Many believe school and university to be mandatory for success, but some billionaires have proved otherwise
Money is often used as a symbol of success.
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Many students around the world believe that, if they do not perform well during their stay at school, they will not be successful. Even though you need high grades in order to enter a nice university, you don’t need school or university for success. Bill Gates is a perfect example of this. He graduated high school with honors and qualified for Harvard, but 2 years into college he dropped out. Many people will misinterpret what Bill Gates did and think that they will do well in life by dropping out just as he did, but the difference is that he had a solid vision of what he wanted to do and followed his plan to make it a reality, not needing college anymore.
Bill Gates dropped out of college because he already knew that Microsoft, the company he founded in his garage with his friend, was going to be a success and ensure his future. But what if you don’t have the same vision or don’t even know what you want to do in life? School and university are necessary while you’re still oblivious to the outer world and don’t have anything planned, because they will ensure that you at least have a plan B in case you don’t know what to do. On the other hand, if you have everything set since high school and are sure that your plan will give you a comfortable life, then you don’t really need to study something in order to succeed.
In my opinion, you don't need college unless you don’t know what to do with your life. I believe that Elementary and Middle School are very relevant, but in High School you should already start planning out something to profit off for the rest of your life. In order to do this, however, the teaching system should 100% change because students end up very stressed and overwhelmed by the number of assignments and information they are receiving each day instead of creating a clear picture of what they want to do next. Schools in Finland don’t even have tests nor homework, because they’re focused on making their students better people while they get their life sorted out instead of training them like machines (like every other part of the world.) Finnish school days are not as long as ours because they care about their student's mental health and they know that 7 hours a day is too much info for them to remember everything. That school system peaked at the second-best just behind China.
CSA could take some inspiration from the Finish education system in the part of teamwork. Since I am no genius that can develop a flawless favorable-for-all system of education yet, I can’t propose a solid system unless I spend a lot of time polishing it, however, I do have some concepts in mind. For example, to focus on teamwork and building relationships, every class should at least make one cooperative test per quarter; the test should be open book and the students should have access to the internet, share answers, and talk during the test. In order to ensure the understanding of the topic and that strong relationship are built, the test must be long (about 50 questions) and the students should further develop their answers. The whole purpose of this test would be to prove that teamwork is highly effective and it would also prepare the students for the outside world by teaching them how to rely on other people for certain things and how to do the rest by themselves.
In short, I think educators should rethink education and help students find their passion earlier in life.