Foray's Blog

Literature and writing are taught incorrectly in schools. It seems like the purpose of reading, which, in my opinion, is the act of enjoying one self, is not prevalent now. We are reading for the wrong reasons, which is that “I am going to read this because I need to understand it to pass a test or write an exam.”

When it comes to novel writing, there is a reason why the industry doesn’t really care if you get a degree or not. They just care about the fact that you made a compelling story.

Empirically speaking, I am mostly self-taught, a man who was inspired by the works of authors who truly inspired me. I, at first, mimicked their styles to get a style of my own, so much so that I developed my own way overtime. None of it was really taught formally. There is a famous word for it: autodidact.

It makes me wonder if there is a hegemony within the education system, that the professors are inadvertently forcing students to think and act a certain way. The original and creative ideas come outside, the ones that are able to look at the bigger picture and think things in different ways.

Education has become a game now. You are there to pass the class or else you would have to repeat it and pay more tuition money. You don’t see a lot of self-taught learners nowadays, or maybe this is just me. You never want to base your claims on anecdotal evidence.

Nonetheless, it is a shame how we are spending so much money for education that is subpar. It is pretty interesting how I am able to write a trilogy of novels without the need of formal education, because I knew that wasn’t the prerequisite. All you need is a laptop and ten fingers and an imagination. That is something you can’t really teach either.

To me, all the information is already available on the internet. Assuming you proofread your sources, you don’t need to pay $15K a year to understand humanities-like subjects. There are many other programs and apps that can help you.

Last but not least, writing is a craft, so you may have a degree in creative writing, but if you don’t get behind the computer and type it down, then nothing will be made. Maybe that is why humanities majors get a bad wrap–it is because we don’t really explain the intrinsic importance of studying these subjects–we just do it to get a degree.