Don’t Go Back to School summary

When you go to school, teachers issue demands and then reward you with high marks for grades, tests and “correct” answers, and you eventually get a degree. This method can hardly be considered personally rewarding.

In fact, for many, these rewards are demotivating, and cause people to lose their passion and curiosity at school. The rigid structures and expectations, combined with the competition for artificially scarce rewards (grades), stifles and confines our curiosity.

Even though independent learning has a lot to offer, too many people depend on schools to abolish them entirely. Moreover, independent learning still relies on the materials produced by and for schools and universities.

Independent learners have to learn how to obtain their own material and information in order to shift away from a reliance on standardized schools. Interlibrary loans, for example, are a great way to acquire the texts you need to learn something new. Independent learners can find copies of federal documents as well at Government Documents Centers, often housed in university libraries.

Many people imagine that all independent learners are autodidacts, poring over books at home in complete isolation. However, self-teaching without community is not the best way to learn! Successful independent learners connect, interact and share.

Quality learning requires the support of not only learning materials, but also other learners. By learning with others, you have an opportunity to share your knowledge and experience with the group, and have others do the same for you. This exchange of information also allows you to share  feedback on how you and others might improve.

When you were in school, did you learn about what you were interested in, or what someone else decided was important for you? Probably the latter. But what would you learn if you were free to decide?

As an independent learner, you are free to choose your own educational path. However, you should make sure that you are learning things that you actually want to learn – your learning should be driven by curiosity and a thirst for a certain type of knowledge.

Most people think that, without the right credentials, some jobs are impossibly out of their reach. Lacking a degree, some might not even try to get the job they want. But these assumptions are totally misguided.

If you lack proper credentials, then you’ll need to show chutzpah, or an insistent, confident attitude, in order to land the job, and you’ll have to be prepared to learn.

People who graduate with MBAs love to tell you that the network you’ll build is worth the money you pay for the education. However, you can build a professional network as an independent learner, too.

If you embark on independent learning, then you should make it a goal to get in touch with others who are interested in the same or related topics, as connecting with like-minded people will help you make progress toward your own objectives.

A job isn’t just a place to earn a paycheck – it’s also the best place to learn. Not only will you learn from your tasks and from the wisdom of others, but you also gain valuable networking opportunities.

But this is only possible if you remain objective about your work. In other words, don’t pretend to be an expert if you’re still learning, and know where you can improve. Being objective allows you to give and receive valuable feedback at work, meaning that both you and your co-workers have a lot to gain. In fact, you’ll find lots of people are also looking for feedback on their own work, and not just phoney politeness.