I saw an IG post on the homie's story the other day.
It said "how do we convince the next generation that education is the key to success when we have poor graduates and rich criminals?"
Which struck me as odd, and a bit disappointing tbh so my response was that you have to redefine "success" first.
And then I was thinking, what's the point of education if you still don't realize wealth is of the mind, not the pocket?
He was still acting confused smh and it got me thinking how misguided we are about the role of education in our lives and how that does impact the next generation's relationship to education…
Of course the next generation doesn't believe in you! Why should they??
You're still selling education as a golden ticket to success. But then if a "rich scammer" makes your whole framework for the value of education collapse, then maybe your framework was never that strong to begin with?
And when a young person notices that, the fragility of the framework you're telling them to work under, they're not being "disrespectful" for ignoring you or being skeptical. They're seeing what's going on and making their mind up based on that.
If education is important to you, then obtaining the knowledge and knowing how to apply it should be the reward. If you haven't figured out how to apply that knowledge in a way that creates value — whether for yourself, your community, or the world — what exactly are you trying to pass down? What "knowledge" are you in a position to share with the next gen?
At some point we may have slipped into thinking the credential is the education. Or that getting a diploma makes you qualified to give advice. But in reality, the diploma only means you were in the room. It doesn't necessarily mean you really came out ready to add value.
If you still believe that wealth equals money, you'll always feel poor the moment someone else has more. That's why the rich criminal shakes your worldview. But if wealth equals agency, wisdom, perspective, creativity, and discipline — then money becomes just one possible thing you could attain; one type of currency, not the only type of currency, and certainly not the way you define or measure success.
We were told: "go to school, get a good job, make more money than your parents."
So we followed those rules that were laid out for us. We got the lil credentials or whatever.
Credentials which have enabled some of us to sell our labor at a higher rate than maybe people from the families or communities we come from. Which is a good thing! Don't get me wrong.
But now the rules have changed. Marketable credentials aren't rare anymore. A lot more folks now have degrees, especially four-year degrees. So now, the goalposts have started to shift.
The labor game (now) requires something even more from us:
- Experience.
- Proof of concept.
- Execution.
The market doesn't care (as much as it used to) what you studied. It cares what you've built, solved, or contributed. And honestly if you can't apply that so-called education to understand how the world actually works, then maybe you're not educated and maybe it really was just a piece of paper.
That's why the younger generation isn't inspired by their elders.
Because most of the people trying to teach them haven't actually lived what they preach. If you say education is power, but you live disempowered, then they'll start to believe power must come from somewhere else.
And it's really tough to say they're wrong for that line of thinking.
So before you try to convince the next generation to "value education," ask yourself:
- Do you view your own education as a success in itself?
- Or are you bitter that it didn't buy you the life you thought it would?
- Do you view a rich criminal as more successful than a wise teacher?
- If so, what exactly are you trying to teach?
And you definitely can't teach what you haven't embodied.
How can you claim to lead or guide folks with a map you haven't used?
You can't convince someone to believe in a system you don't even fully believe in yourself.
We really gotta lock in. We gotta recalibrate our value systems. Learn how to turn education into insight (it's needed now more than ever!), and we gotta figure out how to turn those insights into real, tangible impact.
That's a way to define success that you can demonstrate to the next generation fr.
And that's prolly more of what the next generation is waiting to see.