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Is what you learn at school useless and pointless?

Seriously since I have left school, apart from the basic three "r"s, all the other stuff I ever learnt has served no purposed in my adult life whatsoever. Anything useless like logical thinking and problem solving, I have only really gained from playing games. Otherwise, apart from grades, to me, it all seem a waste of time.

So do you think that what you learn in school has any importance to real life and if not, how would you rectify this, if at all?

Reply 1

UniOfLife

12

Pretty much everything you learn is useful. Some will be directly applicable. Others will help form your attitudes to things. Others will teach you skills that you will need later on. And others stop you being a complete ignoramous.

Reply 2

ForumFreak

9

You probably learn important social skills at school as well.

Reply 3

_jackofdiamonds

10

Some of it. I haven't needed to factor a quadratic equation since I left, and my knowledge of the snail cam has never been needed in a real life scenario, funny enough.

Reply 4

annsmith

_jackofdiamonds

Some of it. I haven't needed to factor a quadratic equation since I left, and my knowledge of the snail cam has never been needed in a real life scenario, funny enough.

very true

Reply 5

Sweet-Euphoria

90% of what I've learned I have already forgotten. The vast majority that I learned has turned out to be completely 100% useless.

Reply 6

gas_panic!

12

Most of what you learn in school is very worthwhile and if you intend to go remotely far in retty much any chosen career you will need use a lot of what you have learned. Fact.

Reply 7

ConservativeLibertarian

I think they should have lessons on how to make money.
Maths should be more focussed on what happens when you go shopping....how to work out 30% of £20 and the like.
History is always fun for dinner parties.
They should bring back cooking lessons, gardening, looking after the homes, things such as these. As we all know at uni it can be a bit of a shock to the system.

Reply 8

gas_panic!

12

ConservativeLibertarian

I think they should have lessons on how to make money.
Maths should be more focussed on what happens when you go shopping....how to work out 30% of £20 and the like.

I'm pretty sure calculating percentages is taught in school!

Reply 9

HistoryStudent

13

Foreign languages are useful if you are visiting different countries - you can't rely on them being able to speak English, and it would be pretty arrogant to assume that they do. It's useful in big businesses as well.

Reply 10

Clubber Lang

15

HistoryStudent

Foreign languages are useful if you are visiting different countries - you can't rely on them being able to speak English, and it would be pretty arrogant to assume that they do. It's useful in big businesses as well.

yes, but elts be honest, how many peopel remember GCSE French to a decent standard by the tiem they can go travelling on their own (unless they tak the subject further)

About 80% of what is TAUGHT has probably been useless to me. I'd like to see more focus on everyday skills and more general things.

Reply 11

HistoryStudent

13

I gave up German after AS, but I'd still remember enough to make myself understood, even if I can't remmeber all the detailed stuff. I gave up French after Year 9, but I still remember some of the vocab. Surely it isn't possible to forget every single bit of a language, and not be able to remember some of it if you were reminded?

Reply 12

Clubber Lang

15

HistoryStudent

I gave up German after AS, but I'd still remember enough to make myself understood, even if I can't remmeber all the detailed stuff. I gave up French after Year 9, but I still remember some of the vocab. Surely it isn't possible to forget every single bit of a language, and not be able to remember some of it if you were reminded?

une, deux, trois, quatre,cinq,

bonjour, au revoir

yea, i remember :biggrin:

AS level is a bit higher level than school tho (school to me implies to GCSE level) - thinking back even if i had memorised everything i had learnt it still wouldnt make me that good.

Reply 13

datr

12

Some people may find education valueless as a means to an end but as an end within itself I would consider it invaluable and wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it's applicability either.

Reply 14

LPK

20

Quite a bit i'll probably never need to use ever again. ;yes;

Reply 15

Dionysus

15

I suppose to an extent it is important as a measure of your academic ability, but yes there is a tendency to focus on the obscure and practically useless.

Reply 16

HistoryStudent

13

I like the obscure :redface:

I like learning for its own sake, if it's connected to something I'm interested in (ie. History.)

Reply 17

red

I'm happy with what I learnt at school. A lot of things come into use, so I'd say no.

Reply 18

Poica

14

Some things you never need again. But then again, if I'd taken my further education in a different direction then these things would be useful. So really it's all useful so that we have an idea of all subjects.
Also, I agree with an earlier comment that cooking, cleaning, etc being taught at school would be a brilliant idea.

Reply 19

Ribbons

12

Clubber Lang

yes, but elts be honest, how many peopel remember GCSE French to a decent standard by the tiem they can go travelling on their own (unless they tak the subject further)

But that's the person's own mistake for not keeping up with the language. Why blame the education?

While it's true I haven't had to use everything I've ever learnt at school, I wouldn't say it's all been completely pointless. I wouldn't be where I am (or going where I want to) if it hadn't been for the education I got. Besides, I like knowing random things to wow little kids :p:

Is what you learn at school useless and pointless?

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