Management schools love theory more than reality. We’re told to memorize definitions, frameworks, and lists we’ll forget by next week, as if that builds real managers. Exams reward memory, not understanding. We can recite the five functions of management, but we’re never taught how to actually manage people, make decisions, or fix problems.
And it’s not just management. Most subjects follow the same pattern of empty learning. Even languages are taught like math: rules, tenses, and definitions instead of real conversation. You can’t learn to speak by reading grammar tables, just like you can’t learn leadership by repeating textbook phrases. The entire education system is obsessed with measurable outcomes, not meaningful learning.
Real knowledge comes from doing, from trying, failing, and improving, yet universities fear that chaos. It’s easier to test definitions than to test understanding. So we graduate with perfect notes and no idea how to apply them. The system doesn’t teach us to think; it teaches us to repeat.