Does you need "music school"?

So I thought I’d talk today about the role of music in my life and how music education has changed it for the better. About five years ago, I was entering my junior year of high school. That year I was involved in so many activities that sleep was just another calendar entry. I was busy; busy trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to surround myself with. If there is one thing that I realized by this point in my school career, it was that high school had “crowds.” I had always been in the intelligent student crowd, where the majority of conversation surrounded when the next elite university application was coming due. And there was not a single music student among us. This disassociation between intelligence and musical talent gave me a completely misguided view on the music industry. Musicians, I had always been taught, were lazy, idealistic dreamers that spent their time between doing drugs and mindlessly strumming riffs on their guitars.
In my junior year I had a small group of friends that was outside of the AP and Honors crew, a group that I always spent time with when I was sick of worrying about school and proving myself. One day I was introduced to a friend of theirs who told me he was in to DJ’ing. I started to ask questions and I learned that music production and mixing on this medium was highly technical and required a great deal of education and practice. The first thing that stuck out to me though was that he was an honor student! We talked more and I ended up spending the next two years practicing and developing my skills as a music producer to the point where I now perform on a regular basis. Probably the most amazing thing that I learned was that education did have a positive impact on my ability to pursue my musical hobbies. I had spent so long trying to subdue my passion for music because I thought it conflicted with studies. But now, if we fast forward to my career so far, I have spent three summers working in the music industry professionally, including getting my first gig through a friend that DJ’ed professionally during college.
This started to get me thinking about the role of education once again. Education means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The one thing that seems to ring true across all situations is that education has opened doors. In my experience, these doors were not always academic and professional, but rather social and spiritual. Being in college gives you the chance to meet people from a myriad of different backgrounds. It allows you find fulfillment in something. I found that in music. But it didn’t come from my music classes, or my technology courses. It came from the students I met and the places I visited. Perhaps education is not for learning, but rather to adjust to find your calling? What do you think? Are students that make studying the priority of their education really wasting the cultural melting pot they are being exposed to?

Hello World - Education and Intelligence

“This class is sucks, I’m not learning anything.”

This sound familiar? Anyone who has been a victim (or willing participant) of the education system at any level has heard this line. Perhaps you even used it yourself. Over the years, it got me to think deeply about the purpose of the college education and the role that it plays in the real world. Why write about this now? Well, this summer I worked for a mid-size company in the technology space, a job that challenged my beliefs about why we so desperately desire that diploma-shaped receipt.

In the early days, I was that stereotypical, overachiever type. The one that’s involved in two sports, takes AP classes, and in high school student government. Every move I made and every breath I took (pardon the musical reference) was all towards the goal of making it to the eagerly anticipated and seemingly unreachable “university experience.” Now that I’m here and I look back at the last four years and I evaluate how I’ve changed and what I’ve learned, I see that my most profound perspective shift came from my summer job.

You see, both of my managers would actually be considered less educated than myself. Neither graduated college. In fact, one didn’t even finish high school. And yet, they are far more intelligent than most college educated professionals I’ve ever met. So what is the purpose of going to Harvard? Duke? Yale? USC? Or just about any other top tier University in this country if someone can do more without it? Maybe college isn’t necessary. One of the best questions I asked myself recently was “Does college educate the unintelligent? Or is it a place where the intelligent go to get educated?”

Yes, I did just open up a huge can of worms. This blog will hopefully start a journey into figuring out why exactly our culture has such a vested interest in education and what it actually does for the average person. Personally, education has taught me simply that education is a choice. Education is not a necessity, but rather a place for the socially well-adjusted and intelligent members of the population to pontificate on life’s great mysteries. All the while, some brilliant individuals are out there changing the world and making a living. To each man, his own journey. But instead of force-feeding society that education is necessary for success, we should first examine what defines success and how it means something different to each and every person. I will be posting about college drop-out success stories, the reality of college expenses and admissions, as well as other unique stories that put this entire discussion into perspective.

If you are reading this and skeptical, you are likely in college. If you are scared to read this, you have likely finished college. If you are excited to read this, you started your own business and skipped school completely. No matter which group you attribute yourself too, there is something in this blog for everyone. Stay tuned as I debunk the myths behind college and why we all spend our lives in search of education.