Why do we learn things in school that won't help us in life?

Question

I recently had to schedule classes for next year during english class. All through the waiting period i heard fellow students saying "oh i'm taken AP (advanced placement) Pre-cal, or Honors English 11. Why don't we take classes that can actually help us in the real world? I shouldn't have to take a class like History unless i'm going to be a historian right? (not black history,

Answer 1

I totally agree.
I mean, why learn all this hard math, that your never going top use?
That`s what calculators are for.
I think that we should only have to take classes that are going to be part of our career.
&& Why learn OUR OWN LANGUAGE?
I mean, yeah, it`s important to know proper grammer, but still.

Answer 2

Okay so black History is important you say. Why??? Is it because you are black? If so, then I can see why that would seem to be more relevent. Think for a minute though on this: Where would any race be without the other races? Each part of our society helps the others to grow in their own ways (even bad events help us grow). It is important for you to learn about the other people so you will understand where your people have been and be able to help your people have a future.
As for the rest of the subjects, you use what you learn every day, even though you don't realize it. You have written a very nice letter to ask your question. Where did you learn to write? In English class. You are in the 10th grade so you probably have or have had a job. All that money handling and lining up cups and filling orders? Math Class (spatial reasoning and making sets) How about when you watch the weather and decide if you think the weatherman was right? Science class (you have to know some about how weather works to understand the weather person)
School is useful. It is just hard to see when you are buried underneath it all.

Answer 3

A liberal arts education such as the one you are describing is the single most valuable thing humans can earn. The reason for this is that it engages you in world, in all the ways these other answerers have described. You will become truly cosmopolitan, a "citizen of the universe," when you are able to voice an intelligent opinion on politics or understand a quotation from Shakespeare. Literature and history especially provide you with a context within which you can interact with other people.

Second, Black history is not important - at least not any more so that any other kind of history. When the stories of all cultures and peoples are blended together into a coherent narrative of the world, that's when things begin to really sing and people can begin to work toward peace and community.

I suppose that if you desire the kind of life that leaves you on the edge of poverty, maybe relying on food stamps and certainly not rising any higher in life that the fry-bin at McDonald's, you could resort to a vocational education, like machine shop or something. But without a higher education in management or business administration, as well as the social context to relate to your customers, you will be utterly unable to open your own shop and will be forever taking orders from someone else.

Best of luck; when you grow up a little you will appreciate what we've all said here.

Answer 4

You're saying this now but you don't know where you'll be in a few years. I thought the same thing at your age, but it turns out that I have ended up using things like trigonometry or pythagoras' theorem almost every day. It turns out that trigonometry is an incredibly useful tool, infact I'd guarantee that we would not be communicating now if it had not been invented. You're right, a lot of is is useless bullshit, but certainly not all of it. The education you get now is fairly rudimentary, but you might end up taking your education a long way and find that the basic stuff you're touching on now is the underpinning of much more interesting stuff.

Answer 5

As for those who are taking AP classes, some people enjoy the feeling of accomplishment they get from excelling in school. You might not care about that, but don't get on someone's case who does.

History is a VERY important subject. You learn how you got to be who and where you are today. You and your life are a direct result of what happened in the past. Also, history teaches us how to avoid bad and tragic things happening in the future.

There are classes that teach about taxes, bills, "real world stuff", you have to seek them out. The other stuff is meant to make you a better, more well-rounded person. And, they teach it to you as a young person because you are discovering who you are, and one of those classes might spark your interest in a subject.

My advice to you is to suck it up and just get through school. It's such a tiny part of your whole life, just deal with it. You will feel better for it down the road if you do well and try hard in school now. Trust me.

Answer 6

Knowledge is good.

To take one of your examples, history, I agree with you to some extent that specific dates of when some moron managed to land on some island is relatively meaningless. But, when you start stringing things together in sequence, and find out why that person was wandering around the ocean, you get larger amounts of meaning. These connected flows of actions, causes, and results continue to the present day. So, when someone wants to, oh, I don't know, invade Zimbabwe, you can look back on your knowledge of history and have an opinion on whether that might be a good idea or not, and why they want to invade. Instead of relying completely on pundits and the media, you might be able to reach your own conclusions, with facts to back you up.

