dream | act | succeed

It doesn’t matter what you want to reach in life, without a reason, you will not end up reaching it.

If you are one of these students at school or at university that do not really see the point in doing all of this, well, I guess you are doing something wrong.

Back in the days when I was at school, I just needed to go there, right? There is a law about it, everyone is doing it, therefore, here we go!

Monday morning 7 am, don’t forget your books, the bus is coming soon!

But the moment someone tells you that you need to go somewhere, you do not want to go there after all! We all know how this will end, right?

This can’t be good! For both sides!

On the one hand, pupils and students get basically forced to do something they may do not like and enjoy after all, but on the other hand, the schools and the universities have a kind of a monopoly situation where they can do whatever they want. A dangerous combination, if you are asking me!

This is the kind of market situation where companies (schools or universities) do with there customers (pupils and students) whatever they want.

There are always good teachers and bad teachers. At least that’s what the pupils say. But there are also good students and bad students. That’s what the teachers are saying. Both sides do not really have a choice, both sides can not really change something, both sides are just doomed to to it somehow. Correct?

No! Of course not! But for some people it really looks like that!

In life, you can never take anything for granted. Your life, the food in the supermarket, the freedom to leave your house whenever you want. #corona

But this is of course the same for your academic career!

Growing up in Germany, the school system is said to be good, at least when comparing it with other countries. But how can it be, that I look back at the old days and find so many things that urgently need to be improved?

Sure, me talking about this, that will not change anything! In fact, I can’t change the system. You can’t change the system. We can’t change the system.

I repeat! You can’t change the system!

The only thing you can change is yourself! Your mindset, your attitude towards the school or university. The time investment for it, the commitment, your level of motivation!

Visiting school or university is a great chance to move on in life. It gives you the opportunity to grow! To improve upon your skills. To learn something new, every single day.

But people do not really see this as a change! Right? They see it at something they need to overcome.

Is it primarily the fault of the system? Is it primarily the mindset change in the heads of the newer generations of pupils and students? We can’t find that one particular reason that is responsible for this mess, because there isn’t just that one.

From my perspective, this system feels sick to me. The topics they are teaching at school? Sure, very very very interesting for teenagers, but that is not the problem, right? The problem is, that it is not really useful most of the time! How can it be that someone leaves school after 10-12 years without knowing how to do taxes, how to move to another city and do all the paperwork or how to do the most basic things in life?

If schools aren’t there for something like this, for what are they even exist? Teaching us unimportant stuff nobody remembers after four years? That can’t be the goal!

Of course school gives you a great introduction into maths, physics, history, politics, languages and stuff, but how can it be that it is not teaching you anything about life, about learning and about how this life is really working?

Later on in life not everyone will need all of that stuff you learned at school. But doing taxes? Well, everyone needs that!

From my point of view, the school system is just outdated.

But looking at university, it might not be better. Having studied mechanical engineering, there is of course a lot of stuff you need to learn. And do I complain about it? No, definitely not! But there is a lot going on in the system that feels just wrong.

I was always one of those students who even studied the stuff that was not a part of the test. But the thing is the way how things are getting presented. Sure, not every professor is working full time in a company and knows exactly what is going on out there in the world, but if a topic gets not presented in the correct way, nobody will listen, believe me.

Students these days, they have a lot of pressure. And what do you do if you have a lot of pressure? Right, you are going to reduce it. You chose the topics that might not interest you after all, but you know that the exam will be easy. Students might not chose the topics they are really interested in, but instead the most easy ones.

I guess I am the exception to the rule. I always listen to the professor, I study stuff even though it is not a part of the test. I don’t scroll through my social media feeds all the time in lectures. But even I get bored sometimes. Even I sit there and wonder why I am even listening to this.

If you can’t make a topic more interesting and fun, well, you shouldn’t teach it, right?

But still, if the narrator is just bad, even I have a hard time listing. You can always make something interesting and exciting, but some people just don’t want to invest any time. It feels like they don’t care. They know that you need to pass the exam and will learn the stuff anyways. How they present it, well, not really that important.

But sure, there are other professors out there as well. People, who love to be in class. Professors that got the message! They talk about their topics differently! They make it fun, they make it interesting, they show you that they understand your current situation in life. They do not only teach you the facts, they may also help you to implement them in your everyday life.

They teach you more than just the subject. They teach you something about life.

Looking back at my time at university or school, I have a hard time remembering all the subject I had. But what I do remember exceptionally good are the lessons where the teachers were world class. The lessons where the teachers would tell you a story to back up the facts. Where they would take a certain topic and just make it interesting.

From my point of view, anything can be interesting. But someone might need to present it in a different way.

The first thing you need to do, is to be able to answer the WHY question. If there is no inner drive in you that is striving for more, well, why don’t you stop anyways?

In life you need to deal with the people that come your way, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change it. If your professor is not really getting to the point, well, why don’t you skip this, take the stuff and teach it yourself in a better way? With the internet, millions of books and YouTube, you can reach out to many sources.

Never ever let a system stop you from reaching your goals! You can always learn anything in your free time!

See you next time!