A while back, I wrote about 8-4-4 robots. Specifically, I wrote this:

Do we go to school so that we can be able to get a job? Am I missing something here? Don’t we all go to school so that when we come of age we are able to build a good life for ourselves and become valuable citizens? School is important, very important. But not as important as most people think it is. The important thing is to learn all that you can and how to use it to achieve your goals and/or make a good life for yourself. As it happens, ’schooling’ is not the same as ‘education’. As Mark Twain once said, don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

I’ve been thinking about this subject ever since. Do you remember learning to factor quadrilateral equations in high school? x2 -32x +12? Or calculus? Why were you taught this? Have you ever applied it in your life or work? If you are not a scientist or engineer well, you probably forgot about all that…. But why did they spend hours drilling you on such clearly useless content? Why does school teach things that most people never use? What is the purpose of school?

I believe that, as it is right now, education systems are designed to produce employees. I remember being given assignments to write English compositions while in Form 3. The teachers did not like it if you did not write in accordance with certain moulds or styles – you did not have the freedom to write what you imagined. Why is this? At school, you were being trained to be a compliant ‘cog’, someone who could mindlessly follow instructions as opposed to seeking out innovation and surprise.

Seth Godin puts it best, “I love math. I love the idea of working with numbers, of inventing cool ideas that click. But memorizing factors of 32? It’s clearly an effort to teach you to be taught, to instruct you in compliance, to follow the curriculum.”

That’s an excerpt from Seth Godin’s book, Brainwashed : Seven Ways to Re-invent Yourself.

Years ago, when you were about four years old, the system set out to persuade you of something that isn’t true.

Not just persuade, but drill, practice, reinforce, and yes, brainwash.

The mission: to teach you that you’re average. That compliant work is the best way to a reliable living. That creating average stuff for average people, again and again, is a safe and easy way to get what you want.

Step out of line and the system would nudge (or push) you back to the center. Show signs of real creativity, originality or even genius, and well-meaning parents, teachers and authority figures would eagerly line up to get you back in line.

Our culture needed compliant workers, people who would contribute without complaint, and we set out to create as many of them as we could.

And so generations of students turned into generations of cogs, factory workers in search of a sinecure. We were brainwashed into fitting in, and then discovered that the economy wanted people who stood out instead.

When exactly were we brainwashed into believing that the best way to earn a living is to have a job?

Download the book for free and learn how you can liberate yourself: Brainwashed

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Godin is author of multiple books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. His newest book is Linchpin.

What did you think of the book?