Why Take Academic Classes If You Aren’t Planning an Academic Future?

 Educate Yourself

By Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project

 If you listen to university and collegiate advertising, getting a college degree is the golden ticket to life! Finish that degree and you’ll have a bright and carefree future, right? This might be the case for some, no doubt. This is often untrue as well. For some, college will be a very expensive experiment. Results will vary. Some move towards the end of high school years without any interest in following the crowd into college. Should this change how you approach your high school years?
Being undecided about college (or even being certain it isn’t for you) does not mean you should skip tackling academic subjects in high school. “Academic” classes are not just for students planning an academic career. Just like you shouldn’t spend your life stretched out on a couch because you never plan to hike Mt. Everest, never miss out on challenging yourself and your brain to master new things. The challenge of navigating life’s demands will be improved when you have trained yourself to learn, do, and know a wide variety of things.   

The Highest Grade isn’t the Greatest Good

The Lukeion Project has been offering challenging courses for 20 years. While most of our courses were on par academically 20 years ago, they are now considered relatively challenging. Today’s students haven’t changed. What is expected of them has. Consequently, some ostensibly bright students are choosing an easy path to ensure a perfect GPA and transcript. Horror stories abound about students who graduate from high school (even with honors) but have never read a book or written an essay. After some navigate 12 years of this type of “education,” they are — unsurprisingly — disinterested in playing the academic game any longer than necessary.  
Having a crack at academically challenging classes can be wonderfully fulfilling, even if you must work extra hard to enjoy rewards. Success is often won with less than perfect scores but more than adequate assurance that you have what it takes to complete tough mental missions. “What if” it doesn’t go that well for you? That’s the risk with anything, no matter your path. It is as important to learn how to navigate failures as it is to know you can overcome and conquer challenges. The highest grade is NOT the greatest good.

Tackling Academic Challenges Benefits Everyone

There are plenty of subjects that you’ll be asked to do that will leave you wondering if you’ll ever “need” to use that knowledge again. Does the average person need calculus every day? Does one need 14th century French history? What about playing a toy xylophone when you were 5 or finishing an Egyptology lesson in fifth grade?  
Education is only as good as the width and breadth of your experiences. If we only do things we think we’ll eventually need, we will limit ourselves to the smallest and narrowest possible existence since we have no clue what awaits. Challenges, victories, failures, and recoveries shape who we will eventually be and how we’ll use this life. Taking on tough subjects offers benefits to absolutely everyone. You don’t need to become a professor of archaeology or an expert in ancient languages to learn about them and love them. They will continue to enrich your life endlessly.

A Rich Education Is Something You Create for Yourself

Home educated students already know this fact well. Skipping the often random and perplexing requirements set by program dictocrats is the biggest advantage to pulling the plug on conventional education. Getting a good education is nearly impossible unless you, and hopefully also your family, know how to enrich your own education.
I had only two bright spots in my otherwise dull high school education: botany and Latin. Those two subjects have shaped my preferences, career, and hobby ever since. Finding something to light your mental fire and then going out of your way to pursue it will make all the difference, regardless of how dreary your educational prospects might seem now or in the future.  

Many Rewarding Fields are Looking for Great Minds not Great Diplomas  

If life, the universe, and everything stays exactly as it is right now, there are many fantastic life paths that require zero college degrees. I propose, dear reader, that most things about the modern world are about to change radically due to innovations in quantum computing and in AI applications. My prediction is that society will soon be divided into two groups. The old model separated the educated and the uneducated in terms of social mobility and earning potential. Very soon, those that can think with swift clarity, and those that cannot, will be marked for distinct career paths.
Making top grades in easy classes then finishing a fast degree with community college dual credits used to be a simple and affordable route to a diploma. Your little diploma could open a variety of doors in your choice of 40-hour work week fields. Unfortunately, those are the jobs that may soon be completed by AI in a fraction of the time and money a human needs. Those who can teach themselves the new rules of the changing AI landscape will do very well. Four-year degrees will still be necessary but only for very specific fields. Train your brain to learn and memorize, train yourself to communicate precisely in both speech and in writing, train your tastes to crave a broad scope of knowledge and topics. There has been no better time for taking academic classes even if you think you will not want to pursue an academic career.  

