Well, what is your opinion on this claim? Please motivate and tell how we can change if you think it is!
Poll: 80% of what you learn in school is useless?
- Thread starter awesomeClaw
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Where does this claim come from?
And....no, I don't agree with that.
Maybe somewhere between 30 and 50% but not 80.
Sure, during the later years of school, I never held onto a bit of it but still, I learned to read and write because of school, so they get that credit.
But then again, pretty much everything I hold onto now comes from my own studies and has almost nothing to do with school....maybe that 80% stat isn't too far off >>
And....no, I don't agree with that.
Maybe somewhere between 30 and 50% but not 80.
Sure, during the later years of school, I never held onto a bit of it but still, I learned to read and write because of school, so they get that credit.
But then again, pretty much everything I hold onto now comes from my own studies and has almost nothing to do with school....maybe that 80% stat isn't too far off >>
Yeah pretty much but what is useless to some of us is useful to others and vice versa.
For instance me being an IT Technician renders lessons like music, P.E., English Literature and a host of other lessons completely invalid; Yes some of those lessons will be useful to someone else in a different job but not mine.
For instance me being an IT Technician renders lessons like music, P.E., English Literature and a host of other lessons completely invalid; Yes some of those lessons will be useful to someone else in a different job but not mine.
well maths definately. We spent a term trying to figure out angle geometry. It isnt hard enough to warrant a term, and then we spent half of next term in co-ordinance geometry. grrrr.
Yeah to a degree. Of course thats not the point, the point is that you can learn and that you can do the work. Hell i doubt ill ever actually have to use quadratics but the fact that i know how supposedly shows something, well that where if i could do quadratics.
Depends what you end up using, I guess. I don't plan to ever use variations and modelling, but...yeah, to be honest, I can't think of a real life situation/profession in which that might be applicable. But hey, if there is one, then they might need it.
I wouldn't say it's as large a percentage as 80%. Besides, I don't think that what we learn at school only comes from what we're taught in class. We develop a lot of interpersonal skills and all that too, which I'd say is pretty useful. Out of the 10 subjects I'm currently studying at school, I think only 3 are completely unnecessary to me. So that's only 30%.
Yes, a lot of stuff we learn at school is pretty useless, but it doesn't mean that someone else won't find it useful. They can't deprive everyone of everything - they have to compromise. And I don't know how it is in other countries, but in Australia at least, we get to 'specialise' in a few subjects by the last couple of years of high school. So we can cut out all the subjects that we don't think will help us.
I wouldn't say it's as large a percentage as 80%. Besides, I don't think that what we learn at school only comes from what we're taught in class. We develop a lot of interpersonal skills and all that too, which I'd say is pretty useful. Out of the 10 subjects I'm currently studying at school, I think only 3 are completely unnecessary to me. So that's only 30%.
Yes, a lot of stuff we learn at school is pretty useless, but it doesn't mean that someone else won't find it useful. They can't deprive everyone of everything - they have to compromise. And I don't know how it is in other countries, but in Australia at least, we get to 'specialise' in a few subjects by the last couple of years of high school. So we can cut out all the subjects that we don't think will help us.
Maybe they should've upped the english a bit. =]PureChaos said:
Truth be told, even my english I expanded more AFTER school rather than before, for me it was more a time for socializing. Maths was good, though most of it I don't use and have forgotten, hmmm...
I wouldn't say any of this is such a horrible representation of schools however, as someone else said, its more so that they are shotgunning a base ground for people to understand what fields they would like to enter, and have some back knowledge to back further study up.
School is to give everyone a base. By having a good selection of all topics, it allows you to make an informed decision later in your life. Wouldn't it be horrible if your carrier path was chosen for you when you were in kindergarten, and you never had any other teaching except in that field.
Also School is to teach us how to learn. One can use the basic fundamentals of learning, to teach themeless, or at least know were to find the resources needed to find more information.
Also School is to teach us how to learn. One can use the basic fundamentals of learning, to teach themeless, or at least know were to find the resources needed to find more information.
I would say no, but it depends on how you learn it.
Of course most people will never need to exactly know Shakespeare's plays later in their lives. But on the one hand, it serves to give you part of the cultural shared heritage of the western hemisphere, on the other hand, it's a handy tool to learn reading comprehension and text analysis, and those are skills everyone, I repeat, everyone, needs.
Yes, unless someone asks you that in a quiz, you don't need to know from when to when Hitler was in power. But just look how the second world war still influences world politics indirectly, and how big a thing it still is in the public conciousness over here in Europe. Every time a politician here in Switzerland mentions the army, someone else will use WWII as an argument. It gives you an understanding of the world today.
The same goes for pretty much every other subject. You don't need the specific knowledge, you need the general skills.
Edit: also what Odin above me said.
