Suli Breaks is a spoken word/motivational artist. He's work is renowned for passing thought-provoking questions to his audience. He has shared a stage with the likes of Bill Gates in the past. This is one of his piece which I think transcends the question: Are we learning or being educated?. Are we stuck in the four corners of an academic Institute(which doesn't work for everyone, apparently) or are we chasing our dreams, goals, aspirations, desires? Are we developing ourselves or are we depending on what a piece of paper says? I'm juiced up for the week with this in my thoughts. Here you go: WHY I HATE SCHOOL BUT LOVE EDUCATION by Suli Breaks. Enjoy.
So you want... to get a degree
Why?
Let me tell you what society will tell you:
Increases your chances of getting a job,
Provides you an opportunity to be successful,
Be a lot less stressful,
Education is the key.
Now let me tell you something your parents will tell you:
Make me proud,
Increases your chances of getting a job,
Provides you an opportunity to be successful,
Your life will be a lot less stressful,
Education is the key.
Now let's look at the statistics,
Steve Jobs - net worth 7 billion R.I.P,
Richard Branson - net worth 4.2 billion,
Oprah Winfrey - 2.7 billion,
Mark Zuckenburg, Henry Ford, Steven Spielberg, Bill Gates
Now here comes the Coup de grâce,
Looking at these individuals comes to the conclusion,
Neither of them in being successful,
Ever graduated from a higher learning institution.
Now some of you may be like,
Money is only the medium by which we measure worldly success,
And some of you even have the nerve to say
"I don't do it for the money"
So what you studying for?
To work for a charity?
Need more clarity?
Let's look at the statistics:
Jesus,
Muhammed,
Socrates,
Malcolm X,
Mother Teresa,
Spielberg,
Shakespeare,
Beethoven,
Jesse Owens,
Muhammed Ali,
Sean Carter,
Michael Jeffery Jordan,
Michael Joseph Jackson.
Were either of these people unsuccessful... or... uneducated?
All I'm saying is that,
If there was a family tree hard work and education would be related,
And school would probably be a distant cousin,
Because if education is the key,
School is the lock,
Because it rarely ever develops your mind to the point where it can perceive
red as green and continue to go when someone else said stop.
Because as long as you follow the rules and pass exams you're cool,
But are you aware that examiners have a checklist,
And if your answer is something outside the box then the automatic
response is a cross,
And then they claim that school expands your horizons and your visions,
Well tell that to Malcolm X who dropped out of school and is world
renowned for what he learn in a prison.
Proverbs 17:16
It does a fool no good to spend money on an education,
Why?
Because he has no common sense.
George Bush. Need I say more?
Education is about inspiring one's mind,
Not just filling their head,
And take this from me because I'm an 'Educated' man myself,
Who only came to this realization after countless nights in the library,
With a can of red bull keeping me awake till morning,
Another can in the morning,
Falling asleep between piles of books that probably equates to the same
amount I spent on my rent,
Memorize equations, facts and dates,
Write down to the letter,
Half of which I would never remember,
And half of which I would forget straight after the exam,
Before the start of the next semester,
Asking anyone if they had notes for the last lecture.
I often found myself running to class,
Just so I could find a spot on which I could rest my head and just sleep
without making a scene,
Ironic because that's the only time in university I spent chasing my
dreams.
And then after nights with a dead-mind,
I'd then find myself in a queue of half-awake students, zombies,
Waiting to hand in an assignment,
Maybe that's why they call it a deadline.
And then after three years of mental suppression,
And frustration,
My "Proud Mother" didn't even turn up to my graduation.
Now, I'm not saying that school is evil and there's nothing to gain,
All I'm saying is: understand your morals and re-assess your aims,
If you want a job working for someone else then help yourself,
But then that would be a contradiction because you wouldn't really be
helping yourself,
You'd be helping somebody else,
There's a saying that is: if you don't build your dreams, someone else will
hire you to help build theirs.
Redefine how you view education,
Understand it's true meaning,
Education is not just about regurgitating facts from a book,
Or someone else's opinion on a subject to pass an exam,
Look at it.
Picasso was educated at creating art,
Shakespeare was educated in the art of all that was written,
Colonel Harland Sanders was educated in the art of creating Ken Tucky
Fried Chicken.
I once saw David Beckham take a free kick,
I watched as the side of his Adidas-sponsored boot hit the patent leather of
the ball at an angle,
Which caused it to travel towards the skies as though it was destined for
the heavens,
And then as it reached the peek of it's momentum,
As though it changed it's mind,
It switched directions.
I watched as the goalkeeper froze,
As though reciting to himself the laws of physics,
And as though his brain was negotiating with his eyes,
That was indeed witnessing the spectacle that was the leather swan that
was swooping towards it,
And then reacted,
Though only a fraction of a millisecond too late,
And before the net of the goal,
Embraced the Fifa-Sponsored ball as though it was the prodigal son
returning home,
And the country, that I live in, Erupted into cheers,
I looked at the play and thought,
Damn,
Looking at David Beckham,
There's more than one way in this world to be an educated man.
