Let's be honest: apart from a few good friends, a number of interesting acquaintances, student parties and the ability to make cheat sheets and keep notes, the domestic education system does not give anything. You spend 4-5-6 years at the university — and come out with a diploma in one hand and a whole bag of illusions and inflated expectations — in the other. You are lucky if you have a job by the time you graduate for a year or two (otherwise you will face unrealistically high competition in the labor market and the inability to get a job in a more or less decent place, unless you go to conquer a million-plus city or the capital of your / someone else's country). And the teachers of our universities out of habit « hammer » into the heads of students a bunch of theory that 90% will never be applied anywhere + also « supply » them with 5 harmful myths that have nothing to do with reality.
«The best students achieve the best results»: this myth works more or less when it comes to grades in your test. Outside the walls of universities, it does not mean anything. Do you know where 4 of the top 5 students of our course ended up a year or two after graduation from the master's program? That's right — out of work. Of these 5 people, only 1 (if I'm not mistaken) now he works in his specialty. There is no correlation between "fives" (or "100 points", as was the case with our university) and success in life outside of the alma mater. There is only a connection between perseverance, the ability to use even an unfavorable situation for yourself and the circumstances of life, but not between life and your "credit card".
"The longer a person works — the more experience and competence he has": the entire bureaucratic system in the CIS countries + almost the entire system of our education is built on this myth. Wherever you go, you will always encounter an "aunt over 40-50" who has been sitting in a chair for more than the first five years, not knowing how to use a computer in 2013, but at the same time is considered a "valuable employee" or an "experienced teacher", because she has been working here for 15-20 years. At the same time, I (and I think you, too) will have at least a dozen acquaintances and friends who, in their 20-25-28 years, have skills, knowledge and ideas 5 times greater than this «aunt » in her 60 (and many of them managed to to work for 5 years in several large companies, agencies and startups, gaining experience and knowledge that no experienced official and theoretical teacher will get in his 15 years of sitting in a chair). Do you still want to learn knowledge from people who have been using the same textbook for 10 years?
«All skills can be evaluated and measured»: a myth that works great at a university, where everyone « on merit » can be graded. And then « a certified specialist » must be taught 2 years of real (and not theoretical) accounting. Skills in such areas as design, interface design, copywriting, online marketing are generally difficult to measure (because no serious domestic university trains web designers or copywriters, and a person with two projects in a portfolio for 5 years of work is in no way identical in skills to someone who has 2 years — 25 projects).
«There are recognized authorities, and you have to put up with it »: favorite dogma of teachers and bosses «old school ». This myth has its roots back in the days when the party was more prominent, and the works of politicians and economists 80 years ago served as an irrefutable source of theory and practice for all types of activities: from science and medicine to painting and literature. Now, in any field (except perhaps theoretical and quantum physics), the revision of dogmas and concepts takes place on average every 4-5 years. The head on your shoulders and the ability to analyze and research are much more important than the unbending belief that everything said is cast in granite.»
«You need to follow the rules»: if this myth were true, then there would be no Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Bob Dylan, the Klitschko brothers and Tiger Woods. The absence of rules does not mean that you have to cross the street at a red light, eat with your hands instead of a fork and knife and swear in public places. The absence of rules means that there is no universal recipe or habitual life scheme that must be followed so that everyone around you is happy, and you « fit » into the scheme «kindergarten-school-institute-work-marriage-children-apartment mortgage-grandchildren-old age-pension-death». Actually, we get education at the university not in order to follow the rules, but to improve our knowledge in a certain niche and create something new that goes against the old scheme of commodity-money, socio-cultural and technological ties in society. That's just in domestic universities for some reason they forgot about this nuance.
I am almost 100% sure that you have your own myths that you can add to this list. Do not hesitate: the sooner you understand, after leaving the walls of the university, what you have been deceived about, the easier it is to say goodbye to illusions and achieve real, not theoretical success.
