Wow, have not realized the exchanges that have been going on recently. So here's my take on schools and education.

I am no idealist, not even close. The only reason I'm in school is so that I will have a degree to fall back on later in life. I am not here to learn and 'educate' myself about life. Will educating myself about math, literature and science enrich my life? Yea, because it helps me get my degree and make money later. I do not care one bit about philosophy or all that other crap what so ever.

Going to school is an economic decision. Surely if having a degree meant nothing except to say that this person has learnt about why an apple falls and how 2 atoms of hydrogen and 1 atom of oxygen makes 1 molecule of water, schools would most definitely be close to empty. However that is not true. People go to college to get that degree so that they can get good jobs in the future so that they can have more money. Or perhaps in Jenn's case, it may not be all about the money, but more of achieving her goal of becoming a feminist (correct me if I am wrong here). I would go so far as to say that no one goes to school for the sake of educating themselves.

The only people that truly love education (I'm guessing) would be the teachers. (As hard as it may be to believe, not trying to suck up here.) For most teaching positions, the wages are pretty crappy, so it's definitely not for the money. But then again, I've heard of people becoming teachers because of the bad economy and the lack of other jobs, hence taking up teaching. The non-income compensations are supposed to be pretty good too.

Oh yea, and one for thing about school. I go to www.ratemyprofessor.com to check out potential professors to make sure the person I'm taking is reportedly lenient when it comes to grading. Why? Because I care about my GPA very much and would like to keep it the way it is. If I had the choice of taking a great inspiring teacher who's teaching method suited my learning style, but graded rather strictly, or taking an absolutely boring teacher who teaches completely from the text book and gives only MCQ for the exams, no prizes for guessing which class I'd choose.

If the urge to learn is the only factor that drives a person to attend school and college, go to a library, I've heard it is much cheaper.