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Comment by such_a_casual | Hacker News Reader

>Either that, or you don't get to vote.

What? Graduating from school (highschool or university) is about learning how to follow directions and play the game. To say that a degree somehow guarantees that a person knows how to think critically is ludicrous.

But you're not even making such a modest claim, you're actually claiming that it is the only way to assure people can think critically (even though it's not even a valid way to begin with). Some of us can think critically as children. Do you honestly believe just because you couldn't think critically until you were an adult, that means that hundreds of millions of people that you've never met should be forced into the same fruitless, and arbitrary indoctrination you had to undergo to become adequate in your own eyes?

Are you aware of how absolutely stupid school seems to people who are really, really smart? http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/bipolar.htm

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I have a place for you that your might really like, https://www.reddit.com/r/topmindsofreddit

Go there and be happy.

The important thing in high school and college wasn't what I learned in the classroom, although some of it does help me in life. The important this was what I learned in that environment with my peers.

I don't know how bad your college was, but I did go to a pretty good college in my country. It might not compare to ivy league colleges, but it taught me important life lessons none the less. My opinions are biased by my college experience but it sure goes to show that college can be great and not completely useless and a lot of people like to claim.

You've addressed none of the points that I made. You claimed that school is the only way to learn how to think critically and should be used to take away the suffrage of millions of people. In response to me calling you out on this very dangerous and ignorant opinion, you've chosen to derail by linking to reddit, talk about "life lessons" you learned as a teenager, and brag about the college you went to. Nice.

Well, if you are an american, the college I went to is nothing to brag about. But we do with what we have.

> Graduating from school (highschool or university) is about learning how to follow directions and play the game.

Really? Is that what college is about, or is that what some colleges have become? The progress from middle school to high school to college is less about learning what's on the board and more about being able to stand on your own among your peers. It gradually moves you from a smaller echo box to a larger and larger one. Until the time you start working and living independently, where the echo box becomes your workplace and the city.

> But you're not even making such a modest claim, you're actually claiming that it is the

I never said that was the only way, but it has been one of the better ways historically. If you know of a better way to teach a good portion of the population critical thinking abilities I am all for it. I am not supporting going to a college with and being $200K in debt when you graduate and still not knowing what you want to do in life. But I am opposed to the fact that the r/hn hivemind thinks that all college is a waste of time.

> Are you aware of how absolutely stupid school seems to peop...

Well good for them, maybe they can broaden their horizons a bit earlier, but what kind of smart people are you talking about? 3 standard deviation from the mean? So the 0.1%? Or 2 sigma? So the 2.3%?

I can't say I've ever been convinced that those who rant against school are "really, really smart". Mostly they just sound like people who are insecure in their choices.

I know that I'm slightly bitter. I played the game and got the job but what an ultimate waste of time. The best thing about college for me was networking.

I remember many classmates in high school that hated it and considered it a chore. They didn't play the game.

I'm not talking about people who "rant against school". I also hope that you realize that my post was not a "rant against school", but a rant against taking away millions of people's right to vote just because they didn't learn how to shut up and do what they're told. The people I'm referring to would likely not rant about school, because they likely wouldn't have graduated or even attended in the first place. When I see people ranting it is usually people who have taken on debt via student loans.

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