Does the education system build your strengths or your weaknesses?

There are two theoretical paths for education: focusing on your strengths or fixing your weaknesses.

It’s obvious that if a system focuses on identifying and nurturing your talents, it serves society best. You end up contributing at a high level to the greatest number of people by mastering what you’re actually good at.

On the other hand, a system can aim for maximum standardization and a broad baseline of capability. This approach identifies your flaws and pours energy into those specific areas just to bring you up to an average standard.
This is clearly better for the individual, as you become a competent person across most fields. You avoid those massive gaps in knowledge that are so common today—especially in the divide between STEM students and liberal arts students, where one group often lacks even the most basic concepts from the other's discipline.

But it isn't quite that simple.
Take a concrete example: Suppose you are terrible at math but have a gift for drawing.
The first system would turn you into a brilliant artist who is completely incapable of managing their own finances.
The second system might not make you a master artist, but you’d be much more capable of handling money—or at least wouldn't have a total phobia of it. But in the process, we might lose the next Picasso.

Or vice versa: someone with mathematical talent but zero artistic flair. Under the first system, they'd be labeled a mathematician and spend their entire life doing math without ever touching art; essentially, they remain a semi-functional, one-dimensional person. In the second system, they’d gain competence in art through extra effort, though their math skills might not reach superstar levels.

As I see it, our old socialist-era system leaned more toward the second type. They tried to create a well-rounded individual because that model of self-governance relied on the knowledge and contribution of every single person to build the future.

The problem with the first type of education is that only a tiny minority ever becomes truly excellent. What happens to everyone else? Are they just left to rot?
In practice, applying the first system results in a 1% elite and a 99% mass of incompetent, semi-literate nobodies.

We can see where this leads long-term for countries like the USA, which are facing massive issues now because voters constantly elect idiots just like themselves. It’s the same thing happening here year after year, where the candidates sought out by the masses get progressively worse and stupider. It clearly can't end well, and one cause is the increasing obsession with "excellence" and this first type of educational model that abandra 99% of the population.

The old classical high school model was a prime example of education that insisted on a wide spectrum of competencies for every student.
Starting with the reforms led by Shuvar in the 80s, we began seeing the introduction of a "specialized idiot" style of schooling that aligns more with the first type—creating schools for the elite and schools for the masses. Even under capitalism today, this whole obsession with "excellence" has turned into a kind of madness, especially in higher education.

What do you think? Which system should we push forward: continue with this current pursuit of "excellence," or return to a system of standardization?

Jack of all trades, master of none.

That’s exactly what we see in the American education system—it produces trivia champions instead of people actually capable of functioning in the real world.
We love to call Americans stupid, but look at where they are compared to us.

You always hear people whining about how Americans think they know everything and act like they're the smartest in the room. That is precisely what they were taught in school.

nimblelynx7 said:Jack of all trades, master of none.

That’s exactly what we see in the American education system—it produces trivia champions instead of people actually capable of functioning in the real world.
We love to call Americans stupid, but look at where they are compared to us.

You always hear people whining about how Americans think they know everything and act like they're the smartest in the room. That is precisely what they were taught in school.

Everyone finds out exactly where they fit in the grand scheme of things the moment they step outside their little bubble. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but that's just reality.

Roger Fowler said:Everyone finds out exactly where they fit in the grand scheme of things the moment they step outside their little bubble. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but that's just reality.

What are you even talking about? We are leaving precisely because this education system actually worked. It made us highly sought after—engineers, programmers, doctors—mostly people trained under the old standard. Western nations are essentially getting these professionals for free without investing a single cent in their schooling.

Most experts agree that today's educational framework is inferior to what we had during the socialist era. Just look at the introduction of religious studies, for example. These are the values being pushed now: religion, nationalism, obedience to false authorities, and various "national icons," etc. It's mostly pure idiocy and absolute evil that teaches people to hate anything different, rather than preparing them and giving them the knowledge needed to function in the modern world, as was the case under socialism.

Of course, this won't last forever. Both the school system and society itself are degrading rapidly due to the mass return of this backwardness. The figureheads are fascist-leaning teachers who fill the newspapers with scandals every week, along with Republican party cadres who have permeated the entire school system. Soon, we won't be exporting specialists; we'll just be exporting janitors and bathroom attendants.

And the issue isn't a lack of experts—they still exist—it's just that
a) other countries will scoop them up because they can pay more,
b) and we are left with the same problem caused by this elitist, "Type 1" schooling: what happens to the remaining 99% of the "non-exceptional" population that the system discards? The system turns them into one-dimensional idiots, yet we are expected to build a functioning 21st-century society out of them.

