Pointless Education

[naomi24]

I’ve just been listening to a discussion on the new National Curriculum where one man said that most of what he’d been taught at school has proven useless to him. Personally I can’t think of anything that I was taught at school that has never been of some use to me - even if it only amounted to scoring extra points in a quiz. How about you?

[Cloverjo]

I remember Geography lessons consisting of shopping habits, sheep-farming and crop rotation. None has ever been any use to me, and were extremely dull and tedious.

[agchristie]

No doubt he was referring to foreign languages and he doesn't travel!

It would be daft to say nothing has been worth remembering. Although, I have forgotten a lot you are right Naomi, useful for quizzes at times. We store a lot of information subconciously so how can he say that much of what he has learnt from school is of no use and what about English and Maths for a start!

[naomi24]

He mentioned Latin and physics specifically.

[agchristie]

Ah! No need for the appliance of science...

[jim360]

Different people find different things useful so it's good to have a general background. Shame on him for dismissing physics or even Latin!

Only thing I think of as a waste of timeais how to use a protractor...

[Svejk]

you should have mitched off with me, Naomi.

[naomi24]

//Only thing I think of as a waste of timeais how to use a protractor... //

Really? I'm amazed! Why?

[agchristie]

Jim, do you have a moral compass? ;-)

[Svejk]

you could be mixing my compo now. ;o)

[jackthehat]

We seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time on Logarithms, as I recall..........never used them since the exam!

[naomi24]

Svejk, "mitched off" Now that's an expression I was never taught. I have no idea what it means.

[Svejk]

god, Naomi, didn't you go to school. ;)
its playing truant.

[Prudie]

I don't consider anything I learned at school useless. Even if I spent my life on a desert island I would want to have as much knowledge in my brain that I could accommodate, it's enriching. I've never been a farmer but I'm glad I know crop rotation exists and have a basic understanding of its purpose.

[jim360]

I've literally never used one ever. Practically no one does these days. The lesson of knowing relative angle size is important but the protractor isn't. If it matters I'll measure an angle by eye or get a computer to do it. Perhaps engineering does need a protractor though of course so I'm being slightly facetious.

[joggerjayne]

Education is never pointless.

No matter what you are studying, what you learn from education is how to receive a load of information, determine which bits are important or relevant, and then produce a reasoned response or analysis, based on the information you were given.

Learning and practising that process is useful at work, in life, and on AnswerBank.

[naomi24]

Svejk, Haaaaaa! Is it? I never did that.

[gness]

I don't consider anything I was taught to have been a waste of time.... even the Catechism and endless saint's days.

It taught me how to learn..... how to think...... and I'm not sure how we would know what is or is not going to be useful in later years......

[Prudie]

I think you are, is there a modern way of measuring or drawing an angle? Don't draughtsmen and architects use them or is it all computerised? Of course that won't help after Armaggedon :-)

[EcclesCake]

Learning the correct way to iron a handkerchief has probably been my most under-utilised lesson. I won't say it was useless though, one day I might have the urge to iron some hankies.......

[jackthehat]

Prudie - Now that we have Computer Aided Design packages (CAD) we let the software do the thinking for us.....:o)

But in the 'drawing-board' days, we had to rely on geometry, trigonometry and the good old protractor.