K-12 schooling (plus "because I said so" and "asking why too much is annoying" style parenting) is one of the main factors creating people without motivation who are alienated from learning.
People aren't born with original sin. They don't always suck. It's not innate. Their educators fail them, fail to teach them how to learn, fail to teach them that learning doesn't have to hurt, but instead convince them that learning does hurt through years of suffering, boredom, and not learning much.
So, you're right that most people at age 18 are not very good candidates for a life path that requires initiative, motivation, self-learning, etc... But that doesn't mean the current system is the right thing for those people. It not only does a pretty terrible job of helping them at a high price (college doesn't teach them how to learn, how to love learning, how to take initiative), it created a significant part of their problem due to systematic failures in approach to education.
Learning is inherently awesome, but schools (and parents and culture) convince people otherwise.
People aren't born with original sin. They don't always suck. It's not innate. Their educators fail them, fail to teach them how to learn, fail to teach them that learning doesn't have to hurt, but instead convince them that learning does hurt through years of suffering, boredom, and not learning much.
So, you're right that most people at age 18 are not very good candidates for a life path that requires initiative, motivation, self-learning, etc... But that doesn't mean the current system is the right thing for those people. It not only does a pretty terrible job of helping them at a high price (college doesn't teach them how to learn, how to love learning, how to take initiative), it created a significant part of their problem due to systematic failures in approach to education.
Learning is inherently awesome, but schools (and parents and culture) convince people otherwise.