Poll: 80% of what you learn in school is useless?

[Celtic_Kerr]

Well, what is your opinion on this claim? Please motivate and tell how we can change if you think it is!

Common misconception. A standard school ciricullem(sp?) is made to give you a wide range in the hopes that you encounter as much of the suject matter in the real world as possible. I remember my management teacher looking through his workbook saying (I quote) "What the fuck is this shit? You'll never run into this bullshit in real life. Forget this garbage!"

it's not that 80% of everything you learn is useless, but your career path will simply AVOID 80% of what you learn. If I work all day with numbers as an accountant, I'll never need to know how to write english compositions, I don't need science, or french literature, or gym courses, or history. I'll be putting math to use primarily.

People see "Idon't use this on a regular basis" as useless. It's useful, simply not in the context of your job

 

[thylasos]

Useless or not is not the issue. I'd hate to be given an entirely functional education, preparing me for a productive life in the lumpenproletariat.

 

[SuperCombustion]

If I get stuck on a desert island and desparately need to know the interior angles of a circle, I'll give them the credit.

 

[Gunner_Guardian]

I've forgotten 50% of the knowledge I've learned in school and probably the remaining 30% the other knowledge I learned and remembered, I can't find a use for yet so I agree with you.

 

[Unesh52]

Why do people insist that the public school system is broken? I see no problem with it.

Seriously? I mean, the US is way behind most other developed nations when it comes to test scores, but it doesn't take a meta-analysis of aggregate scores to walk in to a high school history course and see the disinterested, glib stare on the face of those kids who are even willing to look at the professor. Look at the sentiment expressed in just this thread. According to the poll (at the moment), about as many people think almost all information learned in class is completely useless as think only some is. And I don't know about your school (Ga, where I went to high school, has near the worst school system in the country), but I watched teachers "teach" by basically giving their students a cheat sheet (cleverly disguised as a "study guide") and kicking back while they copy the answers onto the test. Those same students immediately forget everything they were just "taught." Sometimes they won't even test the students; instead they base 75% of their grade on so-called "effort grades," irrelevant material(I once got graded on a coloring book page in History, no shit), even GD attendance! And if you just can't keep your head up long enough to write your name on the paper, there's still extra credit -- several times it was given for contributing to a fund-raiser. That's right, people literally bought extra points on their final grade.

This type of shit deemphasizes the actual course content and promotes an attitude of apathy and even antagonism towards knowledge itself. Our schools are teaching kids to hate learning, and to value arbitrary "points" that stack up on report cards and GPAs and resumes -- that's pretty fucking broken. And that's not even the half of it.

 

[Fragged_Templar]

Learning and knowledge is never useless, some of the things you learn in school can be boring or not directly relevant to your future/career, but never useless!

 

[Jamieson 90]

I would say 30-40% is. School teaches you a lot. Skills such as Maths and English (or any language) are very important.

Then you have topics such as Geography which are also vital for understanding the world, nature and directions etc. Science still plays a role even if you don't take up a profession or job that requires it.

Its good to have a basic understanding of how the body works, how basic principles of physics work other useful things such as which materials conduct electricity so you don't get a shock lol. Also which materials insulate heat etc, Acids and Alkalizes are also useful.

Religious education gives you a better understand of different cultures and can enable you to interact with different people more easily.

Most subjects can play a useful role and enhance you as a person. Not every subject will be useful to you and thats why at GCSE and A level (in England) you select the subjects that will suit you.

When you get to University it gets very interesting as you choose what most interests you. Remember knowledge is power.

 

[tofulove]

imo, school is about teaching you how to teach your self, and less about teaching you stuff.

most people will never need education past 8th grade to function in life.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Nothing about school is 'useless'.

That's an idiotic concept. What you're taught in school may inspire, no matter how small, a number of students into studying to work in a particular field in their adult life.

I would argue that school, all of it, is essential to the development of the modern adult. In shcool you not only learn and develop skills within a variety of scholarly/artistic fields, but how to effectively deal with others on the playground.

You learn the thrill of competition with your peers.

It's also probably going to be the site in which you regularly meet your friends and may make contacts that may serve you well in life.

It's the place you're the most likely to find sexual partners (at a young age anyways), and learn to deal with romantic entanglements to prepare you for a life thereafter where you have to balance success and civil duties with the wish for greater physical and emotional intimacy.

Nothing you learn in school is 'useless' to people ... it's only that a very small amount of stuff in school is just useless to YOU.

 

[Gralian]

- Math is important.
- English is important for good communication skills.
- I have a grasp of German because of what i learned at school.
- Geography is important for learning how to read and use maps.
- History is important because it teaches good sourcing skills. It teaches you what is and isn't useful and reliable as a source to back up your points. It teaches you good argumentative and persuasive skills.
- Physics is arguably important because it can help you to understand how stuff works in the real world. I at least have an idea what a 'watt' and 'voltage' is and how force is affected by weight and gravity and how a circuit is made up.
- Biology is arguably useful for better understanding the human body. Plant ecology can lead on to environmental science.
- Physical Education helps you to get that exercise you would otherwise do without out of laziness or any other form of excuse.
- Chemistry is somewhat useful because it teaches you how, for example, heat can transfer to various chemicals and the effect it can have. While not very useful in day to day life, i have been told that "cooking is like chemistry" and it's true. Just watch Heston Blumenthal.
- Art can inspire creativity and engages the right hemisphere of the brain.

