Education: Boost Your Intelligence

I’ve read all of the Rich Dad series and this and “Prophecy” are the worst. Once FINALLY realizing that RICH DAD IS A MYTH ANYWAY, I can see that Kiyosaki is a master as creating enticing titles, only to repeat the same shallow hyperbole over and over and over. In NO book does he offer any solid concrete plans or advice!!! This was written before “RICH DAD, POOR DAD”; yet no mention is made of this so-called “RICH DAD”.
If you insist on purchasing the “RICH” dad series, consider the titles by his “advisors”–Garrett Sutton and Diane Kennedy — an attorney and CPA. Their books DO offer some SOLID advice on finance and accounting!!!
It’s very confusing that he dedicates the book to his father, (NOT RICH DAD)the former Superintendent of EDUCATION for the state of Hawaii (The best teacher he’s ever had?); yet spends the next 200+ pages bashing the school system!??!??!
AND PLEASE don’t allow your child to become disillusioned by this man and his apparent problems during HIS schooling!!!
**People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. (RICH DAD) Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow (RICH DAD). Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking.***
Rating: 1 / 5

I enjoyed reading this book, because it was an exercise of being enticed, stimulated, drawn in, and then forced to ask what is ABSURD and yet appealing about this book. And I found the “right answer”! He’s a great salesman!!!

First, I just gotta mention: This has got to be one of the lamest book covers I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t he choose on a single font or better colors? And the clumsy, ungrammatical phrasing of the title itself made me laugh.

I kept thinking, What school did he go to? He describes an educational system that I’ve never heard of. It’s laughably simplistic and a caricature of a real school, as if all schools cared about were grades and right answers. Who really thinks this? Kiyosaki is describing Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ and not reality. It’s too simplistic of an analysis, too reductionist of the problems AND the solutions.

Consider his laughably over-exaggerated and melodramatic statements about education. Using bombastic language, he writes that education is ‘a nightmare,’ a ’silent, insidious virus’ that ‘infects almost every aspect of your life” ;’a cancer that silently eats away’ at humanity. Education today is so ‘inhumane and barbaric,’ that he compares it to the Jews in the Holocaust where children get slaughtered. How offensive is that?

Instead, he praises lessons learned from the Chinese Cultural Revolution (an assertion that staggers the mind given the human rights abuses and upheaval that took place there), that Columbus is a great model for ‘discovery’ (oh really? What about the racism, slavery and genocide that followed?), and his Vietnam experience as a fighter pilot (he admits on page 65 he basically deserted, abandoning ship during combat and was called a ‘traitor’ by his fellow pilots, and yet he still touts his ‘combat experience’ as a former Marine throughout the book and on the back cover bio). Can we really seriously take what this guys says without a major grain of salt?

This is a man who uses the outdated term ‘Oriental’ (and this is the mid-1990’s when he wrote this!) as a self-referential term and then has the gall to complain that the West doesn’t keep up with the ‘Orient’ in terms of modern technology and efficiency. Hey, why doesn’t he update HIS archaic, politically incorrect use of term ‘Oriental’? ‘Asian’ or ‘Asian American’ has been the operative word of the day for quite some time or hasn’t he heard?

But Kiyosaki is very effective at making you think he has the answers (ironic, isn’t it?) How? Through his EXPERT SALESMANSHIP!!! He convinces you that you are bored and dissatisfied with your job (exploiting a truth that is all too common), uses statistics detailing the wretched financial shape of most Americans who are in debt and hate their jobs (also true), and then offers ‘new’ paradigms and ways of thinking which are so commonsensical and enlightening that wham! It slices, dices and pays for itself! But these ideas are NOTHING NEW.

Overall, this book is about as substantive as all the amazing grills, self-sharpening knives and vacuum-sealing bags and other assorted TV Infomercial clutter you store in your attic. Save your money. Now that’s creating wealth!
Rating: 1 / 5