I think the quote was horrible advice. That’s a good way to find yourself being held back a couple years. You’re much better off figuring out what you want to do *while* you attend school. And if it suddenly dawns on you that you want to start your own business while you’re in school, and you’re confident that you can make it work, then you can go for it. Or you could decide to finish up with your degree/diploma, and then give entrepreneurship a try. But waiting around until that epiphany strikes you just doesn’t sound like a very good idea. Frankly, I think that you’ll be a lot more likely to realize what you want to do with your future while you’re attending school and trying different things out.

As for private and home schooling institutions, the widespread feeling about both of them is that the education is on a topsy turvy scale of how much the actual teacher knows, but it is counterbalanced by the idea that the classroom only has a handful students, making learning more intimate and also based on the needs and wants of the student, not just the state requirements.

As a teacher, I must look at both institutions for what they not only offer their students, but also their teachers. Clearly, a public school gig requires a great deal of study, professional development, time working from home, extra meeting time and sometimes 12 hour days. However those are weighed out for me by only a handful of amenities: Health Care, bare, but solid pay, a retirement fund, and a union that offers legal defense and a chance to meet with other professionals from time to time.

The opportunity to teach at most private schools means you do not get many of those. Definitely not health care, or solid pay. What most people do not realize is that these jobs do not support families, they are primarily staffed by secondary earners in a family setting, with someone else in the family acting as the primary breadwinner.

The big qualifier for private schools is based on the following adage: you get what you put into something. When your family is making a sacrifice for you to go to school, the parents obviously feel that stretch, and the kids also know that their parents are ponying up for a better institution. So many days I see kids graduate high school with no understanding as to how their public schools are funded. This comes from the idea that the students don’t care about a “free program” and their parents didn’t care about it when they were kids and hardly see the benefit of it for them today. However, that’s what they did when they were kids, and its a good place to ship them off for the day.

My big issue with this problem does not come from stigma of public or private schooling, but I want teaching to stay a respectable profession that can continue to support a family, something that private schools do not offer currently and probably not in the future.

I believe the sole purpose of No Child Left Behind was an effort to close the public schools, and give vouchers to students to go to private schools – and teachers would be forced to follow with no benefits and less pay. How would you feel if you were a public social worker and the government said you would get no benefits? Or a doctor? However, I am a teacher who has a non academic background and I must say that I would return to the workforce elsewhere if I had to face teaching at a private school.

Let me end with this statement though: I see first hand the problems with public schools, and there are a great deal of them. First off: as a techie/geek/nerd, I am one of the few teachers embracing technology in the classroom. While some around me are, my profession is filled with laggards that feel like they do not need to change the way they do things. WRONG. The students we teach today are a dozen times evolved through tech than I was at their age, so let’s not get started on teachers that have 15 years experience on me.

Schools must embrace technology and redesign their curriculums if they want to stay around. If they don’t, we will have to find different possibilities to educate our youth, and if we don’t, we will all fall behind as a culture.

The ideas we can build on would be specialized small schools, a paperless school model, and real world scenarios for those small programs.

That’s about it from me on this issue.

At the 10th year, the kids have to go through a wall of fire to pass. The percentage scored here would determine what the kid can learn for the next 2 years. Where we have streams of Science (Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English) – this stream makes you eligible for trying our engineering or medical further studies, Maths (Maths, Chemistry, Physics, English) – this stream allows you to take only engineering, Commerce, Humanities.

After the 10+2 years of schooling, kids get into colleges to take up courses based on the 12th year exam scores. For example, a person who is excellent in English cannot go for BA Literature in college just because he didn’t clear his Chemistry paper in 12th.

I was one such student. My primary loves were English language and Computers. When I realized that the educational system wouldn’t allow me to pursue further studies in my fav subjects just because I was not good in cracking chemistry, I had no choice but to drop out and make my own path to a career.

Setting off on such an adventure is bad enough and doing it in India makes it only worse. In India, a drop out is viewed as equal to a rapist or murderer. Finally fighting all odds, I started building my life with the bricks that were thrown at me.

I had this stubborn idea that I will compete with qualified professionals instead of starting my own business or try my luck in the world of movies (some of the ideas thrown at me when I dropped out). I wanted to prove to myself that I am no less than a qualified engineer who comes out of the college.

I first decided on what I need to become in 2 years time and started working in small roles in small companies locally. In the meanwhile, I also started taking up 6 month diplomas in areas of work that would help me get the next job. After a series of job hopping and working many months of 22 hour days, I started getting breaks in bigger IT giants.

Today, I am married and fairly well settled with a tech-managerial role in an MNC that earns me enough to put me beyond the middle class working population. I still have a long way to go and my two year goal pattern is still in place. But, I don’t do 22 hour days anymore.

Though, I wouldn’t recommend my career/education to the next generation. It would be too risky and too tiring. Traditional education gives a person the safety net and assurance that doesn’t come with treading the untrodden paths like i did…

If I have a chance, I hope to change the educational system here so that everyone gets a chance in life. Like I did….

Let me tell you all, school is great, and if you still plan to drop out, at least learn to write and spell. That way you can make your own “Will work for food” sign.
Coffee33

“It is more difficult that settling on a college degree, but it’s more exciting as well. Life in the Hartley household is never boring, that is for sure! :)”

Should have been ‘than” rather than “that”.

1) Make darn sure to finish high school or the equivalent from a home school situation. It’s just a matter of completing something critical to being taken seriously in this world.

2) Explore college as an option, but to do not drink the kool-aid entirely. I have told a few college graduate friends of mine that had they learned plumbing, they would be working right now. Their college educations are proving pretty useless for their selected majors.

So I guess this translates into choosing college if you know that the career path you select can translate into both employment and self-employment. And yes, plumbing, can. So can being a teacher, as Chris P. will tell you. :)

Some people will find tremendous success choosing to further their education outside of the home. Others still, such as myself, have made their way in the world by the seat of their pants. It is more difficult that settling on a college degree, but it’s more exciting as well. Life in the Hartley household is never boring, that is for sure! :)

Thankfully I have a gift for self-educating myself. Back that up with tenacity and nothing will stop you in the long run.

I think it is important to realize that not everyone wants to be a mindless cog tossed into society. Some of us have the audacity to say “no” to a traditional, crappy 9-5 job. that we never wanted in the first place.

Do not misunderstand my point here. I am not saying all people working 9-5 jobs fit the previous description of being mindless. However, if you are stuck in a job you hate, chances are you are walking into the office with a blank, “mindless” look in your eyes. So to that degree, you might as well describe yourself as a cog…being the mindless stare is already in place.

Never be afraid to dream. I have been teaching myself how to break free of the typical mindless crap society throws at us for years. Instead, I spent my energy learning everything I could about subjects that interested me. From there, the income followed.

And yes, to this very day I make it a point to learn at least one new thing without fail. Hopefully this comment is free of too many typos, I am fighting a bit of a fever. Yes, being self-employed means working no matter how you feel. Adds to the excitement. ;)

I think I had a unique upbringing that had some downsides, but the positives are too many to count.