point as well — he wrote a book called “Unterm Rad”, translated as “Beneath the Wheel” or “The Prodigy” in English.
    He saw how institutionalised academic idiocy could turn a bright, independent kid into a miserable conformist, robbed of his creativity and energy for life …
    It’s relatively short and worth a read if you can find it.
    auf Deutsch: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterm_Rad
    In English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_the_Wheel

  29. There is a movement called “unschooling” Basically you focus on the things that interest the child. Of course, I would say to expose a child to anything and everything, to find what he is talented and interested in doing. And this doesn’t mean a broad liberal arts education is bad. But clearly the guy you went to high school with who’se now your auto mechanic didn’t need to learn chemistry or calculus. And, anyway, he didn’t.

  30. Schools make boys feel ashamed of being boys.
    If I ever have a son he will be home schooled.

  31. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all-time, by none other than Albert Einstein:
    “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”
    Self-education allows the space for you to find your genius. While some may flourish in a structured schooling environment, this country was built on a foundation of free thinkers. We’ve lost touch with common sense, and I think you hit the nail on the head when you say “self-education— and the pursuit of knowledge and truth — should be the goal of all men”.
    Great read.

  32. I learned way more on my own.I got suspended for a semester and decided to learn on my own.When I came back my teachers were impressed with my intellect.The education system is a joke.Everybody
    learns differently no one is stupid only being stupid at the moment.

  33. When I was growing up I watch some people try to teach a kid they all
    failed.They thought he was stupid because they could not teach him.
    I taught him he learned more than they were trying to teach him.I
    never told them and told him not tell them.Thousands of years and the educational system makes the same mistakes leaves many geniuses behind.

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