Your Own Personal Education

Passive vs. Active Approach to Building a Life

By Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project

Which do you enjoy best: a tough game played without directions or goals, or the same tough game but with access to instructions, tips, and a clear view about what you must achieve to win? Those that even have interests in challenging games typically prefer to have the basics in place so that they can enjoy the game with a reasonable hope of succeeding. The toughest games in life can be your own education.
Most of us begin well before we know we are playing and, mid-game, are expected to excel before fighting the “final boss” graduation. Many decide to endure bonus rounds with apprenticeships, college, internships, or graduate school.
Some of us love this educational process and rally around the various challenges and opportunities! Some of us look at the future and despair. So many variables! So much work! It is easy to become prematurely weary about all the demands and expectations.
Students come to love the game of education more when they are given directions and have relative control over their goals. On a scale ranging from a rigid education (like a boarding school) to a fluid education (like unschooling), any approach that gives the student increasing autonomy and self-determination works best to bolster focus and optimism for the future. A student who has room to make choices about classes and topics will enjoy more opportunities to try things they might want to do for a living before they pay for college. Students who had a rigid earlier education will struggle to know what interests them enough to study further. Though most eventually find their path, they might change majors and careers many times since they delayed the process of test running new things until they became an adult.      
When framing goals, start by exploring your general interests to see if they mesh with any realistic goals. You don’t need years in botany, medicine, or art to know that those things light your fire.
 Depending on your life experiences, you may wish to continue what you already enjoy (art, music, writing, science, sports). This first tricky step is where many of us stall out. It is FAR more normal to have no idea what we want to be “when we grow up” until we are really pushed to make some type of decision. Over-thinkers worry they won’t be good enough at something they like to do, or they have concerns that their choices are unattainable, or that others won’t agree that their chosen path is worthwhile or realistic.
Instead of pushing non-stop over top academic marks and taking impressive academic courses that aren’t particularly interesting to you, be intentional about trying classes (or camps or workshops or programs) on topics that interest you. At all stages of our education, diversions from the programmed educational path are called electives, classes we picked “just” because we liked the subject. I can’t imagine a better topic to pursue than one we enjoy. How many geniuses would have remained anonymously unimportant if they’d rigidly stuck to the regular program?
There’s a lot to navigate before you might be willing to talk about your educational path with others. Some students don’t enjoy much choice. Perhaps family expectations make it clear where you’ll end up. Maybe your family boasts several generations of engineers or maybe everyone graduated from the same school. Perhaps a family business dictates where you’ll work once you graduate. Sometimes what you enjoy plays no role in what you must do educationally.
I had a friend in college who was happily finishing a degree in information technology when his mother insisted that he apply to medical school. Though he had no interest in medicine, she was willing to cut off all communication if he didn’t choose a medical path. On the other hand, I’ve known many who receive no guidance at all. Families can be a bit tricky to navigate.
Once you explore your goals, run your ideas past the most dependable people you know. Some public and private schools have guidance counselors when dependable people are in short supply, but I recommend you find somebody who knows you well and will be honest with you. Perhaps you see yourself becoming an online influencer but the person who knows you best might suggest a path that gives you multiple options. Getting a background in public speaking, marketing, journalism, and even graphic design would foster such interests without giving you too narrow a goal. Don’t despair if your objectives remain elusive. Sometimes your “aha!” moment arrives serendipitously. Observe yourself when you get excited about a particular subject or skill. Do more of that and see how things shape up.
Once you envision a path, take an active approach to your education from that moment on. Most of us, for very practical reasons, are very passive about our education until, one day, we want to take the steering wheel. Whatever you like to do, work diligently at being the best at it and you’ll never lack opportunities.

The Limber Brain

 Stretch Your Mind

 By Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project

Some students never get a break! I’m not talking about the variety of students who have especially bad luck or suffer an especially bad time with academic subjects. I am talking about students who choose to or are expected to maintain a year-round academic schedule. Thankfully, you’ll survive as long as you remember to limber up and stretch your brain.

The year-round approach works well for some and poorly for others. What’s the secret? Those that successfully “do school” year-round, or nearly so, tend to maintain a limber brain. Those that enjoy the positive results of year-round education habitually incorporate certain non-academic habits in their otherwise academic lifestyle.

Work-Life Balance

This is the minimum addition required to make year-round academics possible, but it is the most overlooked. Nobody, no matter their age, thrives in a situation in which they work all day and some of their evenings as well. A schedule that requires full attention all day followed by hours more work at night is necessary from time to time but never full time. The brain and body require balance, variety, and stretching as new experiences break the monotony of hyper concentration needed to master new concepts. Reserve portions of every day to do different things besides academics. This will sharpen the mind and improve retention. Becoming an excellent student is more than just overloading yourself on academic subjects.

