- Blake Ekelund
- Excelsior, MN
- United States
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In High School, why do I learn so many irrelevant subjects?
Tell me why I need to understand and learn Calculus, or even parts of Biology and History that has no relevance to the Real World. I'm very frustrated with this, please clearly answer why I need to learn what I learn.
Joseph Stanga
As others have noted, this is your opportunity to absorb as much information as you possibly can, while you can, and that such information will help give you the foundational background for further studies in specific fields. I've also read this thread, and noted your objections. Therefore, I am going to proffer some alternative suggestions, which haven't been mentioned. However, please consider them very carefully, as they each tend towards a one-way street -- once you engage them, there may be no going back.
1. Get your GED. This is functionally the same as a high school diploma, and having it will enable you to save the few years of high school I am surmising you have left, giving you the chance to enter the workforce sooner, and not have to take those icky subjects you presently feel bear no relevance.
2. Look into alternate education options available in your school district. I do not know the state of education in Minnesota, but here in Wichita, there are alternative schools for students who may not fit in with the standardized norms of education. One such school is an independent studies high school system. The other is a magnet school system, which allows students to focus on their specific field, provided the school itself is geared towards it. For example, there is a law magnet, a science magnet, and an arts magnet. However, even within the alternative systems, there may be some subjects you will be required by state law to study.
If such options do not exist, consider contacting the school board with the proposal that such a school be developed.
3. Ask your principal or guidance counselor if you can develop your own learning program. This was available in Middle School here, and was known as AtL -- short for Autonomous Learning. In essence, it boiled down to several hours a day in the school library, studying topics of personal interest, and writing reports showing that you were in fact staying busy and not just goofing off.
Best of luck!
Tony Kuphaldt 10+
There's another thing to consider, too: a huge part of studying any subject is to learn to think and perceive in new ways. Studying different subjects in detail helps you do this.
Speaking in your defense, I can say I've taken a number of courses on subjects that seemed really irrelevant at the time, but I later discovered the sense of irrelevance had more to do with how it was taught. Hang in there. Ask good questions of your teachers. (Hint: "When are we ever going to need this?" is not a good question!) If there is something you are really interested in, pursue that deeply and pretty soon you'll discover the connections to those other subjects you thought had no relevance.
When I was in high school, I was intensely interested in electronics, but my school offered nothing in that area. So, I read all the books I could on the subject, did experiments and built electronic projects to build knowledge and skills, and that has turned into a wonderfully fulfilling career for me that grew to encompass most of the subjects I learned in high school.
On a side note, one of the subjects I now wish I could have studied in high school is philosophy, which is a subject vilified probably more than all others as being irrelevant. I now realize just how profound that subject is, and how we all carry with us philosophical ideas and perspectives that color how we perceive the world but often don't realize it.
Blake Ekelund
Kind of off topic...
If you are to consider school a full time job--I've learned in Intro to Business that you should take a job that you are passionate, happy, and are positive about. School is the exact opposite of that! I hate it, it takes up almost all my time, and how am i supposed to have an actual job and an amazing girlfriend?
I have tried so many times to be positive about school, and by 6th hour(last class)... I find everything that I did that day, a waste of time! And then i think negatively...
Blake Ekelund
I just have a few questions for you...
1) Are you using math that includes any of the following; Imaginary numbers, quadratics, solving f(g(x)) or g(f(x)), (f/g(x)), and even finding the area within a graphed area? Or is your math generic higher algebra and geometry?
Right now I'm learning all of this "imaginary math" while I should be going more in depth about Higher Algebra.
2)I love biology, it comes down to the following; Why am I putting in at least 7 hours in a week into a class that focuses on parts of the cells that most don't even know about, and Why don't i learn MORE important things about it? I understand that it is building blocks, but that is as far as we get, so it makes it pointless to just stop.
3)In my life I have NEVER used another language outside of school, unless I'm joking around and saying stupid things with friends...
4)"I wish I'd been taught anatomy and physiology and art and music....." I wish I was taught how to harness solar power and or wave power to create electricity for a house... Also, I wish I was taught more about astronomy. Why can't I choose this field?
5) I know what I want to do, and I have many back up plans.... so why can't I do what I want to do in school and maybe earn college credit towards some subjects in college?
Anne Dagen 10+
Biology - if school is teaching you the basic blocks, they're giving you the tools to go and follow up on your own specific interests. Where I've done personal research / education, I've always found it easier if I've been taught the basics.
Language - have you no desire to travel, or communicate with people from other countries? Or read books or watch films or videos that haven't been translated into English? Or learn from specialists from other countries? If I do a quick check of my Facebook page, I can find posts in 15 different languages. I did 2 years of Latin at school, which might sound pretty useless but it helps me with 3 of those languages directly, and what it taught me about language structure helps with the others, along with Google Translate. I would hate to be trapped in a single language bubble, and I envy people who are fluent in multiple languages.
'I wish.....' Some of the subjects I wish I'd been taught I have studied independently. Astronomy wasn't taught at my school but that didn't stop me reading up on it. The curriculum didn't allow me to do history as well as my other subjects so I did a deal with the head of history which allowed me to study independently and take the exams. Anatomy and physiology I learned when I became interested in sport - something I'd never have predicted at school.
What you want to do is not necessarily what someone will be prepared to pay you to do. Broad education keeps your options open.
Brian Landes
RIchard Corey
Anne Dagen 10+
I don't work in a mathematical area but I use maths a lot.
I don't work in a scientific area but I use chemistry and physics from time to time. I also use physics for my hobbies.
I don't work with languages but I find them useful socially.
I wish I'd been taught anatomy and physiology and art and music.....
