Is Education Useful?

The Illusion of Success and Productivity

I am now 22 years old, a recent graduate, and now a full-time lab manager at Johns Hopkins. This is the first year I can remember not going to school. Up until this point, other people have provided for me so that I could invest my time in education. I, and the rest of my peers, were expected to develop understanding of the world so that one day, we ourselves could be productive and successful members of our communities. Productive. Successful. No one ever told us what these really meant. But still, we all know we are supposed to aspire to these goals. So we went to school each day, learned what we were told to learn, knowing that at the end we would receive a sheet of paper certifying that we are worthy of productivity and success. I am now past that point, and I still don’t know when I will truly achieve these goals.

In order to answer this question (and it is a question we all must consider for ourselves), I first need to really understand what it is I am after. Success and productivity, after all, are not real. This might sound dramatic, but it is true. To see this, you only have to ask yourself: what does success look like? I can imagine one reader picturing themselves in large cliff-side home overlooking a quiet beach. The sky reflecting the deep ocean blue. Another reader sees themselves walking down the aisle, their true love at their side and flower petals raining from above. Now in a few years time, both of these people may achieve their dream of success. In the moment they may be happy. But ask them again about success in a couple months, and they will give you a new answer.

When I was in middle school, my idea of success was doing well enough in school so that I could play video games as much as my parents could allow. In high school, my idea of success shifted to achieving good enough grades to get into a good university. Time keeps moving forward and each day I am productive or I am not. In some areas I am successful, and in others I am not. But even having come this far, I do not feel I have gotten closer to “successful enough”. In fact, I realize, I will never be successful enough, because that is the nature of success. That is the nature of productivity.

Even knowing this, I cling to these ideas rather desperately. I plan to get a PhD in Neuroscience and make meaningful contributions to the field. I plan on changing the way we teach the next generation so that they have a higher degree of individual and collective agency. I also plan on making a lot of money in the process so my family and I can live comfortably and without worry. But when I achieve these things, I understand there will always be something next. Reaching these goals only means I am capable of doing even more with the time I have left. The base desire to realize my full potential and create my own reality will always exist. This is what I mean when I say success and productivity are not real.

I point out this notion not to abandon these ideas, but to demonstrate both a potential and a danger. The unreality of success can serve either as a blank canvas or a bottomless void. It is imperative that we see our lives as a something to create, and not something fulfill. Every kid has a dream. With their whole life ahead of them, they paint a picture of who they are to become and the kind of life they will experience. But as they age, this dream tucks itself away. Somewhere along the line, a deathly beast presents itself — abject failure, poverty, homelessness. In fear, the dream is left behind in pursuit of safety and comfort, often achieved through money and status. This becomes the new definition of success, abstract and ever fleeting. Somehow we never realize that danger and discomfort are inescapable parts of living.

If this is what our education achieves, it may be time to rethink whether or not this is really useful. Maybe its time to redefine the purpose of education. This era is crucially defined by our capability for change. Modern technological and social innovations allow us to create and become at previously unimaginable rates. At the same time, my generation is defined by both a lack of ambition and an overwhelming dissatisfaction with the current state of the world. An ugly picture is put in front of us, but we lack the imagination to create a new one. We cannot allow the next generation to face the same fate. The value of human life is not measured in productivity or success. Human life is precious because each of us has the capability to dream. A useful education will embolden this quality in every child. It is time we figure out how to turn this aspiration into practice.