Yesterday's election results show you exactly what we're getting. A populist. And according to poll analyses—courtesy of the younger voters. Not the ones living in Ireland, but the ones right here who claim things aren't good enough. Fine, let it get even worse. As long as it's "our guy" selling us fairy tales from the Stone Age, which we've been conditioned to drool over like Pavlov's dogs through the entire education system.

urbanhawk28 said:What are you even talking about? We are leaving precisely because this education system actually worked. It made us highly sought after—engineers, programmers, doctors—mostly people trained under the old standard. Western nations are essentially getting these professionals for free without investing a single cent in their schooling.

Most experts agree that today's educational framework is inferior to what we had during the socialist era. Just look at the introduction of religious studies, for example. These are the values being pushed now: religion, nationalism, obedience to false authorities, and various "national icons," etc. It's mostly pure idiocy and absolute evil that teaches people to hate anything different, rather than preparing them and giving them the knowledge needed to function in the modern world, as was the case under socialism.

Of course, this won't last forever. Both the school system and society itself are degrading rapidly due to the mass return of this backwardness. The figureheads are fascist-leaning teachers who fill the newspapers with scandals every week, along with Republican party cadres who have permeated the entire school system. Soon, we won't be exporting specialists; we'll just be exporting janitors and bathroom attendants.

And the issue isn't a lack of experts—they still exist—it's just that
a) other countries will scoop them up because they can pay more,
b) and we are left with the same problem caused by this elitist, "Type 1" schooling: what happens to the remaining 99% of the "non-exceptional" population that the system discards? The system turns them into one-dimensional idiots, yet we are expected to build a functioning 21st-century society out of them.

Yesterday's election results show you exactly what we're getting. A populist. And according to poll analyses—courtesy of the younger voters. Not the ones living in Ireland, but the ones right here who claim things aren't good enough. Fine, let it get even worse. As long as it's "our guy" selling us fairy tales from the Stone Age, which we've been conditioned to drool over like Pavlov's dogs through the entire education system.

Since I’m a product of this entire system myself, working for a massive multinational that hires from every corner of the globe, I don't see much weight behind that argument. Our universities are just mediocre, and the experts we pump out into the workforce are pretty much the same as anyone else's. Engineers and developers are in demand everywhere, but a foreign employer doesn't give a damn about which specific school you attended—just like they wouldn't care if you graduated from some elite, high-pressure technical institute in Ukraine, a country that used to lead the way in nuclear and space tech and still manages to pull things off today. They all just dump you into some entry-level position and leave you to prove your worth from scratch, don't they?
So far, my only takeaway regarding the talent coming out of the ex-USSR is pure praise, because when you look at their technical leadership, they are nothing short of exceptional. They are top-tier experts who pose a direct challenge to our own domestic industry, aren't they? Honestly, we’ve been more lucky than we have smart if we let the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU slip through our fingers. If I were running the EU, wouldn't I be doing everything in my power to head over there and recruit those engineers and technicians by any means necessary?

Imagine an education system that actually pinpoints a kid's strengths and passions, giving them the tools to lean into their talents while smoothing out their rough edges until they're basically functional. A motivated, efficient—and honestly, happy—person is someone working on what they actually care about. That’s how you get peak productivity for the market and for themselves...

The American system, though? It’s just cookie-cutter. There's zero room for individuality, and absolutely no push for creativity. If you’ve got the capacity to just memorize facts, you can breeze through pretty much any school or college in the States.
The only thing it really teaches is how to adapt to chaos, drowning you in a forest of information where you can rarely see the trees for the leaves. We aren't valued globally because of our degrees; we're valued because of this specific mindset we've been fed—learning to just suck it up, put our heads down, and stay quiet when someone from a more advanced country says, "No way, I'm not doing that."

Melissa Sanchez8 said:Imagine an education system that actually pinpoints a kid's strengths and passions, giving them the tools to lean into their talents while smoothing out their rough edges until they're basically functional. A motivated, efficient—and honestly, happy—person is someone working on what they actually care about. That’s how you get peak productivity for the market and for themselves...

The American system, though? It’s just cookie-cutter. There's zero room for individuality, and absolutely no push for creativity. If you’ve got the capacity to just memorize facts, you can breeze through pretty much any school or college in the States.
The only thing it really teaches is how to adapt to chaos, drowning you in a forest of information where you can rarely see the trees for the leaves. We aren't valued globally because of our degrees; we're valued because of this specific mindset we've been fed—learning to just suck it up, put our heads down, and stay quiet when someone from a more advanced country says, "No way, I'm not doing that."