Game-play

Games of all kinds have come to occupy more and more entertainment time in our schedule because there are options for every personality and taste. Games that are especially helpful for keeping your brain limber (neuroplasticity) require logic and reasoning. Excellent game choices require you to play a comparable or slightly superior opponent so that you stand a reasonable chance at both winning and losing on a regular basis. Pick a game that isn’t too repetitive so that you learn to just take shortcuts. A good game requires you to make incremental improvements in your skills as you continue. Chess ticks all these boxes but there are other options available that suit your interest. Avoid over focusing on any game that requires you to work alone. Limit those to occasional interactions. 

Exercise

Some of us shape our whole schedule around sports and exercise. Others of us? Not so much. Everyone, regardless of preferences, needs exercise. My favorite type of exercise tends to be working in my garden or taking care of outdoor animals like my chickens or goats. Others consider such things “chores” rather than exercise but no matter. I work myself to the point of exhaustion while enjoying some excellent veggies as a reward. Exercise doesn’t have to be expensive or specialized or even competitive. Pick but don’t omit. Look at your DAILY (not weekly nor even monthly) schedule to add some exercise. I especially recommend doing something outside early in the day and towards sunset for a bonus benefit to your brain and sleep options.

Music

There are few physical activities that are more effective for fostering a limber brain than becoming proficient at a musical instrument or training yourself to use your voice effectively. The tricky bit about learning to play an instrument or singing is that it can take some time, expense, and commitment. Sometimes we are expected to get started on an instrument before we are ready to make that commitment. This can build a mental wall that blocks our success. Timing is everything. Some are asked to start so early they lack the maturity needed to practice. Some are told they can’t learn a new instrument because now they are too old with the assumption that all great musicians started very young (look up Wynton Marsalis if you want a good example). Contrariwise, those that develop a passionate desire to pursue music into adulthood are often discouraged because “becoming a musician won’t make enough money.”

Parents: fostering the love of music in your younger child is like nursing along a tiny ember into a fire. Go easy but be ready to help when interests arise.

Music, especially the ability to create it for oneself, is one of the most satisfying skills one can develop! Obviously buying a grand piano for a disinterested child makes no sense but waiting a few years and trying again with an inexpensive keyboard might make sense. Not everyone is going to become a musician just because they develop a passion for playing drums or flute at age 10. Keep going anyway. Now you have a passionate young musician in your house (maybe it is you) who has developed a special skill to stretch the mind.    

Movement

As far back as we can look back into history, human beings have loved to dance. Depending on where your ancestors lived and what they believed, there might have been some social constraints about how, when, and where dance is ok, but all our ancestors – at least in theory – danced every chance they got.

If you randomly gathered 50 teens in a room today (at least modern America) and asked them to dance, you’d likely enjoy limited success at first. Many of us have been robbed of an activity that served as a core behavior to the rest of the human race right up until the last couple of generations.

Adding rhythmic movement to your regular schedule will drastically improve your mood, your ability to learn, and your neuroplasticity. In Harvard’s study of the effects of movement on the human brain, they cite an early look here:

In a small study undertaken in 2012, researchers at North Dakota’s Minot State University found that the Latin-style dance program known as Zumba improves mood and certain cognitive skills, such as visual recognition and decision-making. Other studies show that dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections, especially in regions involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.

All work and no play leads to a crunchy, stiff and stuffy brain. Make it limber through balance, music, movement, and games.

The Trained Brain

You Need Mental Exercise

by Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project

Walk through any big box store in January and you’ll see two types of things: bottles of health supplements and exercise equipment. Yesterday I saw a lady who appeared to be in her 80s trying out a very expensive piece of weight training equipment because we humans love trying to make a new start. As the new year starts, people feel motivated to get healthier and start exercising in response to feeling less than their best after a few long weeks of eating extra treats and lounging about more than often.
Starting a new semester is the perfect time to consider our mental health routines. We all likely do things differently in the deepest part of the winter and feel less than our best mentally. How do we get our mental health back and start training our brain? Enjoy three steps that anyone can do for free.

