<human>: Condense the text into a few key points

As a freshman in college, I have learned that numbers mean everything to a student. I chase high numbers on tests and assignments in order to earn the grades I want from my teachers. The grade I receive on a given assignment (exam, project, homework, whatever) is based on how effectively I have banked the knowledge provided to me by the teacher, and the effectiveness with which I wield that knowledge. But why do I pursue these numbers with such fervor? The fact of the matter is because I have been told to do so. 

Among the knowledge, values, and opinions that have been deposited into me during high school, more often than anything else I was encouraged to continue onwards to college. The main motive for doing this, as my teachers oft explained, was the importance of a college degree when entering the work force. Get a degree for the numbers, they were telling me, think of the paycheck. 

Rarely, if ever, did my teachers expect me to continue my education out of a passion for learning. While I understand and agree with the importance of a steady income in providing a certain quality of life, I feel like I've really lost sight of the side of education that can't be quantified and measured, and just see higher education as a means to an end. Basically I'm chasing numbers, good grades=degree, degree=job=money.

I'm not saying the system is wrong, I just feel as though there should be more focus on applying knowledge, and acquiring real experience with that knowledge. I have all this info stored in my head, but have no idea what to do with the vast majority of it. Is this my fault? Should I just know how to use this knowledge in a creative manner? Or am I a product of the assembly-line approach to learning we see in the system today?
<bot>: I go to school, I learn stuff. Wtf do I do with all the stuff I know now? And are you learning because you want to, or because you see it as a means to an end?