College Is Not Teaching Us What We Really Need to Know

Recently, I was at one of those famous and now so popular happy hours in a co-working space. People were talking about their different (awful and funny) experiences in the workforce after they graduated college. Some of those stories were about horrible bosses, low pay, the debt they were in due to college/car/credit card loans, lack of time to exercise, all those endless ramen soups at home, but also the fancy restaurant bills due to peer pressure, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I strongly support people that want to go to college and pursue higher education. Colleges are good at teaching us to meet deadlines, follow simple and complex orders, deal with different classmates' personalities, create an impressive resume, etc. All of these have one common goal: succeed in the system we live.

Suddenly, four to five years later, we graduate. We feel ready to conquer the world! (Woohoo!) We did everything we were told so far by our teachers and parents. We finished high school, got into college, joined student clubs, were active in our community, handled endless sleepless nights and got one to two internships while studying to land a job after graduation. What else could we do, right? Life seemed like it should go on the right path. Sadly, most young professionals in their mid-20s are burned out, in debt, and going through their first life crisis.

I mentally rewind my classes and started wondering why my finance teacher didn’t warn us about debt (the importance of not accumulating one or the best techniques to get out of it ASAP)? Why my business ethics teacher didn’t tell me about the sweatshops and horrible practices of my “favorite brands?” Why didn’t the business writing teacher teach me to deal with my boss and learn to say no when it was needed instead of learning how to write the perfect resume and cover letter?

There are enough numbers around the web to scare a 19 to 20-year-old enough and not make the same mistakes as the previous generations. “Americans in their 20s with student loan debt each have an average balance of about $22,135.” That’s without mentioning all the credit cards and auto loans young professionals have. An estimated 168 million children ages five to 14 are forced to work in developing countries, where our favorite brands operate and are full of these places called sweatshops. News, of course, doesn’t cover that. Shouldn’t we know about it and make companies do something? Shouldn’t we know how to deal with our boss and not work more than 50 hours per week to the point where you feel we can’t control our lives anymore?

Several pages later of reviewing my life now and the life I had in college, I questioned even more. Why aren’t classes about recycling, global warming? Why didn't my nutrition teacher tell us about plant-based diets? About the difference between organic/not organic? About the hormones in the meat that increases the chances of getting cancer? Why there wasn’t a mandatory class to learn about the chemicals in the products we normally purchase? And many more "subjects" we should know?

Why doesn't anybody teach us to live instead of following whatever people tell us to do? Is our education system too outdated? Are we not questioning enough what we are taught? Are we too distracted to even care? Are we too scared to ask? My point is, guys, ASK MORE. Question everything you see, hear, and read. Don’t take people’s facts and opinions as the absolute truth. Be open-minded and respectful of everything. Next time you're having a conversation and someone is trying to “teach” you something, just listen. When you get home, fact-check what you heard. It will surprise you more than you expect!