   Useless school topics?
  Hello people!  (BTW, this is my first post from linux, I LOVE LINUX)I got my umm.....  "progress" paper (I guess I could call it that) from school today which pretty much sums up all my classes....  After looking through it I realized I wasn't achieving the "high" class level I was placed in for social studies (I dont think I was supposed to be in it in the first place, but oh well).  Not that I care, as you'll read below.  But it got me thinking, what is the point in some (let me rephrase - most) things we do in school?For example, we have read some stories and are now having a test on them.  We need to know the authors, the story plot, characters, so on.    Will I need to know this when I grow up?  Of course not!  Why do we need to learn things like these if we will never need them?  Other examples include minor events in history (reason for low social studies grade) such as tribes, old [but small] civilizations [big I'm ok at, you know Rome, etc.], etc.; lots of grammar facts such as remember when it's "well" and when it's "good", etc.  I mean, if I say "Yeah, I feel pretty good right now" what, will anyone NOT understand me?  And will anyone even catch my mistake in the first place?I feel like this is a total waste of time.  So what, I [should] spend my time studying so I do well on the test, keep studying so I remember it for the final and then what?  Do I need to know when I grow up and start working that the story I read in school many years ago when I was a teenager was written by <author name here>?  Or maybe I need to know that tribes of the west of the U.S. were <bla>, <bla>, and <bla>?I feel we should learn what is [will be] important in our [future] lives.  Math, for example, will be [mostly] important.  Some basic science such as health  is important as well.  Knowing all the tribes of america/knowing the stories we read is NOT on this list.  Language courses are also important, another language is always good to know.  Music....  nah, if you needed music you'd be going to a music school.... Have any of you realized how little time is spent on sex and the related in school [atleast in the U.S.]?  I think they should teach stuff like this early on, or atleast sometime.  Not never.Discussion?  BTW, I am meaning this a simple .......... debate sort of thing, where we simply give our ideas on the topic [wink].Kthxbi ttyl. [lol]Oh, and again - linux pwns [wink] [grin].
  I didn't depend on school for my education,there were topics i liked and not,but i had my own course of study outside of school material,i just passed all the lessons and forgot anything i didn't like/find useful.For example i complained a lot about having to study ancient language and history but just got a passing grade and erased them from my memory :P.   ;  Glad to hear linux is working out for you. If you think it's good now, you should wait until you try OS X. LOL OS FLAMEWAR.I think they're trying to cover all the bases so you turn out to be well rounded; my university forces me to take liberal arts classes although it's pretty obvious all I want to do is write operating systems, compilers, games and NMR control logic.Also, a lot of it is busywork, and some of it is just there to satisfy the idiots who come up with curriculum. When I was in middle school we had to learn about Brazil because one of the hysterical, unionized, never-had-a-real-job idiots who manages the curriculum threatened to quit unless she got her Brazil unit.Was the Brazil unit useful? Here's what I can remember.It's warm there.People are poor.I think even Bush knows more about Brazil than that.   ;  Well rounded knowledge of the world does come in useful  You will be surprised.  Also people who only study technical or very narrow topics tend to sound like ignorant hicks when they discuss anything broader.  Probably because they basically are ignorant hicks.Not to say it isnt busy work.  But I generally find busy work a matter of format not content.  Most knowledge is atleast worth knowing little about.   ;  The point of social studies, literature and history for that matter is to learn about the people that came before you, the people around you, how they shaped your world, how they continue to shape your world and so on and so forth. It means the difference between your being little more than a tool, a utility, and your being an educated human being. ... reenforcing and enriching his immediate perceptions to the end that he may live in a world of semblance more spacious and satisfying than is to be found within the narrow confines of the fleeting present moment. See What Is History? for a broader discussion.   ;  There is a double-standard that all intellectuals should be well read and versed in history and classics -- including math and science intellectuals.  Its probably for the better: you are more well rounded and it can help you see things in a broader picture.  Will it help you write an operating system?  No.  But that cultural anthropology class may just help you be a bit more sensitive to other cultures when you begin marketing your product over seas...Or not.  I personally am trying to take LESS math and science and MORE liberal arts with my computer science degree.  I find it makes me a more well rounded thinker.  