Too Much School

[LtKillroy]

How much school do you think is really necessary for someone to function well. IMO, most of the stuff you learn in high school up is mostly pointless for most people. Sure, calculus is useful for certain people, but most will never ever use it. I think we spend too much time at school past like middle school, what do you think?

[Graham]

Unless you want your life goal to reach lower middle class... high school is very useful. College is basically mandatory as well. Unless you want to be a cop, soldier, ect. Think about it though, you can solve alot of household problems with geometry (moving, gardening and what-not). When is the last time you met someone that never took an english class and thought they sounded smart?

[frogboy]

look as far as im concerned everyone should live a pastral existance in the country, do you think cavemen needed "algebra"? no of course not, school should be banned alltogether

[a-4-year-old]

It is sad that what we are being taught won't be used, I would love more practical lessons than I currently have. Last year we did some really nice things with geometry, relating it to engineering and simple household tasks.

[LtKillroy]

Unless you want your life goal to reach lower middle class... high school is very useful. College is basically mandatory as well. Unless you want to be a cop, soldier, ect. Think about it though, you can solve alot of household problems with geometry (moving, gardening and what-not). When is the last time you met someone that never took an english class and thought they sounded smart?

I'm more going along the lines it shouldn't be mandatory, not that it is a good idea to drop out with the current mindset about school. I currently have a 4.0 GPA, don't get me wrong, but I think we spend far to much time learning about, say, nuclear fusion when we will never use it. If you want to use it, fine go into that field. I'm just saying we shouldn't have to or get looked down on for not.

[Graham]

Yes it should be mandatory. America's school standards are already terrible as it stands.  Giving students the right to choose school or no school is a death sentence for our country.

[Espadon]

Well I do have issues with stuff like that when people think they don't need to know stuff like fusion, or, say, how an airplane takes off, but then always try to participate in those "mind twister" riddles and insist that their ignorant conjectures are correct.

[Blue-ninja]

School is there for a reason: To better give you additional skills to your basic everyday skills that everyone has come to be born with, to better survive in the physical and social world.

[LtKillroy]

School is there for a reason: To better give you additional skills to your basic everyday skills that everyone has come to be born with, to better survive in the physical and social world.

I agree with that, but not everything that gets taught. Take a foreign language. I have to take one to succeed to today's society, but more likely than not I will never speak Spanish to anyone who only speaks Spanish. What I'm saying is people should not get looked down on (not get into almost any college) just because they didn't. If you think you are going to, that option should be available, just not mandatory. Most of the stuff you learn is school is very important, the skill to write this coherently is invaluable in itself. I just think we learn too much we will never need in school. Our time could just get used so much better, like preparing for a specific job, or at least kind of a "path" you could take. Your good in math, more advanced math things, less, say, history (example) Things of that nature. Too much of our time, again, is spent learning about things we will never use.

[a-4-year-old]

blame the courtier

[KorrupT MerC]

A human can function well enough without school, enough to flip your burgers and deep-fry everything that you order. I mean, sh*t, 10 year olds are already supporting their families with little or no school at all.

The 'random-useless' crap we learn is not as useless as you think, it may be random but it sure beats talking about why your balls are constantly itching because we didnt learn any random sh*t in school as a child. Sure you may never need to know who broke the sound barrier, but when someone asks that question, guess who has got the answer. (given you paid attention)

[rfreak]

I think that the ammount of school is OK like it is. But I think we don't learn enough in the time we spend at school I could probably learn x2 in the same amount of time.

[Lord Frunkamunch]

...Sure you may never need to know who broke the sound barrier, but when someone asks that question, guess who has got the answer.

Google. Which is why fact memorization is obsolete.

You want to bother memorizing that stuff for conversation starters? Great. Fine by me. But things that will never be applicable in life shouldn't be mandatory, in my opinion.

[jap_man]

The main problem with school is that people go to school to pass exams, not to learn and as long as people have that sort of mentality useless shit will be taught in classes.

And honestly you don't need to graduate from high school in order to function in society (or at least that's the case in Australia), you can do an apprenticeship when you're 16 and learn a trade, which in today's society is becoming a lot more valuable than your standard office job. Have been seriously considering it myself and I'll probably do that if I can't get into the uni course of my choice.

[Mangled*]

I think school is more important for social development rather than education. Personally I think I've learnt more outside of education than I ever did in it. The curriculum is only catered to people who function in a certain way and these people end up getting better grades but that does not denote intelligence.

A qualification is merely a piece of paper that tells people that you are simply someone who is willing to kiss arse and devote an unreasonable amount of effort to get ahead in life.

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

I agree with that, but not everything that gets taught. Take a foreign language. I have to take one to succeed to today's society, but more likely than not I will never speak Spanish to anyone who only speaks Spanish. What I'm saying is people should not get looked down on (not get into almost any college) just because they didn't.

Learning a foreign language helps you learn about language in general though.  When you see the form and structure that other languages use, you understand your own better, and consequently are able to express yourself in a more comprehensive manner.

[KorrupT MerC]

...Sure you may never need to know who broke the sound barrier, but when someone asks that question, guess who has got the answer.

Google. Which is why fact memorization is obsolete.

You want to bother memorizing that stuff for conversation starters? Great. Fine by me. But things that will never be applicable in life shouldn't be mandatory, in my opinion.

They also teach on a broad scale, what may not be necessary for you may be necessary for the kid next to you. Though, if its not necessary, go to sleep.

[Zero72]

I think we spend too much time at school past like middle school, what do you think?

It's practically a given, but I'm gonna play the "get used to it before you end up on a 10-hour work shift" card here.

Edit: Ooh:

A qualification is merely a piece of paper that tells people that you are simply someone who is willing to kiss arse and devote an unreasonable amount of effort to get ahead in life.

"A grade is an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite amount of material."

[VijchtiDoodah]

School isn't necessary to function well, but it helps. And while most lessons seem useless, they tend to provide you with skills that you weren't directly attempting to gain. Higher level math, for example, isn't taught because your teachers genuinely believe you need to know calculus to succeed in the world, but because the logic and problem-solving skills you learn are applicable to many things in the real world.

[Kagesha]

I was told we go to school to get a job (obviously) but we learn the subjects so we can have a wider range of jobs to apply for and if you don't know what to do you can keep your options high. If you do know what you are going to do, you do what is needed because you never know the job you may want to apply for are looking for specific educations levels or some crap..