Things you learned in school. How useful as an adult?

CrazyRabbit

I can honestly say that about 80% of what I was taught in school has absolutely no use to me now as an adult.

Should we just teach the basics early on in school (reading, writing, basic maths), and then find out what each student is interested in/good at and then tailor their education towards that?
Eg. A student has a strong liking or aptitude for science, so focus their education around the sciences, and later on, specialising in a particular field.

A friend once said that what you learn is not so important, so long as you are using (training) your brain to figure out and remember stuff. He believes that that problem solving and memorising are the key skills you learn in school.

So, what do you think?

mawk

Addition has served me well. As has subtraction. Division not so much.


Your friend is right

starbelgrade

Yes.

Conor108

Yep, tailor their education. Sure I just did the leaving and can hardly remember most of my junior cert classes. And the obligatory 'make Irish optional' comment.

PeterIanStaker

I learned to watch for Oxbow lakes - they're everywhere!

mike65

riting

ANXIOUS

I learned manners respect and to follow rules. I use them everyday.

kilmuckridge

We also learned to learn

cloneslad

mike65 wrote: »

riting

and speeling two

jester77

There is way too much unnecessary sh*t taught in school. There are some things that you will always need in life and school is the place they should be taught. Math, basic economics, hygiene, nutrition, exercise and politics should be on every curriculum. It amazes me the amount of adults that can't read their payslip, don't understand politics and have no idea that when you spend more than you earn you will be in debt.

No wonder the country is in the mess it is in and FF are still in power!

Agricola

Its easy to think that alot of the stuff we learn in school is pointless and will never be needed and that the way to go would be to focus kids on areas they are interested in from a young age to the exclusion of other subject matter.
While that would lead to people who are very adept at a narrow spectrum of material, it would also mean lots of people who arent very well rounded, completely ignorant of otherwise important knowledge.
I wouldnt like an education system which pumps out people who've never done a history class, or tried to decypher a poem. Even as monumentally pointless as religion classes are, its still important that kids get an understanding of it, hopefully so that they cant quickly figure out what a load of cobblers it is!

Conor108

Something like this and we'd be sorted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYHWpRR4yc

mikom

Conor108 wrote: »

Something like this and we'd be sorted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYHWpRR4yc

How to poorly embed flash videos?

Conor108

mikom wrote: »

How to poorly embed flash videos?

Dammit I was sure it was just paste the embed code?! Didn't it used to be like that? Did I miss a meeting!?! Its sorted now anyway

Fremen

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Should we just teach the basics early on in school (reading, writing, basic maths), and then find out what each student is interested in/good at and then tailor their education towards that?
Eg. A student has a strong liking or aptitude for science, so focus their education around the sciences, and later on, specialising in a particular field.

I failed maths in first year. Didn't get any good until I was in fifth year. I'm now a mathematician (of sorts).

I might be the exception rather than the rule though.

bluto63

What do you mean useful? It's certainly useful to have knowledge about the world we live in, but do you mean useful in terms of a career? Because most of what we learn is not useful in that respect.

jordan..

I learned to text without looking at my phone, I now use that in work

phasers

I learned that there are 52 states in America and that the famine was in 1945. So no.