That kind of idealism only works when you have a booming economy and a highly developed nation backing it up. In the developing world, you don't get to chase a passion; you do whatever it takes to put food on the table because the luxury of choice simply doesn't exist. That’s the cold reality of it, whereas everything else is just a fairy tale.

Roger Fowler said:That kind of idealism only works when you have a booming economy and a highly developed nation backing it up. In the developing world, you don't get to chase a passion; you do whatever it takes to put food on the table because the luxury of choice simply doesn't exist. That’s the cold reality of it, whereas everything else is just a fairy tale.

I'm with you on that.
The whole discussion feels pretty pointless since America is nowhere near being able to overhaul its education system...

I think focusing on our strengths is what actually matters. We can't be world-class at everything, and since time isn't infinite, we’re eventually going to have to ignore certain things just to stay sane. You should deal with the other stuff just enough so it doesn't ruin your life, but that's it. It feels like there's a lack of awareness in the collective mindset here—people seem to think you can be a jack-of-all-trades and master them all. But realistically? Everyone should just pick one area to actually be good at.

Back in high school, we had this one teacher who actually had some common sense. He realized that if you showed up to his science class already hating the subject, forcing it on you was just a massive waste of time for everyone involved.

Why go through the hassle of making life miserable for himself and his students? Why fail people just to force them into summer school or watch them pull their hair out over concepts that simply won't stick?

Honestly, he was the only one in a sea of mediocre instructors who were just spinning their wheels going nowhere.

Jack Jones7 said:Back in high school, we had this one teacher who actually had some common sense. He realized that if you showed up to his science class already hating the subject, forcing it on you was just a massive waste of time for everyone involved.

Why go through the hassle of making life miserable for himself and his students? Why fail people just to force them into summer school or watch them pull their hair out over concepts that simply won't stick?

Honestly, he was the only one in a sea of mediocre instructors who were just spinning their wheels going nowhere.

Whether something is simple or difficult really just comes down to an individual's capacity, doesn't it? What’s an impossible struggle for one person might be a joke to another, so shouldn't someone claiming to be "smart" understand that we aren't all built with the exact same toolkit?

Robert Reyes4 said:I think focusing on our strengths is what actually matters. We can't be world-class at everything, and since time isn't infinite, we’re eventually going to have to ignore certain things just to stay sane. You should deal with the other stuff just enough so it doesn't ruin your life, but that's it. It feels like there's a lack of awareness in the collective mindset here—people seem to think you can be a jack-of-all-trades and master them all. But realistically? Everyone should just pick one area to actually be good at.

Theoretically, that sounds great, but people don't actually function that simply. Nobody goes around auditing their own skills to see what they're good at versus what they aren't; they just dive into whatever interests them, and later they figure out if they're actually talented at it—and maybe (probably) put in the extra work.
So, forcing someone to pursue something just because they showed talent at one specific moment is, in my opinion, a flawed concept from the jump.
Basically, the entire American education system is broken from the start, not even getting into the other problematic issues regarding indoctrination with false values and training kids for obedience to fake authority (the so-called "upbringing") as the primary virtue above all else.

Also, someone with low motivation, regardless of how skilled they are, isn't necessarily going to achieve more than someone with fewer competencies but higher drive. Plus, the brain remains plastic deep into adolescence, and much of how it's shaped can be influenced by external factors.
Therefore, measuring current competence is an overrated factor when evaluating future success.

We all know that in practice, environment is everything—whether it’s through family influence, parents, church, or various social prejudices about what traits are considered desirable for certain groups of people.
Usually, those people who always think they know better than you—telling you what's best for you or what "isn't for you"—are full of crap, and you never hear any praise from them. In my view, the only thing you truly need to learn in life is how to tell them to get lost in time.

Proof that this works for 99.999999% of people and that our surroundings always choose what's "best" for us is seeing how few women are in engineering programs (even though I know women are just as good as men, if not better, on average in math) and how there are virtually no male nurses in hospitals.

But then, whenever I visit a psychologist or some self-help guru, they always claim the same thing—that the problem lies solely within me. For example, if I say I want to become a nurse.
They'll say I just need to desire it, but that I'm subconsciously blocking myself.
Or that I need to live in the present. Animals live in the present; I don't see how much that helps with career choices.
Or they try to convince me that I actually want to sleep with my mother and that it's the root of all my misfortunes—which was huge in traditional psychiatric circles for decades. No, I do not want to sleep with my mother.