Much has been said about the irrelevancy of formal education. Donald Trump even went as far as making a “Reality TV” show out of it when he lined up one college educated group against another high school drop outs in the second season of the highly successful “The Aprentice” to fight for the suremacy. There is little left in doubt that education is not the cure-all that mommy used to say. Its not the ticket to golden times and money like daddy promised. What is left to decide is what to do about it.

One way out is to inject reality into the education system. And in this regard the two most important reality checks that every starry-eyed graduate face is – money and politics. The case studies and pop quizes just cannot prepare you to this often maligned but integral part of grown up job life – how to earn enough money and how to deal with office politics.

In the last few years, the book that got everybody talking and which also figured in Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today and BusinessWeek bestsellers list is “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. This book frankly criticized our tendency of not preparing students for the “Money Game”. And it makes a lot of sense. After all, its not much of a debate when we ask which one is important for future generation – learning the phonetics or learning how to earn money.

So all the “hush- hush” about how to earn money is actually making kids of today not only ill-prepared for future, but giving them an idea that this is actually a “Sin” to think about money. But none said reality is easy. And we should learn it the easy way, through books and methods, not on the streets. Hence reality based financial education is a must.

The same goes for business politics. Why not teach them how to play that game? Its not exactly unethical to teach people what they will eventually face and suffer from.

These kind of courses might bring faith of the new generation on the education system. And we can realistically claim – education pays.