Perhaps I cannot immediately compute triple integrals in spherical coordinates in my head -- but I can hold a conversation with another human being who doesn't only speak 'nerd' -- which is probably a good thing.   ;  Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with knowing more than just math, science and hardware/software for computers.  It's just those really small things that annoy me (among some of the things that ARE truly useless).For example, when will I EVER hear my friends/etc. talking about the acient tribes of the americas so I will have to fit in?  I mean.......  even if under some extreme conditions this happens, I can always cover myself up and talk about how the Iroquois were....  you know, awesome and stuff.As for other things such as small stories (bout 7-10 of them) we have to memorize, try to come up with an answer to THAT.  Its not like we'll start talking about how the story I read in school (btw, 4 or 5 pages or so) is like SO COOL.  I mean, I TOTALLY enjoyed my time studying it, and you know, reading it over a few times because it was SO interesting.   ;  Oh, and busy-work (which I probably think my "memorize the stories" thing falls into): why have it?  Can't we just shorten school?  I bet I'll learn a lot more during say..... a three day weekend than in a 5 day week of school.  Well, atleast more in what I have interests in.  This weekend, for example, even though only 2 days, I learned about Linux.  Took me a little long on the drivers (~3 hours or so) for ATI, since I had to get used to the command-line only interface.  Not only that, but I got totally confused with all these "packages" and things.  Oh well, opened a thread here and finally got it covered.  Now I'm wondering if I can install XMoto 2.<version> on SuSe without having to rebuild the source....  Hints [wink]?  Btw, kudos to the XMoto guy, I love that game.EDIT: One more thing - I have this big problem with school.  While I do wonders at science and math (and Spanish, my language course) [excluding minor subjects], I suck in english and social studies.  English...  most of grammar I'm fine....  essays depend on the subject.....  and story comprehension I suck in.  But - S.S. I totally suck in.  And I don't think any "home studying" (as my report said) will help - it's hard to remember something you're fully uninterested in.But, to get to the point - my mother wants me to do good at school so later only I can get a scholorship in college and so on.  A 90 is not good enough, nor is a 92.  98 or above is what she's mostly happy with, and I get a lecture if it's below an 85.  It's not that I do bad - I never FAIL, I'm always above a 97 with my good subjects.  And I'm [mostly] above 90 for english and ss (and the other bad ones) [excluding the 69 I got on the last test].  I can't do any better in my good stuff, it comes naturally (I'm one of those who learn all in class and spend no time studying at home).  Nor can I do better in my bad stuff, because I SIMPLY HAVE NO INTEREST IN IT.  So here I am, getting pushed to do good.  Am I doing good enough or am I getting pushed too much?  Opinions?  I feel like an 85-95 average for my bad stuff is ok.....Kthxbi ttyl.   ;Quote:Original post by LessBreadThe point of social studies, literature and history for that matter is to learn about the people that came before you, the people around you, how they shaped your world, how they continue to shape your world and so on and so forth. It means the difference between your being little more than a tool, a utility, and your being an educated human being. ... reenforcing and enriching his immediate perceptions to the end that he may live in a world of semblance more spacious and satisfying than is to be found within the narrow confines of the fleeting present moment. See What Is History? for a broader discussion.Quoted for Truth.   ;Quote:Original post by agi_shiDon't get me wrong, I'm ok with knowing more than just math, science and hardware/software for computers.  It's just those really small things that annoy me (among some of the things that ARE truly useless).For example, when will I EVER hear my friends/etc. talking about the acient tribes of the americas so I will have to fit in?  I mean.......  even if under some extreme conditions this happens, I can always cover myself up and talk about how the Iroquois were....  you know, awesome and stuff.As for other things such as small stories (bout 7-10 of them) we have to memorize, try to come up with an answer to THAT.  Its not like we'll start talking about how the story I read in school (btw, 4 or 5 pages or so) is like SO COOL.  I mean, I TOTALLY enjoyed my time studying it, and you know, reading it over a few times because it was SO interesting.Learning about the ancient tribes of america, and that class of knowledge can be very interesting.  Especially once you realize it is a way to compare your own culture to identical human beings, but in a wildly different culture.  You can begin to isolate some tings you took for granted as The Way Things Are for people, and realize many things are basically a result of training.  Some of those things can be very shocking.  I will not give you examples because I do not feel like digging up my sources.I suggest you take a cultural anthropology elective in college.  Although I can see where you are coming from.  Most high schools are very ineffective at teaching things of that nature in my experience.