Why do you have to do lessons in high school that does not have anything to do with preparing you for life?

Question

I am taking lots of lessons in classes which seem to me have nothing to do with preparing me for life which is what school is for, right?

Ok thank you for your responses, but my father who also went to college, has agreed with me about things that I have learned. I currently have to read The Cask of Amontillado and report about its minor characters. I have not reached higher math and all of that but in algebra now I am reviewing how to use addition and substitution methods to solve slope and intercept. What is this for?

Please don't take this that I'm a dumb kid that doesn't know anything about the adult world. I have been in an ELP class which I quit for the same reason I'm asking this question. (I'm not a nerd with headgear and a nasally voice either!!!) Talking with my parents we have realized that today kids face so much more in the world of adults than when they grew up. I dont have to pay the bills just yet but I understand more than most adults even my parents give me credit for.

Answer 1

Well-rounded students and people do better in life. School wants to end ignorance about other cultures in history. If you dont get the benefits of English you are retarded. Your parents went through all this, i know mine did, they just dont remember as well. My mom graduated Princenton, but she says "once you have kids you just forget because you dont use it at your job anymore. Now admittidley she still remembers algebra, she doesnt remember things like multi-variable calculus.................
Anyway unless you think your going to be the next great athlete or the next great mucisian, if you do there is almost NO chance

If you know what you want to do start taking electives geared towards your goal.

Answer 2

I learned a good deal about art history and some local historic stuff, but those were the times I cut class and went to the art museum and local historic sites with my best friend for the day. I learned how to circumvent the automated attendance phone calls. I learned that Taco Bell hot sauces will ruin the paint job on a car. Ah, wait! I took some kind of elective where there was a book list, and got introduced to both Anne Rice and Douglas Adams, authors I never would have read otherwise. I AM grateful for that. I learned what a dental dam is in Social Studies class. (And that they come in flavors!) I learned how to make a stained glass window. I learned some basic German. I learned a lot of Physics, very little Biology and almost no Chemistry, despite taking all three for the same period of time. (Can you say, "wildly varied teaching performance"?) I learned that people who demand the most respect almost never deserve it. (I'm thinking here of an English teacher who wanted to be called "Dr." instead of "Mrs.," and had an IQ that matched her shoe size.) I learned how to march in a parade. I learned that nothing magical or transformational happens on graduation day. I learned that I sort of enjoyed the old Greek myths. That came in handier in college, though, and expanded way more. I'm going to survey my spouse now: My senior year my friends and all were all looking at each other saying, "Why are we were?" What did we learn? Objectively, High School was the first place I was introduced to foreign language. I've always claimed that High School's big draw is that it is a check mark in a box that says, "I can take sh!t." It's not that they're teaching you higher learning or time management or study habits (although there's good practice for that), I think the largest thing you learn is how to deal with a large amount of STUFF coming at you all at once. It also teaches you how to excel or at least tolerate stuff that you don't care for. You also learn that there is an importance to you to do things that authority wants you to do. When the T says you'll complete this piece of homework by tomorrow, what you feel about it doesn't matter. You've been given an order and you learn to follow an order. You get an introduction on how to think, but don't really use it. You also get an introduction into what you like and don't like academically. By the time you get out it's hard not to know that you like Math over History, or English more than Art, or you're good at Sports and not Computers. I'd to say there were some academics that were useful, but chemistry in high school and chemistry in college have nothing to do with each other!

Answer 3

A lot of things in high school may not seem like they're preparing you for life, but they are. History is a good example. If we don't know where we've been, we cannot know where we're going and we'll be doomed to repeat the mistakes of others. Every time you have to give a presentation in front of the class, it's teaching you oral communication skills. Writing a paper, teaches written communications skills, research skills, and organizational behavior skills. When you turn in an assignment on time, that is teaching you how to work within a deadline.

Many things you're learning may seem redundant, but they aren't, so just keep at it.

Answer 4

I disagree with you. There is a good deal in school that prepares you for life; English for example prepares you to communicate well (necessary for getting a job), Math (business math/personal math) prepares you for balancing a check book, working as an accountant or with numbers, etc.

Some electives are not as useful, but they can be learning experiences and enjoyable. You choose electives, so if you feel they aren't useful to you, then make better choices or get a guidance counselor to assist you.

Depending on what you are planning on doing once in college or in a job, you should focus on classes that aim towards that goal.

I took one psychology course as a senior and it changed my life. I went on to get degrees in the field and have been counseling people for a long time. Back then, psychology was a new elective, not a mandatory course.

Answer 5

Depends. If you are just an average student, then yes. If you are a gifted or academic type, then high school is preparing you for college. In either case you should do your best to learn the most you can. Don't use the excuse that "this stuff I don't need to live in the adult world." If you do, I can guarantee that someday you will look back on your high school years with regrets for wasting the opportunity to learn while you were young.

Answer 6

In high school more often than not you don't know what you will do in later life. You may not even have a certainty of going to college right away or if you go to college what you will major in. The objective then is to give you breadth of exposure to
a) enable you to decide what you like to do later on
and
b) prepare you for various career choices

If you decide that you don't want to do any social studies of any kind in high school and then afterwards you decide that you have a flair for the social sciences by virtue of conversations with other people or extracurricular reading, now you don't have the necessary grounding for it, right?