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

[Mordwyl]

Here's an exchange between me and my pure mathematics teacher half a decade ago, word for word:

"So sir, what DO we do with all this?"
"Well... You can go further for a Masters."
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
"Err... There's some advanced scientific fields that may require it."
"So why is it mandatory for my computer science degree where computing itself isn't? It doesn't sound logical."
"You kind of have a point there. It's still a good subject to help with reasoning and problem solving, no?"

 

[Casimir_Effect]

So long as you don't take retarded subjects in school which are purely for wasting time (like media or tourism studies), then nothing you learn is wasted. Or you don't plan on growing up to be a complete waster who believe TV is god and the Daily Mail is his prophet.

Native language + maths is always useful, irregardless of if you think you will ever need calculus again.
History is interesting, and should be treated as a source of experience, advice, and reverance.
Geography while becoming less about where shit is and more why shit looks like it does, is also useful to know in order to have an understanding of the Earth.
Foreign languages - trust me, you'll love having these when you're older. Especially when you see that cute foreign guy/girl looking lost in your country and overhearing them speak a language you are familiar with.
Sciences - you need these to not be dumb. I won't demand anything more than a basic knowledge as that's unfair to the more artistic people. But GCSE or evuivalent in at least 2 of the big 3 (physics, biology, chemistry) should be made mandatory. Again, this is one that you will appreciate when you're older.
Art and Music are subjective so I won't go in to them. Same with business and computer studies really - you don't go for them unless you want to.

To give an indication, from Standard Grade to Advanced Highers (Scottish system) I took:
English (Higher)
Maths (Advanced Higher)
French (Standard Grade) [wish I had taken this further)
Physics (AH)
Chemistry (SG)
Accounting (H)
Geography (H)
Business Studies (H)
Economics (H)
Information Systems (H)
None of it has been wasted in my opinion. I regret taking info systems because I could have done something better. But I have used what I learnt in it. Learning is rarely a bad thing and as you get older you may be lucky enough to enjoy doing it of your own volition, like me. I always wish I had more time to learn languages. Damn they're fun

 

[Icarion (aka Stockholm)]

I think everything taught in in my "fitness enhancement" class is utter BS. My teachers a yoga person (i have nothing against them) and tries to force those beliefs upon us. More like "one person's opinion on fitness". Otherwise im learning alot in high school.

 

[W00ty32]

Useful things I learned in school...

Reading- Oh wait, I started reading in kindergarten with support from my mom teaching me, and advanced in reading level way past the stuff they were attempting to teach. You know that grade level reading thing? I was a grade 12 reading level by grade 4...

Math- Same story as reading.

History- Don't remember a thing from those classes. If I want to know anything about history, I'll do my own research into it.

Writing/English- Fine, they did teach me basic grammar rules.

Spanish- 2 years of it, don't remember a single thing.

PE- woo, I learned to stretch.

Music- OH YEAH, GOT TO SING IN HORRID SCHOOL PLAYS.

Science- Just about the same story as history, so if it piques my interest, then I'll research it myself.

So let us add this up: basic grammar rules, stretching, and singing in school plays.

And of course, I continued to learn nothing even after I skipped 2 grades. The public school system is horrid and doesn't work.

(Note- I'm a jeweler. so yeah.)

 

[Quinadin]

It's hard to put a finger on "useless". You may never wright an opera or a novel but that doesn't mean your English and Music classes were useless. Music is a bit subconscious, it's used in the background of our brain function. The same goes for English, some of us speak "good" and some of us speak "well". It's a subconscious way of going about our lives. History and Social Studies also fall under this category. You may never need to know why won the battle of Hastings (unless you go on Jeopardy or something) but knowing how people acted and how things turn out usually shapes you as a human.

Now things like Math and Science are the more "applied" studies. There's a good chance you'll never need to know the density of copper or what the inverse tangent of an angle measuring twenty-three degrees is, but it's basic components are used nearly every day whether you think about them or not.

 

[esperandote]

Depends if you consider being educated useless.

 

[Falseprophet]

What you really Learn at school is how to learn. The content isn't that helpful in normal life.

That's basically what my science teacher said in my first year of high school, and he was right. Socializing with your peers/age cohort is another important thing, because living in modern Western societies, we don't have a lot of shared cultural experiences.

 

[Danzaivar]

I think the point of school is to give you a very broad knowledge base so you can figure out what you want to do with your life. As you progress your area of knowledge gets narrower and narrower, and more detailed. But if you didn't learn what you didn't like, you may not have found what you do like.

So I'd say what you learn is useless, but learninng it wasn't useless at all.

 

[JanatUrlich]

I think learning everything is useful! If I have the opportunity to learn something I'm gonna take it.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Since leaving school I have yet to use/need any of my mathematical knowledge, scientific knowledge, historical knowledge, geographical knowledge, sports education, health education, food-tech, languages-lessons, nothing that they taught me in ICT, psychology knowledge, philosophical learnings, music theory classes, art lessons or in fact anything other than my English Literature knowledge.

So yeah, I'd say about 80%. There might be some call for simple addition, but that's a leftover from primary school, and anything else falls under the added qualification of 'except in my university papers.'

High school knowledge is useful if you want to go to university, but in noe of the jobs I have had since then have I needed any bit of what I learned. Of course, humourously, you often can't get a job without a university education.

 

[Ken Sapp]

It really depends on how you define usefulness.

If you are only focusing on your daily duties in your job then for most people the answer would be yes.

However school is about more than just teaching you what you need to know for employment.

 

[Staticous]

i only said yes because of high school. most of my college classes (excusing math classes) have not had anything to do with the class that i take now

 

[soren7550]

I'm inclined to agree with that claim. Hell, most of what I know I went and learned on my own time.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I think I'd say that barring basic language and arithmetic skills, most of what can be learnt in schools is useless.

Obviously this ignores college and university, but everything else... yeah, any job you take will train you how to do it provided they haven't set unrealistic entry standards ie must have seven A-grade GCSEs to open our oh so special post.

 

[Ken Sapp]

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

Because it is. When a significant portion of the students graduating from High school are functionally illiterate and unable to do basic math without the aid of a calculator then we can surmise that the education system has failed to achieve it's primary goal and is therefore broken.

 

[Les Awesome]

not 80% more like 48%
seriously whats the point in algebra

 

[Sir Prize]

Well, I'm not sure.
IThe subjects are useful and we do learn things outside that.

 

[zfactor]

not 80% more like 48%
seriously whats the point in algebra

It's the basis for calculus?

School grants no immediate benifits to people, it is what you learn over a period of many many years, and translates later into a better job.

 

[Nemu]

Dependent on your choice in further study/career.

Personally, I cannot recall a time in the past 20 years where I had consciously used Algebra. That being said, I could deem it as "useless". I'm sure folks who use many more aspects of mathematics in their careers would say the same thing about medieval history. *shrug*

 

[Evil Earlgrey]

That is just a stupid claim. Everything you learn in school is usefull. Learning is not just good because you understand the world better, but also because it trains your brain and thinking process. And all of those are benefits you can never have enough of.

Honestly: If there's one thing i could change about the world it would be to get everyone more educated.