I couldn't have told you that would be the case when I was a student. It still surprises me how much of my education is relevant to life - and also how many things I wish I'd had the opportunity to learn.
Beste Arslan
Sharon McCann 10+
I believe physics is the science of the future, the science that will shortly change everything. If you cannot understand ALL of how its component parts work - see Garret Lisse's theory of everything - you cannot grasp the big picture. You think you want the big picture without worrying over the details. Physics will change everything and it will be found in understanding a foundation of biology and calculus.
Two of todays greatest physicists sat together in a high school physics class. I question is the greatest physicist those who came from that class or the person who taught them both?
The US system is *currently* over focused on testing and memorization and failing at critical thinking. So grab what is offered at the buffet instead of rejecting it as not being worthy of your time and capacity. Think outside the quadrilateral parallelogram. It may be that someday when you consider the fall of the roman empire and the structure of a quartz molecule that you will see why international currencies cannot function.
Julius Newman
Blake Ekelund
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
Academia curricula is designed for testing a crop of students and not individual attention or intelligence. There is no time to tell you how all of these subjects relate to life, which is why this education system sucks the big one. Among many more reasons...
The system sucks, reform is needed. Until then... you are responsible for creating your own education and if you have these feelings towards your classes create the bridges into life yourself to find relevance.
I do not believe your question is new.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
for further information, you can check
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_using_our_practical_wisdom.html
Blake Ekelund
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Blake Ekelund
Blake Ekelund
Thank you for your response, please respond to this
Anne Dagen 10+
With my 'picky investor' hat on, what am I seeing?
You expect a tailored programme designed for you from an organisation created to provide generic education to a wide range of pupils who will need to sit established exams in order to become qualified.
You don't value languages, and you don't take care in writing your own language. 'Entrepreneur' is derived from French but has been widely adopted in English speaking countries, retaining the French spelling.
You don't see the role of language in promoting friendship with other countries
You are jumping to the conclusion that aspirations based on todays world will still be valid and achievable ten and twenty years in the future, despite the fact that we are experiencing unprecedented rates of change.
You don't like doing stuff you consider boring, but few if any business ventures succeed unless the necessary boring stuff is handled as well as the interesting stuff.
You don't seem to be aware that the things other people want from you may not be the things you find interesting to do.
This may sound harsh, but investors will be harsh in assessing proposals. When your business plan is in competition with dozens of others for funding, what will put you ahead is giving the investor the information they need, not just focusing on the areas that interest you.
Debra Smith 200+
I do feel a better job of communicating the 'why' and of illustrating what it applies to could be done. I do however, have to assure you that some of the courses that I took that I hated the most and that I had no appreciation of their relevance turned out to be the most relevant, believe it or not. I had to take a geography course as an undergrad in university and I hated it but I use that knowledge on a practical day to day basis as a regular citizen. Calculus became vital for future courses. History is something I read now for pleasure and it really makes me aware of why the world is now as it is especially politically.
Fabian Fogelberg
The reason that you study math is not just about knowing how to solve equations. It's a tool that you can use in very various subjects. If you learn basic physics you can easily understand and explain why we insulate our homes, use seatbelt in cars and etc. It is also important to know that you might change your mind about what subjects you like, for a few years ago a thought I had my last math course and know I'm using math every day in university. :-)
Biology:
I had an extremely good teacher in biology in upper secondary school and can now understand the cell, evolution, and ecosystems very well. What happens if we cut down the Amazonas? How does the evolution work?
History:
It's important because if it isn't studied, how can we learn from our mistakes? And it can also give answers to some very basic questions, for example: Why did some cultures become much more advanced several hundreds or thousands year before others? Why are some countries much richer than others today? But by studying history you will also learn source criticism which is very important nowadays when it is very easy to find and create information.
By studying various subjects you will also be able to sort out information and make it understandable for others by text and orally.
It is easy to believe that school just teaches narrow solutions and descriptions of very specific problems but sooner or later you will realize that what you learn are tools that can be applied in almost every field. So that's why the subjects you brought up has great relevance to the real world, how can you else understand it?
Blake Ekelund
Fabian Fogelberg
(Bonus question: What would happen if all the worlds population started to eat as much meat as in for example the U.S?)
Blake Ekelund
Bouns Question Answer--The World's population is already way too high! There would only be a select few countries that could buy meats. Many people would have to rely on other protein sources... It would be very bad, America MUST change their ways!
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
Check out the terms: democratic education, critical thinking, fuzzy logic and transhumanism (terminologies that are good ideas to consider here.)
A quote:
“We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind - mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent the reality. “ - Edward Albee (1966)
I take two things from this quote: a. the vicious cycle of ignorant educations in America is nothing new and b. everyone should be a writer/artist + teacher + Whatever it is the hell they want to be (Why? Because one would be intra-personal hobbies/skills and one is communal, need both to be well rounded.)
We live in a culture that says you need to master one thing, it's bullshit. I tell every kid my age going into a science field to take up writing (science) fiction and nonfiction short stories.
I'm not telling you what to do here, but you have options those educators aren't telling you and I'm saying you need to go out, find them and not wait for a motivator - self motivate.
I wish someone told me this earlier on in school.
Jom Bunsiri
Christophe Cop 500+
The basics are needed for all simple things financial.
Advanced: depending on what you wish to become: might be less used later on.
Though if you ever want to understand this world (not just a set of rules of thumb), you'll eventually need to understand calculus, biology and history. I't all part of this big thing we call reality. Though not all knowledge has practical purpose (and not for everybody)... I would not expect from education to keep people stupid (and only provide some practical guidelines for how human life and society is organised to make you fit in).
Matthew Axon