I have a good bit of formal education, and actually think it is very useful. You "learn how to think" and have access to people who are incredibly well-informed.

Don't get too convinced by crazy stories from the outrage machine (or even this IDW site) about some woke idiots on this or that campus. That has a huge amount of selection bias in it: [en.wikipedia.org] . But of course you can educate yourself. Not by watching a political news outlet or focusing exclusively on IDW posts. Read some books.... I guess videos can be ok, but they are naturally quick and shallow.

As some others have stated in the comments already: It really depends on what kind of education you get. Though I would argue it also depends on your brain, genetics and what environment you were brought up in.

I was fortunate enough to be brought up by a father who at least made me always question myself and ask "why do you think things are the way they are?". Even if he wasn't around a lot and didn't win best father of the year award, he at least taught me something fundamental that's helped me a lot in life.

When I went to a small community college I was lost like a lot of people and didn't know what to take. I changed my degree a few times and wasted my own student loan money, but it did one interesting thing: I learned "HOW" to learn instead of "WHAT" to learn. I changed vastly different subjects and it reminded me of the days of old when you had to study a broad range of subjects to have a more well-rounded view of the world. I took a year of sociology and philosophy, a year of economics and computer programming, a year of pure sciences, and finally went to try and finish with psychology and have been following that as my calling.

Now I find myself stuck because I see everyone else as locked into their own echo chamber. On any issue ranging from feminism, climate change, politics, abortion, etc. I have a lot more to say on the subjects not just from what I've read now but from being able to question things and break the problems down into their core components and sort them out. Climate change issue begs a lot of questions which my year of science and chemistry taught me. People just don't understand how complicated the planet's atmosphere is and the ocean currents on top of how the CO2 molecule works. Most people have never bothered to look up an absorption spectrum for each molecule.

But going back to formal education topic: I can see why people are skeptical now. Technically speaking these days, you do not 'need it' to make money. Money can be made a variety of ways now. You can start a podcast, create a name for yourself, you can become an investor, or even sell your body from the safety of your own home now (I'm not really endorsing that one but its a trend I've been seeing mostly from women now), etc. There are so many ways to make a buck now that its disorienting and even confusing but at least there are many more options available.

What I just found so nice about going to college was just the sheer exposure to new ideas and concepts that you wouldn't really learn on your own. Reflecting back on it, the sociology stuff probably wasn't as good because it was deeply flawed in a lot of ways, but some of the stuff that they were critical about was valid. Its not like its all bad and Marxist even though I am sure there are some really bad professors out there. There are still bad professors though for even science courses (one of my first year physics teachers was AWFUL!). So its good to keep things in perspective.

I do wish that our education system (here in Canada at least) was more focused on a broad and conflicting perspective that teaches people both sides of the argument. I luckily had some great philosophy teachers that really tried to get our young minds to see both sides before coming to any kind of conclusion. In the end there was hardly a clear answer and you learn the truth of the world: that its all complicated and very, very, VERY gray.

I am not too sure how much of our genetics and brain chemistry makes us closed or open minded but I am sure it does play a role. But I have seen some really close minded people change their minds on stuff, so I think its just a matter of exposure and being in the right type of environment too.

I think it might if you think that having a formal education is a reason to dismiss ones views without addressing the content of the views.

I think its more culminating an unhealthy sense of arrogance over your formal education. There is so much knowledge in the world and I doubt that much of it is in formal education...

You don't need a formal education to know that the most important educational years are spent at home. The formative years. The weak link being if a child has only one parent, no parents or bad parents. The best case scenario is a child being with it's 2 parents and having them actively participate in the child's life. Are Teachers these days acting too much as surrogate parents? Is the curriculum stepping beyond what we want our children to know?

I had a guy with a degree he was a physiologist tell me i did not understand how addiction started because i did not have a degree. My agument was. If I'm a mother and the doctor offers me a drug and say's it can be addictive and i except it take the drug it was a choice first. If he did not say it could be addictive and i did not ask or read the warning it was still a choice first. Self responsibility is a must. ( even more so when you have a child) to me this was common sense to him i was stupid.
Addiction starts as a choice problem slideing, slide, fell, gone, need real help now. If YOU don't seek help, you want help, at some point or use self control or choose wisely at first.

Coming from someone who does not have a formal education. I see where i get hit on thing's like my spelling, grammar and punctuation, rather then my points, opinion, and proof, of the subject. Well if you understood what i was saying (yes it matters i should work on these area's.) If you knew i was dyslexic and had nerve damage from my brain to my eye's would you still be Quick to point out these mistakes when you understood, what i was saying or is this a devertion tactic. So i think a formal education is a controled education, indoctrination, think within the box. Where i concider the possibility that mistakes are made for a reason other then lack of education or insuperiority.

Formal education is really institutional indoctrination . It is the root of cognitive dissonance

very interesting answers in this post. new question. does anybody think that formal education (or atleast indoctrinating practices within education) should be up for evaluation and the "chopping block"?

It depends on the education. By definition CD is about holding conflicting/contradictory ideas of how the world "is." It requires you, for example, trust authority yet believe the system is corrupt. If you trust an authoritative expert who shows you information that the system functions as designed it confirms trust but violates belief in systemic corruption. If your education is limited to that which is taught you wind up in a fallacy from the get go: appeal to authority.

Something that strikes me is that "critical thinking" doesn't mean what it used to. It used to mean something like unbiased, open-minded evaluations of information leading to conclusions that are then held up for reflection rather than as doctrine. Now it seems to be to criticize all established notions as suspect, of even to question whether any "knower" can ever know anything more than what has been imposed upon them by society.

One thing for sure about education: it changes you now and it changes who you might be. One of the issues going now is that "formal" is taken wrong. Instead of being in accordance with convention or officially recognized, many institutions are attempting to "form," or re-form, scholars into followers of the diversity faith instead of passing down the institutions of learning and knowledge to worthy and well-rounded thinkers.

My education changed the way I think--not what I think about. BUT, a lot of people I went to school with are different. They seemed to buy into the academic culture and the politics. I don't know what the difference is. I never completely bought into the institution of church either, and a lot of that was before college. College changed me in some positive ways, but there were costs. I don't have a good balance between the cognitive and the emotional. I'm trying to get that emotional side back now. Some of that logic/reason influence may be explained by the particular academic area I pursued early (research and statistics) and psychology within the science-first practitioner model. While my later life education was still immersed in that science worldview, I personally shaped that experience with a more emotional experience.

SO, I don't know if your assertion is true or false. Formal education is a powerful force, but I don't think it alone explains where people fall on that continuum between free thinking/creativity/innovation and indoctrination. It's a good question. Look at Jordan Peterson. He is, in my opinion, both incredibly free thinking and at the same time stuck in very traditional concepts of medically derived clinical psychology that I think restricts him from seeing some things. I'm probably that way too. I've broken out of some things, but am probably pretty grounded in some traditional thought as well. I was a deconstructionist pretty early. I don't know if JP would describe himself that way. Deconstruction would tend toward chaos and away from order unless you're VERY intentional about how you disassemble the parts and organize the resulting worldview. Hard to explain.

That's how wordy people say, 'I don't know.'

Depends on the curriculum, learning by rote can instill knowledge, teaching problem solving and critical thinking would broaden an outlook.
In the UK most schools are graded on pupil performance in core subjects which means they cram those subjects, with little regard to thinking for yourself or problem solving. Companies complain school leavers have few of the qualities needed to work.

Considering colleges tend to just be mouth pieces for the extreme left, it should cause cognitive dissonance....