I had a similar experience. Since graduating high school I have taken stabs at college/university, but always fall prey to the knowledge that all I am doing is paying for a piece of paper and social connections when the information itself is what I want. The information is now freely available to anyone, so I would just be paying an entrance fee to a social influence cartel.

My most recent stab is purely to get the piece of paper requisite for a job I am interested in doing so I will be able to follow through, but I have been thinking of how I can help my children navigate and reform this broken system without the same pain and exclusion I experienced. Looking at operations like Acton Academies I think that we are seeing the emergence if a solution.