On another note, some things don't become useful or meaningful until you need to use them, or until they are paired up with other types of knowledge.

I'm with you. I had a crappy time in high school wondering why they were trying to teach me all this crap. Schools and teachers seem to largely do a poor job of putting information in context and making it useful and interesting, or even teaching us how to think.

If you find a good teacher, no matter their subject, try and spend some time with them. It might really improve your life.

PS
Congratulations. Yours is the first question to which I've given a star. Keep thinking. Be a plumber or an astrophysicist - you'll do ok. :-)

Answer 7

I totally agree too! Its like the teachers give all that stuff u don't need to know cause they run out of ideas of how to keep you in school or something lol but here is the real story.

Well the more you know, the more options you have
available . History,Math,Science,Social Studies
will all be integrated into just about anything you ever want to
study, and having practiced those things in high school will allow
you to not have to worry about relearning them later so that you don't have to worry about it later and
can focus on what you really do want to study.

For example, let's say you want to be an ecologist. Ecologists often
study population size. Let's say that you're studying a population
whose size increases like this: size = 2 * time + 100. This is a
standard slope-intercept equation. A lot of people don't want to learn
slope-intercept because it doesn't seem to have any point. But if you
understand it enough that you don't have to think about it, then when
you see an equation like that, you won't have to worry about the math
at all and you can just think about the ecology.

So basically, the idea here is that if you learn subjects now, then when
you're confronted with it later in life, you won't have to worry
about it at all and instead you can just pay attention to what you
want to.

Answer 8

Every class can and should be relevant when your teachers are doing their jobs properly. For example, do you understand the conflict in the Middle East? Do you understand why there was a conflict between Isreal and Lebanon just last year? When your own country spent YOUR tax dollars to send boats to collect dual Lebanese-American citizens from the conflict zone, did you know why? History teaches us the background we need to understand why our own world is the way it is, and how we can make positive changes for the future. The skills you learn in a good English class will influence every single thing you read, write and view for the rest of your life. You'll look at commercials in a new way and bring new understanding to song lyrics.

Come to Canada, where teachers are required to implement to curriculum in ways that are relevant to their students. It's not just a bunch of memorizing names and dates up here- new teachers are being trained to engage the students in the curriculum and assess their ability to apply what they've learned in real-world situations.

Answer 9

Good question. I think most schools do offer courses in Economics and things along those lines which can teach you finance early on but truthfully the only way you could learn real world stuff in high school is if you knew what your career was going to be from the start. High school is supposed to teach basic knowledge until you can get to college and pursue your chosen career path.

Answer 10

there was a time when my life was pretty meaningless (there are days that still is ) and i ONLY saw the negative side of everything that surrounded me. the moment a fell in love, everything changed.
boredom is something we all go through from time to time, but when you see how others are in much more worse conditions, then your perspective in life changes. you won´t find anything that excites you unless you star creating some inner excitement. some people turn to god, others to sports, others by surrounding themselves with trendy stuff, others unfortunately to drugs, etc. until you find someone or something meaningful, your school will be just a place for stuffing your head with more stuff. i´ve been disappointed by just about everybody and everything and mostly with myself but the moment God takes over you and attune yourself with his will, instead of asking him to make happy, you will start seeing everything and everyone in a hopeful way, in a more patient way. forget about religion, no, i mean the spiritual stuff that will simply fill your heart with joy. ask yourself ¨how can i be of service to you ALL MIGHTY ? and you will rock the world around you. you won´t give a monkey about what other think. if fact you will start liking everybody around you. but it has to start with HIM ! good luck next semester

Answer 11

Well it might not make sense to you right now but in the future more than likely you will be very happy because you will be a lot smarter than a lot of other people that is if you remember everything.