“The problem is not that people are uneducated. It’s that they are educated just enough to believe what they’ve been taught, but not educated enough to question what they’ve been taught”

How old were you when you realized that the average public education system (i.e., a school) was not designed to help you get smarter? While they may have started with good intentions (educated teachers molding minds of young, eager children), there was a certain threshold in our civilization when schools transitioned from institutions of knowledge to factories generating subservient civilians. It's disappointing to think about how the reputation of a school has come so low.
Some of them are active gunfire zones (looking at you, America), and some of them restrict teachers from educating and focus more on churning children through graded exams.

Our current school model has failed. It gets worse at the college level when you begin to see that education is simply a business. There is no altruistic motive to educate or teach. The goal is to create generations of humans who can follow orders, do designated tasks, and survive in communal environments.

This is not to say that schooling as a whole is a bad idea, but primarily that the institution upon which education was based has now become another product of a constricted economy. Which is quite harrowing when you realize that the idea of a school has always been to foster creativity, to encourage curiosity, and to redefine boundaries of intellectuality.

Sadly, that is too much to ask these days.

What it doesn’t do as well is teach children that the quality of your life is directly tied to your level of curiosity. Growing up pre-millennium, the world was a mystery. A large aspect of of getting through the day involved filling in knowledge gaps with your imagination. It involved pondering questions to an extensive degree. It involved accepting that sometimes you just don’t know the answer because any place you looked didn’t have it.

Nowadays, the world has become much smaller. The mystery is slowly dying since everything you want to know is a Google search away. The quest for curiosity has succumbed to instant gratification.

But to all the adults in the room, the ones who have been born in a time when information wasn’t at your fingertips, there is hope. You have had a taste of curiosity, and I promise you that life is infinitely more interesting when you are curious.
You simply cannot be bored with the world. You cannot allow it. Your apathy of the world around you is only a testament that you don’t care enough to look.
And so, I'm going to save you the trouble. I’m going to give you a quick collection of topics that have been a part of human curiosity for civilizations. Not your maths or physics or biology, not subjects, not curriculums. Genuine human achievement, encapsulated within diverse fields.

I believe there are certain elements of the human psyche that, if you do invest the time to learn, you will never get tired of. They are connected to our civilization, our survival and our original thirst for knowledge. And once you go on a quest to unlock them, you’ll get addicted to the intellectual life.

-Language: The most underrated discovery of human civilization is language. Think about it. Through language, I am able to distill and articulate the thoughts in my head into something comprehensive that anyone who knows the language can interpret. But with the knowledge of one language comes the awareness of how much you don’t know of the others. Growing up in India, there are so many individuals who possess a treasure trove of languages. My parents can speak or comprehend around 7 languages. My nephew could speak 4 languages fluently before he was 10. Learning a new language is a really fun hobby that can open you up to different sects of people.

-Music: Not just singing or instruments, learn to understand the language of music. Like all art, music is a form of expression and it follows rules and structure. As you learn to sing or play an instrument, you usually tend to understand how music flows. Learn about pitch and beats, and how to sight-read. You’ll know why Beethoven is a maestro and what makes a trendy gimmick.

-Dance - Expressing yourself goes all the way back to your roots through dancing. Our ancestors would sit by a raging fire by nightfall and simply dance, releasing their fears and inhibitions to the universe. Nature encourages you to dance, it unwind your tight stressed body. Learn to embrace it.

-Home or car maintenance - This applies if you own either or both. Learn the intricacies of these devices just for yourself. Things break, and people who know how to fix things generally end up contributing more to society.

-Financial literacy - A vastly underrated skill set; The greatest financial danger to yourself is an uneducated version of yourself. Money and time move hand in hand. The sooner you realize how to take control of your money, the faster it benefits you.

-Digital/technology - One of the greatest challenges that will eventually push one generation of humans out to the next would be the unwillingness to adapt. Whether you like it or not, technologies are the basis of what we use, and it makes sense to learn how to use them. Start small, keep building. Your wildest dreams can come to life, if you simply learn the technologies that make them work.

-Cooking - Mastering the art of cooking is not just about preparing meals; it's about connecting with cultures, flavors, and traditions. Cooking allows you to experiment, create, and nourish yourself and others. It's a life skill that promotes independence and well-being.

Life is a long web of information and data weaving in and out. The problem is that you have a device that takes you straight from A to Z without going through the process.
Information these days isn’t earned; it's simply absorbed and expelled, quickly forgotten.
But if you choose to pursue any of the options I’ve suggested, you’ll realize the value of a hard-earned education.