I consider most of my school life to have given me various useful life skills and information that i consider valuable. The sciences are a bit too specialised to be of any practical use in day to day life however, the same with history. I would still argue most of the stuff you learn at school is important.

 

[Unesh52]

3) People have a tendency to overemphasize the perceived "failings" of public schools, while underemphasizing the overall impact those schools had on them. Basically, it's the classic "self-serving bias"--take credit for all of the good things as though you just always had those skills, while blasting the school system for all the things you feel were mistakes.

I disagree. While I do think most of what I "got" out of school were the abstract and practical things you mentioned, I only got them because I was fortunate enough to win the good teachers with my test scores, or more often because I determinedly went off on my own to gain them, sometimes against the active discouragement of my teachers. But I've had classes with the... proletariat as it were. It's a zoo. The teachers might as well be baby sitters. The students are either completely disinterested or insist everything be handed straight to them on a plate. No one in the room is interested in thinking. About anything. It's not always like that all the time, but it is the case far, far too often.

 

[zehydra]

Why do people insist that the public school system is broken? I see no problem with it.

It should be run by teachers who know how to teach, not run by administrations and school boards who don't know the first thing about education.

At my public school, they spent a good chunk of the budget replacing all of the tv's with hdtv's. They also bought like half a million (exaggeration) mac laptops and force every teacher, regardless of the class to incorporate them in their class somehow. Ever try to use "technology" in a math class? It's time wasting and pointless. PLUS, we're not even getting the proper technological education out of these machines, as all we ever have to do with them (besides internet use, which is ACTUALLY useful) is garageband (to make PODCASTS, because PODCASTS are part of 21st century technology), and the lousy Mac versions of Microsoft Office.

My point is, is that my school board hasn't a clue what they're doing when it comes to education. Everything they do is to make themselves look good, so it looks like they're doing an okay job when the State comes in and demands to know why PSSA (Pennsylvania) scores are low. It's a top down system, where everybody yells at their subordinates and nobody takes responsibility, and all the blame is placed on the teachers.

Which makes me fucking angry as hell.

 

[Tibike77]

The only REALLY USEFUL things I learned in school were:
A) how to learn by myself
and
B) a very simplified version of "the basics"

Almost everything else was a series of oversimplifications mixed with intentional partial misconceptions, or information so trivial (nowadays) it would barely qualify as one or at best two weekend(s) of intense reading/studying per entire school year.

 

[Serenegoose]

It's all useful in a way - without it, how would you know what interests you and what doesn't? And the stuff that's useless to you might be incredibly useful to someone else, but you can't know that for sure until you've done it all. I have big problems with the education system, but that it offers a wide variety of experiences that help people better decide which direction they want their life to go isn't one of them.

 

[RIOgreatescapist]

There should be developed a system to evolve one's specific area of afinity and, let's say, speciality at a more reasonable age.
I've recently got into college and for the first time in my life i'm able to choose any course/class I might have the sudden urge to take. Now such situation being being possible to do so at the age of 18/19 kinda sucks when I have been going to school on a daily basis since i was a 6 yo toddler and have been absorving knowledge I definitely don't give a fuck about, being this an apparent mutual feeling.

 

[Mayonegg]

This claim is very misleading.

Of course, like others have said it depends on what you go on to do. A doctor or lawyer will have a different answer to a farmer.

But more importantly, it's not about what you learn; it's the process by which you learn it. Analysing and true thinking (and the ability to acquire more knowledge simply by using what you have) over just...knowing facts.

Case in point: learning an instrument at a young age. If I never went on to become a concert pianist, many might go, "well it's useless". But the process your mind goes through in understanding an instrument and its mechanisms (the link between visual, audible and left and right sides and the body) is invaluable to a sponge-like mind.

That is all.

 

[Polyg0n]

No. I think that it is good to have a general understanding of everything going around, which is what schools teach us. Also studying all the subjects allows us to try different things and helps us to find out what do we want to do in the future.

 

[CarbonEagle]

Id agree with that. After You learn reading, writing, algebra and trigonometry, theres little that the average person will be able to benefit from at which point I think rather than teaching how to be academic (which wont help unless your going to be a teacher) they should start to teach how to do specific jobs and succeed in life.
Basic car maintenance, paying bills, saving money, getting jobs... are all more important than knowing that one strand of human DNA is 1.8 meters long or that the Canadian's were the only group to take vimy ridge during the first world war. Even knowing how to write a batch file would be more useful.

 

[TheHecatomb]

80% of the time I spend at school I don't learn anything. Slight difference.