If education is so important, why have I used nothing I learned beyond 8th grade?

In My Humble Opinion
81

The reason people can get away with thinking education isn’t important is because they postulate that if education were important, there’d be some point in life that they hit a brick wall on some challenge and rue the day they fell asleep in class. But in reality, that’s not how lack of education punishes you. It instead forces you to take the hard road without you even realizing there was an easier way.

The last time I explicitly used algebra, it was to write a piece-wise function for healthcare benefits vs. payments. I had to choose between two offered plans, and solely because I did the algebra, I realized that one plan would only be better if I consumed between $500 and $700 of healthcare a year. That window was so tiny, the other plan was the obvious choice. The math-illiterate will never figure that out and they’ll never even know it.

82

If I hadn’t struggled through spanish in high school and college, I’d never be able to impress my (mexican) in-laws with my broken spanish. My mother in law speaks mostly spanish, with a little english. We both know enough of the other’s language to communicate. Because her family speaks spanish at home, it is critical I am able to understand and communicate with them. Without learning it in school, the relationship might never have blossomed.

83

The problem is they have no frame of reference. They think “oh I have a good job doing XYZ so I didn’t need an education.” They get content where they are and never aspire to anything more.

There is a socialization aspect of college that is important too, IMHO. A good university has a culture of success and achievement. It raises the bar on your expectations both in and after college. Then again, for some people it doesn’t. They just see a bunch of elitist jerks and sort of disengage from the process.

84

School and education are not the same thing. You can educate yourself, and schools can help some people educate themselves, but mostly the people who get a reasonable education from school are perfectly capable of educating themselves and just don’t realize it. Big brother has pounded in the idea that education comes from school and you are dependent on schools to become educated.

85

Do people who are 16 know what they’ll need when they are 30?

86

Probably not. Does anyone know what random 16 year olds will need (or want) when they are 30? Do 30 year-olds know what they’ll need (or want) when they are 50?

Ideally, you’d be able to learn what you need (or want) as you need (or want) it, not have to try and cram in everything by 18 that you could possibly need (or want) later on in life.

87

Interesting topic. Usually, several reasons are given for studying dead languages (latin, classical greek)
-a lot of ancient smart guys wrote in these languages
-it teaches you to think
-the classical world is still relevant
Unless you want to BE a clasiical scholar, I don’t see the point.:frowning:

88

Another reason I’ve heard, at least in the case of Latin, is that it helps build your English vocabulary.

I wouldn’t know. But I do think learning at least one other language helps you understand your own native language a lot better, regardless of whether or not you ever actually use that other language.

89

They can be told in one sentence:

“You need to know how to think”

90

I’m curious. What sot of job do you expect to do at 18 with no education? What sort of job CAN you do? Maybe work at the mall at Banana Republic or some place or maybe be a receptionist in some company. Not much upward mobility there.

It’s not just about “educating yourself”. It’s about demonstrating that you can commit to 4 years of intense study in a particular discipline and show enough of an aptitude to pass.

91

If you work as a professor of Chemistry whose profession is to understand previous experiments and knowledge, then a great deal of the sciences and higher mathematics is key to success in your field of research.

92

What sorts of jobs do 18 year olds take that require pre-existing education in esoteric subjects (beyond basic numeracy and literacy) which they do not have interest or desire to study?

Like I said somewhere above, in case I am the target of your post, I’m primarily interested in the topic of learning. If the purpose of school is actually meant to be as a discipline certification badge, well, that could be done a number of ways; it hardly needs to be mixed up with (and distort the delivery of) education.

93

I just wanted to add that taking courses in many different fields of study can make many things much more interesting to you. If you study history, math, science, language, etc, and understand “the rules” behind each of these things, you’ll be able to have more intelligent, engaging discussion in a range of topics, and be interested in many different things.

