we want to do well at school for an
obvious reason because as we're often
told it's the primary route to doing
well at life few of us are in love with
the a grades themselves we want them
because we're understandably interested
in one day having a fulfilling career a
pleasant house and the respect of others
but sometimes more often than seems
entirely reassuring something pretty
confusing occurs we come across people
who triumphed at school but flunked life
and vice versa the former stars who once
knew exactly how to satisfy their
teachers may now be flatlining in a law
office or relocating to a provincial
town in the hope of finding something
better the path that seemed guaranteed
to lead to success has run into the sand
we shouldn't actually be surprised
school curricula are not designed by
people who necessarily have much
experience of or talent at the world
beyond school curricula are not
reverse-engineered from fulfilled adult
lives in the here-and-now
they were intellectually influenced by
all kinds of slightly random forces over
hundreds of years of evolution shaped by
among other things the curricula of
medieval monasteries the ideas of some
19th century German educationalists and
the concerns of aristocratic Court
societies this helps to explain the many
bad habits that schools can inculcate
they suggest that the most important
things are already known that what is is
all that could be they can't help but
warn us about the dangers of originality
they want us to put up our hands and
wait to be asked they want us to keep
asking other people for permission they
teach us to deliver on rather than
change expectations they teach us to
redeploy ideas rather than originated
them they teach us to respect people in
authority rather than imagine that in
rather inspiring ways no one actually
knows quite what's going on they teach
us everything other than the two skills
that really determine the quality of
adult life
knowing how to choose the right job for
us and knowing how to form satisfactory
relationships they'll instruct us in
Latin and how to measure the
circumference of a circle long before
they teach us these core subjects work
and love that said it isn't that all we
need to do to succeed at life is flunk
school a good life requires us to do two
very tricky things be a very good boy or
girl for 20 years and simultaneously
never really believe blindly in the long
term validity or seriousness of what
we're being asked to study we need to be
outwardly entirely obedient while
inwardly intelligently and unashamedly
rebellious
you