1. THE DEATH OF A FALSE GOD

You’ve been lied to your whole life. 

Since birth, they’ve told you that school is the key to success. That good grades equal intelligence. That obedience will take you places. That if you just shut up, sit still, and follow the rules, you’ll win at life. 

But it was all a scam. 

School isn’t an education system. It’s a factory. It doesn’t create thinkers, it manufactures followers. It doesn’t build geniuses, it breeds drones. It’s a relic of a dead world, and we’re still worshipping its corpse. 

Every great institution starts as a revolution, turns into a tradition, and ends as an illusion. For centuries, that unquestioned institution was religion. Now? It’s school. 

Friedrich Nietzsche said, “God is dead.” But he wasn’t just talking about religion, he was warning us. When a society outgrows its old gods but clings to them anyway, it collapses into nihilism. That’s where we are. 

School is the modern false god. A structure built in the 19th century to mass-produce obedient workers and never updated. It’s not about education. It’s about control. 

Not some evil villain kind of control. Just the quiet, bureaucratic kind.  

Predictable humans.  

Trackable humans. Employable humans. 

And it works. 

By the time you reach high school, most students have already lost the ability to learn for the sake of learning. Curiosity replaced by compliance. Creativity swapped for grades. 

Think about it: when was the last time you questioned why school works the way it does? Not the surface-level “why do we have homework” complaint, but the deeper, unsettling why?  

Why are we forced into a system that ranks us from a young age?  

Why does intelligence get reduced to a number?  

Why does questioning the system make you a problem? 

Behavioural studies show that when people are conditioned to seek rewards (grades) and avoid punishments (bad marks), they stop taking risks. Creativity collapses. Critical thinking weakens. People follow orders. 

This is why some of the smartest students struggle in real life.
They were trained to be high achievers, not independent thinkers.  

Studies on valedictorians show that while they perform well in structured environments, they rarely become game-changers. They excel in the existing system but struggle to create something new. The world’s greatest innovators? Almost never top students.  

Why? Because they never learned how to fail.
They were never taught how to think beyond the next grade 

And that’s exactly the crisis we’re facing now.
We stand at a similar moment today, but with school. 

School has positioned itself as the modern-day god, an institution that supposedly determines intelligence, morality, and success.  

But just like Nietzsche saw with religion, school is collapsing under its contradictions.  

The question isn’t whether school is dead, the question is, what comes next? 

PHASE ONE: THE FALSE GOD WE WORSHIPPED

We’re not just students; we’re worshippers in a broken faith. School operates as a dogma that defines:  

What is true → “Intelligence is defined by grades.”  

Who is good → “The obedient student is a good student.”  

What is meaningful → “A degree is the key to success.”  

But here’s the truth: None of these statements hold up under scrutiny. 

They tell you that straight A’s = success, just like they once told people that prayer = salvation. But look around, top students graduate into depression, debt, and jobs they hate. The system is broken, and the proof is everywhere. 

Some of the most powerful people in history were all considered “bad students” by the system.   

Steve Jobs? Expelled.
Albert Einstein? Hated school.
Richard Branson? Teachers said he would end up in jail.
Elon Musk? Rejected school’s entire model.  

Because they weren’t here to follow, they were here to build. 

And that’s exactly why the system feared them. 

Because school doesn’t reward builders – it rewards believers. 

A student enters school like a soul enters the medieval church: a blank slate, ready to be judged.  

What is the first thing they learn? Not how to think, but how to obey.  

Memorise the holy texts. The textbook is truth. The curriculum is sacred. If the system does not teach it, it is irrelevant.  

Follow the priests. The teacher is the authority, not because they are wise, but because they hold the power.  

Confess your ignorance. Wrong answers are sins. Mistakes are failures. To question is to doubt, and to doubt is to rebel.  

Seek salvation through grades. Good grades are proof of righteousness. Low grades are proof of failure, not of the system, but of you.  

This is not education.  

This is indoctrination.  

Like the medieval peasant who believed salvation lay in following the church’s laws, students today believe success lies in following the system’s rules.  

But just as the church’s promise of heaven was built on fear, so is school’s promise of success. 

School runs on fear: 

Fear of not ranking high enough.  

Fear of letting your parents down.  

Fear of being “wasted potential.”  

Fear keeps you stuck.  

Fear stops you from thinking.  

Fear stops you from growing. 

If you’re afraid to fail, you’re afraid to think. 

Like Nietzsche saw with religion, the cracks in the school system are becoming impossible to ignore.  

Universities are rejecting perfect students because they have no personality, no real skills, just a list of achievements.  

Companies are hiring self-taught dropouts over degree-holders because the degree means nothing without actual ability.  

The most “successful” students enter adulthood burnt out, lost, and incapable of thinking for themselves.  

Schools preach that grades equal success, yet dropouts build billion-dollar companies.  

Colleges claim to prepare you for life, yet graduates end up drowning in debt with no job.  

 The brutal reality is that we spend 13 years chasing A’s, only to realise the real world doesn’t grade us. 

“A system that punishes original thought cannot produce great minds”  

Imagine a medieval peasant. He has spent his life following the church’s rules. He prays, he obeys, and he waits for heaven.  

Then, one day, someone tells him:  

“God is dead.”  

What happens? Panic. Because if there is no God, then what was all his suffering for?  

This is exactly what happens when students realise school doesn’t determine success.  

If grades don’t matter, why did we stress over them?  

If the system is broken, why did we trust it?  

If school doesn’t prepare us for real life, then what does?  

Psychologists call this “Learned Helplessness” (Seligman, 1967). “Condition someone to follow rules for long enough, and they lose the ability to think for themselves.” 

That’s why people defend school. Not because it works, but because they are too afraid to leave it behind.   

III. PHASE TWO: THE WILL TO POWER 

Nietzsche warned that when people lose faith in an institution, they face two choices:  

1. Collapse into nihilism. (“If school is meaningless, nothing matters.”)  

2. Create new values. (“If school is meaningless, I will define success for myself.”)  

This is where the real revolution begins.  

We rewrite the rules of success: 

Instead of chasing grades, we chase mastery. 

Learn skills that actually matter: writing, coding, public speaking, problem-solving.  

Build a portfolio that proves your value, not just a resume with a degree. 

Instead of seeking approval, we validate ourselves.  

Stop waiting for teachers or parents to tell you you’re smart.  

Define success on your own terms.  

Instead of waiting to be taught, we teach ourselves.  

School tests you on things you’ll forget in a week.  

Real learning means using knowledge in real-life situations.  

Remember a degree is just a receipt. Real education is what you build with your own mind. 

 If you’re still chasing A’s to feel smart, you’re still kneeling before a dead god. 

This isn’t a call to drop out, it’s a call to wake up.  

If you’re in school, see it for what it is: a tool, not a truth.  

If you’re good at school, use it, but don’t let it define you.  

If you struggle with school, realise it doesn’t measure your worth.  

The ones who break free from school’s illusion don’t fail—they lead.  

IV. THE NEW ARCHITECTS

Let’s be clear: This is NOT an invitation to drop out.  

This is not about abandoning education. It is about reclaiming it.  

Nietzsche did not declare “God is dead” to celebrate chaos. He challenged people to become their own masters.  

 We’re not just exposing the flaws in the school system, we’re fundamentally shifting how people think about learning, success, and intelligence.  

This isn’t just an article—it’s a call to rethink everything.  

This isn’t just criticism—it’s the beginning of a new philosophy.  

This isn’t just about school—it’s about who we become when we stop worshipping a dead system.  

If school is dead, what will you build in its place?