Well, of course, all information can be used in some way or another. If you decided that you wanted to sit around for hours a day taking in information just for the sake of it, that would be your choice. I do it all the time, and I like it because it's my decision. It's how I wish to spend my time. There is no supreme practical purpose, beyond the application within the institution of education itself, for the majority of what I learned in elementary-high school. Perhaps I could win a game of Jeopardy.
One of the problems with schools at the lowest level is that the learners/students are not choosing the continuous stream of inapplicable data that they are expected to absorb. They are being handed information, day after day, which they have had no input in selecting, very little responsibility to, and even less of an interest. In one ear, out the other. Don't forget to regurgitate for the test. Then the powers that be want to panic when faced with the fact that many children aren't even learning the basics in school, and then they demand that more money get pumped into the system, and that the arts, along with PE, get squeezed out.
I think the whole system needs an overhaul, and I'm talking the American system. I've got no clue what happens in other countries, but American schools are often very violent, frustrated places, where the children are frequently disengaged, medicated, bored, and praying for the final bell to ring. They often kill creativity, and much more.
I love to learn about a million different things too, but I also like to focus on those things that hold a priority in my heart and mind. Many young children have specific interest going into the school system. Unfortunately for them, a student's attention, especially at the lowest levels in education, is expected to respond to the sound of an overhead alarm. A child engrossed in a history lesson is forced to disengage his/her attention because it's time for something new and entirely unrelated to their current focus. Questions go unanswered because there's just not enough time to answer them all and not enough time to delve too deeply into any one subject. Yes, it's general knowledge. For a child with deep interest, general knowledge isn't good enough. Scratch the surface and mark off subjects as "covered". Done. The children have been "educated". It seems very superficial and wasteful in many ways, imo. There's something to be said for focus and a deep interest in something particular.
Of course some people will like it, and many will do just fine. That's the case with most mass institutions. Overall though, at least in the States, the system has done poorly.
All healthy people have the drive to learn. How else could we manage to learn how to walk, talk, and socialize within the first three years of our lives?
There are some environments that acknowledge the general
and specific ways in which people learn. I prefer child-led education, but there are also progressive institutions that do a great job of catering to the needs of the student, as they should.
As for college, there is generally a choice in attending college; whereas, lower level education is compulsory. People typically feel differently about things when they've made an active decision to participate and they truly feel as though the choice belongs to them.
Ooo, I like how you think.