For example, football (american) was never very interesting to me because I never understood the rules. I used to think it was flat out boring and stupid. Once I was educated about the rules of football, it became a lot more interesting to me because I understood the basics of what was going on. Then I could start asking my own questions. Things like overall strategies and tactics and such. Now I find football to be much more entertaining, and even though I don’t go out of my way to watch games, I can sit down with friends who happen to have it on and enjoy it with them.

Such is the same with any field of study. If you study chemistry, biology and physics, you’re going to find certain things more interesting and fascinating when you are watching the news, or the discovery channel, etc. You are going to be more informed when it comes time to vote in elections with regards to things that impact the environment by being better educated in the various sciences.

If you study history, you’ll be able to see and draw parallels to current topics and everyday life becomes a lot more fascinating.

If you study foreign languages, the oddities and uniqueness of your own language will become very clear and you’ll enjoy it ways you never even knew you were missing.

When you study math, you learn how to solve problems, choose techniques best suited for solving that problem, and be able to justify your solution and explain it. You learn how to form a logical proof, even if you don’t realize it, and a deep understanding of mathematics can make for a richer, more rational way of carrying arguments and beliefs.

There is a huge, huge benefit to being broadly and widely educated in things beyond just what you find intrinsically interesting. The reason those things are interesting to you in the first place is because you were educated in them in some way in the first place, and it made you question more about it.

94

At 18 you should be able to educate yourself. The discipline to sit through 4 years of rote isn’t worth a pot of beans. There’s nothing dumber than a college grad who still doesn’t know how to think. If you haven’t started down the road to self motivated education by the age of 18, you are wasting someone else’s money going to college.

95

I agree with all this. But it’s equally as true that some people never become interested in some things, despite all the forced exposure in the world, or are interested in them to a different degree or in a different fashion than leads to their getting genuine use out of the forced curriculum. So I’m all for exposure to a variety of subjects, but I’m also all for letting people decide they’ve had enough and want to budget their time differently.

I’m all for exposing people to a variety of foods as well, while also allowing them to choose their own diets… Consumers should be exposed to their options, while still having the ultimate choice in their consumption.

96

And then most likely, work in a profession you didn’t study.

So, education-wise, what is the 18 year old lacking that the 22 year old Physics Grad is lacking if they both apply for the same finance job?

97

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I went to high school because grown ups told me it was important, and I was a teenager who didn’t know any different. Everyone else my age seemed to be doing it, so I did it too.

I didn’t really have any expectations beyond that.

98

This is why almost everybody goes to high school, and most people go to college.

The company I work for now is constantly recruiting through numerous resources, only accepts applicants who are college graduates (with one notable exception), and less than 1% of applicants can make it past the application stage. Why? Because despite their education, often from the most prestigious schools in the US, very few applicants have the ability to think. Faced with any situation they have not been previously prepped for, they have nothing to offer. Abstracting to the knowledge and skills they’ve allegedly developed seems to be beyond them. I don’t think any of them would have any problem given a little experience in the real world, they are bright people, but large sums of their parents money have been spent futilely. Given a high school education based on learning how to think, how to learn, and how to apply, most would have been more productive at age 18 than they are at age 22 following their conventional education.

99

A physics grad has the mathmatics background to build the complex financial models investment banks use.

And how many all nighters do people pull just dabling in stuff that interests them? In the real world, you don’t just get to work on projects that interest you. I need people who can push themselves even when a project is difficult or tediously boring.

Sure there is. A high school or college dropout who thinks they have the whole world figured out.

100

Actually people do pull all nighters dabbling in stuff that interests them. I doubt it happens much with the people who worship at the church of academia. They expect someone to support them while they dabble.

Great skill. 16 years of school is far more than is necessary to acquire it though.

Yes, you’ve got me there. A moron is slightly dumber than a college grad who doesn’t know how to think. Sometimes. But sometimes the dropout has the world figured out, so he’s not a moron. And sometimes the dropout just thinks wrong, but still knows how to think, and life will correct his mistake very quickly.