Start

Choose your biggest distraction and decide to defeat it. I’ll help. If you have unfettered (or even just slightly reduced) access to technology (phones, tablets, games, TV, etc.) presume it is your biggest obstacle because app developers have made it their business to make you hyper-focused on their product while you become hyper-distracted from completing much else. Most of us know it is a problem while at the same time we don’t really want to change. That’s what an addiction is! Imagine regaining 30-40% of your time each week. “What good is that,” you might opine, “if I’m missing out on everything online?” If you want a trained brain—one that is far more efficient at reading what you like to read and thinking what you prefer to think—it is indeed a very good thing to regain your time.
If you live in a digital-free home or a relatively digitally diminished life, congratulations. You can skip to the next step because no other distraction is as debilitating as technology.
First, don’t change anything but do track your time for at least three days. One of those days should be a weekend and two should be weekdays. Work out how you distribute your time. Be precise because you are doing this for yourself, not somebody giving you a grade -- though you’ll soon find that it makes a difference in that area too. Track yourself in terms of 10-minute blocks rounded up.  If you wake up but spend 23 minutes looking at your phone, don’t count those as 23 minutes sleeping but 30 minutes on screen time. If you are on the phone every time you eat a meal, count that time as screen time, not eating since it is likely you didn’t even taste your food or keep track of how much you ate. If you can’t take a walk without looking down at your phone the whole time, don’t count that as exercise but as screen time.  Do a little math and find out your average daily time investment on different tasks. Remember, anything that you do that includes screen time only counts as screen time. Most will quickly discover why your life is passing by with limited returns. The five hours you claim you are spending on mental work is closer to around 32 minutes.
It is time to train your brain. The fastest way to reprogram yourself away from distractions is to find a good book, preferably one that has more than one volume in a set. Moving from one type of distraction to another will simplify your predicament while extending your ability to focus. Depending on how deep your addiction is to digital distractions, you may need to start at 2 minutes, but most can make if for 5. Use your phone or device as a timer. Set it for 5 minutes and 10 seconds. The extra 10 seconds is added so you can set the device and leave it in the next room while you go to a part of your home that has no digital entertainment whatsoever. For some, this might be your closet. Pick up your book and read it for five minutes without getting up to check any device. Some will have few problems. Others will only make it a minute or two before they want to grab their phone. Repeat this 5-minute process as many times as you need until you find you are a bit surprised when the timer goes off. Next try 10 minutes, then 20, etc. Once you can keep reading for an hour without reaching for a device, maintain that level for at least a week or, better, two. Congratulations! You’ve now restored your ability to focus and you might even want to finish reading the whole series now.

Advance

Now you can concentrate on a different entertaining distraction but that doesn’t mean you are mentally productive yet. Cajole yourself into reading something you do not yet enjoy. Instead of just using the timer to get yourself to read more about calculus or history or 18th century literature, engage further by taking notes. What you write, how you write, or the elegance of your letters makes zero difference. If all you do is write out a proper name, date, fact, or important term on your chicken-scratch notes for each page you read, you are training your brain. Do not replace note-taking with highlighting the book nor underlining things. Doodlers: don’t just doodle unless your image relates to the text. Writing out relevant words and very short descriptions means you must track with the material to a greater and extent. You don’t need full sentences (unless you find words to live by). Expect to be irritated at first by how slow you write. You might have to train your hand as well. You’ll quickly discover why people used the almost lost art of cursive. Printing takes a lot longer than cursive writing which was the original point of cursive.  Once you can get all the way through an assigned reading without getting distracted, well done! You’ve come a long way.

Enjoy

So now you’ve trained diligently and won a few victories. How do you know when you have a nicely trained brain? Success is when you stop craving the petty distractions (for most alive today that would be something on a phone, gaming, or TV but some are hooked on sports or music or a zillion other things). If you swap zillions of 2-minute videos of people doing dumb things for being able to ready for an hour without interruption or distraction, you are going to begin to do things that will surprise you. As your taste for reading expands, you’ll begin to think and communicate in more and more complex ways that mimic the type of things that you like to read. Vocabulary will grow, ideas will increase, and your writing will speed and improve in quality. Maybe your new focus tool is building something. Congratulations! Now you have a useful skill! Perhaps you decided your focus tool is art, animals, exercise, or writing. All of these things will continue to develop your ability to enjoy life in ways that are far more meaningful than watching strangers on short videos.
It is worth it to train your brain. Try it.