Of course most people will never need to exactly know Shakespeare's plays later in their lives. But on the one hand, it serves to give you part of the cultural shared heritage of the western hemisphere, on the other hand, it's a handy tool to learn reading comprehension and text analysis, and those are skills everyone, I repeat, everyone, needs.
Yes, unless someone asks you that in a quiz, you don't need to know from when to when Hitler was in power. But just look how the second world war still influences world politics indirectly, and how big a thing it still is in the public conciousness over here in Europe. Every time a politician here in Switzerland mentions the army, someone else will use WWII as an argument. It gives you an understanding of the world today.
The same goes for pretty much every other subject. You don't need the specific knowledge, you need the general skills.
Edit: also what Odin above me said.
Well, it certainly has the potential to be, but that's only if you let it be. In alchemical psychology the goal of the alchemist is to identify all resources, both tangible and intangible, and see the final form into which they can be distilled. That is to say that everything in your life, no matter how insignificant it seems, can be used in the creation of something greater. What you learn in school is only a waste if you don't take the opportunities you find to use it.
I think a lot of people forget about the secondary skills you learn from a given subject. For example, I don't use much math in my current job, but my HS courses certainly helped my problem solving skills. I also don't get much "practical" use out of the facts I learned in history, but they helped shape my views on the world and modern politics.
Seems like both would be useful for your job.
Music has been shown to help math skills, and one of the primary focuses of Literature classes is learning how to coherently explain things.Ickorus said:
Seems like both would be useful for your job.
Depends on the class, really.
English, most of the stuff is useful, because writing can be a valuable skill in any profession.
Social Studies, probably useless, but I'm still glad we learn it, because it's quite interesting.
Math, well this varies a lot. Some professions require lots of it, but even then most of the math we learn is useless. Hell, I'd just appreciate if they told us what it was for. Because say you need to know a certain kind of math to make jets. Am I going to make jets? Probably not, but when I do my homework I can pretend I'm making F-16s, and that motivates me a bit more.
Science, probably mostly useless, but physics and chemistry can prove somewhat helpful.
Anyway, the purpose of school, for better or worse, is not too learn the subjects. It's too figure out how to interact with people, find out what you'd like to do for a job, teach you responsibility, and keep us busy until we're old enough for people to not feel responsible for us any more.
English, most of the stuff is useful, because writing can be a valuable skill in any profession.
Social Studies, probably useless, but I'm still glad we learn it, because it's quite interesting.
Math, well this varies a lot. Some professions require lots of it, but even then most of the math we learn is useless. Hell, I'd just appreciate if they told us what it was for. Because say you need to know a certain kind of math to make jets. Am I going to make jets? Probably not, but when I do my homework I can pretend I'm making F-16s, and that motivates me a bit more.
Science, probably mostly useless, but physics and chemistry can prove somewhat helpful.
Anyway, the purpose of school, for better or worse, is not too learn the subjects. It's too figure out how to interact with people, find out what you'd like to do for a job, teach you responsibility, and keep us busy until we're old enough for people to not feel responsible for us any more.
I'll say it again: secondary skills.
Science is not useless. Chemistry, biology, physics, are all organized to help you look at a problem and analyse it in a rational way, following logical conclusions. Experimentation. Significant results. A basic grasp of statistics. Those are all things everyone just needs to know, no matter their profession.
Science is not useless. Chemistry, biology, physics, are all organized to help you look at a problem and analyse it in a rational way, following logical conclusions. Experimentation. Significant results. A basic grasp of statistics. Those are all things everyone just needs to know, no matter their profession.
A lot of it, yeah. Especially science, every step in education you find out that pretty much everything you learnt before was wrong, or at least massively over-simplified. I always found that the best teachers would tell you that, and either point out where to go for the more indepth stuff, or even teach a bit of it themselves.
I've used the basics of math I life every day.
Not once have I needed to find slope-intercept, though.
What I learning in ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE school was useful.
What I learned in High School...useless.
Not once have I needed to find slope-intercept, though.
What I learning in ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE school was useful.
What I learned in High School...useless.
Lots of information is "useless", might as well learn it anyway.
It's good experience, you learn what's not practical and what is.
It's good experience, you learn what's not practical and what is.
Well the concepts taught in English are still valid but I doubt I'll ever get into another conversation about Of Mice and Men, Maths beyond basic arithmetic seems to be unneeded until I move up the job ladder, Biology and Chemistry never made it outside the Scientific/Medical fields, Physics is similar but swap Medical for Engineering, etc etc.
Basically the content of what you learn is damn near useless, but the logic patterns and thinking methods taught are what become relevant in later life.
Basically the content of what you learn is damn near useless, but the logic patterns and thinking methods taught are what become relevant in later life.
I'm a chemistry major, so I hold anything not science related to be relatively usless to my studies. I'm rather infuriated I have to take a fine arts course.