I had a class in analytic geometry in college, and for years had no need for what I learned there. Then one day I was confronted with an interesting problem: how to determine the amount of diesel fuel in a 500-gallon cylindrical tank that is lying on its side. It was pretty important to know precisely how much fuel was in the tank before filling it. The pump on the truck that delivered fuel pushed it so fast that if you didn't stop it before the level reached the top, you would have a hell of a mess. The problem is that the sides of the tank are curved, so as you fill it, it takes a varying amount of fuel for every unit of rise in the level. So I got out my old text book, and figured out how to mark the volume at any level on the end of the tank. Then anyone could stick a dowel rod down in from the center of the top, pull it out, and hold it up against the marks, and see how many gallons or liters were in the tank. It was a crude but effective solution to the problem. The important point is that I did not have to memorize any formulas. I just needed to know how to find them, and choose the right ones for the problem at hand.

The purpose of our public education system is that each individual is given the same opportunity to achieve that which is equal to the effort they expend regardless of their socioeconomic position in society... the sad reality is that rampant hypocrisy has surrendered this concept to the school voucher program.

What part if your schooling are you referring to? All of it? K-6? 7-12?

One aphorism I heard occasionally while I was a high school teacher was this one: In elementary school, kids learn to read; In high school, they read to learn.

The high school curriculum is meant to serve as an entre to a wide range of topics, going just deep enough into specifics to give the student a good sense of what the subject is about. Ideally, the student will find interest in one or more topics and choose to go deeper later on. As a teacher in a school where the vast majority of students do not go on to college, I always felt it was important for the students to go deep enough into my subject area (biology) to come away with at least a rudimentary understanding of the fundamental principles. For that reason I taught the class thematically, weaving lessons on evolution into every unit. Why evolution? Because it is the grand unifying theory of the science, and because it has implications that go far beyond simple rote learning of disposable facts. When one truly appreciates the biological fact of evolution, its history and role in shaping all species including our own, and the truly massive body of supporting evidence, the information can be transformational. For instance, a student who might have been on a path of ignorant and superstitious belief in gods or devils may have their eyes opened to the reality that all humans can trace their ancestry back through apes, reptiles, amphibians, fish, worms, protists, right on down to bacteria. Outside of the academic context, that student may never have seen any of that evidence, and might go through life dismissing the science without really knowing anything about it.

Of course, I also taught my students a host of practically useful things. For example, I taught them that antibiotics don't work on viruses, and overuse of antibiotics spurs the evolution of bacteria that are resistant to the medicine, and that resistant bacteria can kill you dead!

The potential for transformation is so great that there are still places in this country that seek to outlaw the teaching of evolution, or to water it down so much as to render it meaningless.

This is one example, from one academic subject. Though I did not teach US government or history, I can imagine that certain lessons in those areas could be equally relevant and transformational for students. Which is why buffoons like Ron DeSantis are zealously banning books. Knowing the actual facts about America's racist and genocidal past is bound to make a difference in how people view society today and how they vote in the future.

Did you really learn nothing of value in school? Are you sure about that?

I went through the Seattle Public School system, which was pretty mediocre at the time. I never did any homework, but I paid attention in class, guessed on my tests, and ended up graduating as an honor student, go figure.

My education wasn't in depth by any means, but we covered the basics and I learned enough to be curious about what I didn't learn, so read a lot of books after I was done with school. So, it wasn't a waste of time.

Several of my teachers lessons still stick with me today. For example one of my history teachers who had a section on WWII in which he told the smell of bodies burning in the incinerators at Auschwitz that wafted into his home every evening and his daring escape from Poland as boy.

Home Ec and Business Principles was helpful in life. I was lazy in math and science, but with calculators and apps on my phone, I'm kind of glad I didn't waste too much energy on all the exercises, just the basic principles sufficed for someone like me. We learned how to look things up in encyclopedias and the card catalog using the Dewey decimal system... We access information differently now.

My grandchildren will learn a lot more than I ever did, that's for sure. They already know how to access information online faster than I can.

The body tissue you don’t use atrophies, wastes away.

I’ve chosen life-long learning, and the movement to go where the learning is.

I’m grateful to have learned to read because I have learned more outside the classroom than in it. Some classes I’ve taken have been time wasters (I went to Lutheran school for 3 years) but some were very good. Consumer economics and home economics, government, driver’s ed, typing class, gym class where I took swimming lifesaving and water ballet, dance, etc. , all my English and lit classes in high school were good.

In college, I can’t think of a time waster because I got to choose what I took. Philosophy was amazing for teaching critical thinking. Sociology, cultural anthropology and psychology were great for understanding humanity. Environmental biology and geology were great and helped me understand life around me. US history was an eye opener. All of my business classes have been useful. I could go on but I have always felt lucky to get the education I did especially since women weren’t allowed to get one for centuries.

At the end of the day, if you can read and follow instructions, you can pretty much do anything is what I taught my kids. And nowadays if you can find a tutorial on YouTube, you can do it and I have.

I think what I learned in school was how to solve problems and to think with an open mind. It may not be what was directly taught as a subject, but I don't think any learning is wasted.

Self defense for the girls. Aikido. Auto mechanics for the girls. Negotiating skills for the girls. How to deal with bullies, racists, & Nazis. Cooking , sewing, & how to polish toe nails for the boys.

They should include critical thinking, too, and how to avoid being taken advantage of by a con artist. A little psychology wouldn't hurt, either, along with foreign languages and world culture. Hey, that's a long list. I think I learned some of that when I attended a hippie school in Vermont. Every year they took some students to Mexico and turned them loose without adult supervision. We traveled, and were supposed to report back to base camp once a week. Surprisingly, no one got killed, but there were some close calls. That was 1970. I learned a lot from that experience.

Imagine being the person who spent many hours learning short hand. But then we lol and smh

Sparky, who chose the schools you attended?

If you had kids, did you make better choices?

Someone told me quite recently, that, in all his adult and working life, he had never used algebra once. I had to reply, that in all my life, I had many accidents and misfortunes, at which times I usually say. "Well that is a bit of a pig." Yet nobody ever once asked me. "Did you mean, pig, as an verb, noun or adjective ?"