Do we need school, or do we need education? Which one is really matter?

Nowadays, Indonesia is blessed with the presence of an amazing figure in the government. The minister of marine and fishery, Susi Pudjiastuti. The interesting part is that she is only high school graduate, which is quite unusual for the high rank position such minister where most of the time it will be trusted to people with higher educational graduate. It then leads to an amusing issue that children and young people do not want to go to school because of that minister. “Why should I go to school, whereas that our minister didn’t go to school either?”       

Now let's straight the thing up. Starting with the question, “Do we need school, or do we need education? Which one is really matter?”

For those who view school as only the right way to obtain good education, there is nothing wrong about it. First, perhaps parents are unable to provide appropriate education for their child, either due to busy working to make living, or due to lack of skill and knowledge. Second, because it is such a requirement for people to get better job in the future. We have to have such and such certificate when applying for job. 

For second group, who think education can take place anywhere, not only at formal educational institution, they prefer to educate themselves or their children with various ways. Their classroom is as big as this world. They don’t go to school, but they go to the zoo, to the street, to the sea, to the mountain. They visit the expert. Their teacher can be anyone on the street, at market, at hospital, at bakery shop, at mom’s kitchen, or dad’s garage, just anywhere.

For some people, schooling sometimes even can block people creativity. Thus they stop going to school. Sir Ken Robinson is one of that people. A famous quote by Mark Twain says, ‘I have never let schooling interfere with my education’. In the eyes of these people, school and education is just two different things. This is, perhaps, because school fails to accommodate the need of individual upon education. Education that can spark their curiosity, that can nurture their creativity, and so on so forth.  

We may say that school is only one of places to learn, to seek knowledge, to get education, formally. It is only a place where people are prepared to face the real world in the future. With knowledge, and with skill in order for people are able to adapt with the environment. On top of that, in order to fulfill other’s demand. Since our society still concern about the status. People who can’t follow the educational system of the country due to their uniqueness, such as Mark Twain, and Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, they are dropped out from the school.

Now my word, you can be a drop out student, you can stop going to school, only if you are as smart, creative, hardworking, ready to educate own self, and have strong mental as those great people, then go on. With the condition, you have to come up as someone else in the next few years as prove.

Yet, if you don’t think so, don’t ever think about it.