Degrees aren't worth anything_

While I'm stuyding for MGEC, I thought I would break away from the regularly scheduled programming (procrastination?) to talk about the general state of education in the world.

Every now and again, I come across something very powerful. Something that moves you. Some people feel this with music, a work of art, a theory. I recently came across this something in the form of a video from a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. You may have heard of TED before if you are a Bono (U2's lead singer, duh) fan. Bono won a TED award a few years ago.

Anyhoo, I came across this video by a fellow named Ken Robinson who discusses how the current education system is having a negative impact on children's creativity. I had never heard of Ken Robinson until I saw this video. Apart from the fact that he is very funny and entertaining, he has some very powerful things to say about the education system. I was moved by the arguments he makes because I have similar thoughts about the education system, thoughts I have nurtured ever since my daughter started her own educational journey in pre-school. Looking back at my own education and reflecting on my daughter's, its clear that schools do not necessarily serve the interest of the individual, but instead serve the interest of an industrial society. In school, the student is constantly evaluated and graded -- mistakes are penalized. Doing things by the book is rewarded. By the time we are done with school, this behavior has been internalized, and most of us go on to become worker bees in the labor pool. However, where I think the education system gets the answer wrong (pun clearly intended), is that in the process of stigmatizing mistakes, it teaches students not to make any. To paraphrase Sir Ken Robinson, if we are not prepared to make mistakes, we will never come up with anything original. To me this is a profound conclusion, proven over and over again throughout history. The education system needs to figure this out. The problems we will face in the coming years (overpopulation, extinction, poverty, global warming, war and conflict) will require imagination and creativity more than knowledge. Consider that some of these problems will exceed the scope of our knowledge. Our hope rests on creativity. Yet are we killing that with our education system? The most vivid contemporary example of the lack of creativity in addressing societal issues is the infamous "failure of imagination" conclusion used to describe the intelligence community's failure to prevent the 911 attack. I had previously heard the "failure of imagination" phrase to describe the Apollo 1 fire in the HBO special "From the Earth to the Moon".

So what does this have to do with the Wharton MBA program? Well for one thing, it supports the notion that an MBA degree does not necessarily equal success in business. Perhaps creativity is more important. Gates, Dell, Ellison, Jobs and the likes would probably vouch for that. But the other point I wanted to illustrate is "academic inflation" that Sir Robinson alludes to in his discourse. Eventually, Maybe there will be a time and place where degrees aren't worth anything.

What a paradox when you consider how much this MBA is costing me!

So to part, I will write down these quotes that came to me while I wrote this entry.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”. Albert Einstein

"We don't need no education". Pink Floyd

Imagine all the people... living for today John Lennon

What I'm I watching:Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity