I believe no, however it does make life a lot easier and cheaper.
I left school after completing my GCSE's . I tried attending college, but after only 2 months I decided it was not for me. Now 3 and a half years later, after going from job to job but still following the same dream, I have found a hunger to learn, to broaden my knowledge, and to have a deeper understanding of life and its subjects. I do not think I would have this curiosity if I had carried on pushing my way through school and college. I do however wish I had.
Whilst at school, and then especially at college, you have a wide range of subjects to choose from, to learn about, and the best part is, they're all free! Now if I wanted to take an A or AS level it would cost me a few hundred pounds. I instead have to pay money to take courses and be taught, or find interesting ways to teach myself. Not just through books, but visiting historic landmarks or galleries, attending film festivals and theatres; whatever can give me a better insight, knowledge and understanding of whatever it is I want to learn about. I guess it's more character building, finding things for myself rather than being handed the information on a plate, but I think this might be the downfall as to why I didn't feel school was for me.
I know I said I wish I had carried on pushing my way through college, but I know how I felt at the time. I wasn't bothered to learn, I was more interested in finding fun in my lesson in whatever way possible than paying attention and actually learning something. If there was no way to make the lesson fun I just wouldn't show up, or leave if I was able to slip out, or worst case: I would sit there very very bored. No matter which option I took, I learnt very little. So would there have been any point to staying in school?
The thing is I'm quite a bright girl. I used to be very clever in primary school but since going to high school things went down hill. I lost the curiosity to learn. I think this is down to the age I was - I enjoyed the negative attention from teachers, and having fun with my friends was just so important. I also think it was down to the lack of inspiration from some teachers. Note some not all. I remember in history we were given a photocopy of a text book, and a list of questions. Someone would read the text and at certain points our teacher would tell us to 'highlight the next paragraph as this is where the answer to question 1' etc was. It was easy but none of it stuck in my head.
I think to really get through to kids you need to inspire them. Instead of teaching from a text book, you need to remember the reason why you love that subject, what made it so interesting for you, and bring that to the classroom (whilst trying to follow the syllabus..). Try and give them a deeper understanding of the subject as well as what the government decides they need to know. That way I think they will be more likely to listen and to learn. Easier said than done though right.
But that is why I do not regret dropping out of college after only 2 months. Maybe I could have pushed myself through college, maybe I could've come out with AS and A levels, maybe even during those two years at college I would've been inspired to actively learn more, not just to pass a few exams. Or maybe I would've stayed the same, bunking lessons, finding friends and having fun more important than my future and myself. Who knows. But what I do know is now, after all this time, I have that curiosity and that hunger, I want to learn and that is definitely a positive thing. And the most important part is that that is my choice; I am not just doing it because its generally the next step, I genuinely want to do it. It's going to be tougher, a lot more pressure on myself for motivation but as I said, it is probably more character building this way anyway!
