Why Do I Have to Learn This

It’s a question I heard asked every week when I was in high school. I’ve even been asked once while teaching. I’m writing this because I don’t think I’ve ever heard, and regretfully, given a satisfactory answer.

School teachers – I noted – generally fell into giving one of two types of responses. One group tried to sympathize with the students, understanding their disinterest; their ultimate answer was that this is just how things were. This was the better of the two responses. The second attempted to convince students of the subjects’ importance by giving examples of its applications. Trigonometry lets us figure out how tall buildings and mountains are. It helps crime scene detectives retrace what happened, leading to the capture of criminals. Well-intentioned as they were, this group missed the point of the question. All knowledge has application, or is a building block for it. The real question is: why do I have to learn this when I’ll never use it? In Ontario, a Science course in Grade 9 is mandatory. One of the units in the course curriculum is electricity. Undoubtedly, harnessing electricity has shaped our modern world; it has pervaded every facet of human life across space and time: everywhere and always on. But even the basic fundamentals taught in this unit will never be applied or given second thought by the vast majority.

My rational analysis: the basis is that the majority of students don’t know what they want to do. Figuring out what direction to take their lives, even beyond schooling and careers, will generally take about another decade. That’s just the nature of growing up. Now think about how this issue can be dealt with practically. I do believe that some students have an incredible sense of drive and direction, and their learning could be better optimized. But the general school system is designed to accommodate the masses; as it should be to cultivate an educated society. The solution I see adopted, to a degree of universality, is that all students should have knowledge of the local language(s) and the very basics of the fields that have shaped our modern world: particularly mathematics and the sciences. And then a little bit of everything to develop culture, and expose the uncertain majority to something which may spark their interest.

But the topic raises the opportunity to drive something even more important into young, developing minds. Increasingly, as we get older, life becomes riddled with things we don’t want to do. Adulthood brings with it a growing pile of monotonies to be constantly attended to. Even doing things you want to do won’t always be rosy. The similitude of the path to achieving your goals is like a long motorcycle journey: it has exciting curves and breathtaking views, but also dreary, never-ending straights. There are potholes, breakdowns and bad weather. The people who realize success are the ones who don’t give up. They navigate through the challenges and drive stead-fast through the tedium. I see so many people who are so averse to these aspects of life; they never attempt or complete anything of value to them. On the extreme end, it leads to misery as their lives become defined as an agglomeration of things that are dull and difficult. Contrast this group again with the ones who approach life, the good and bad, the hard and the easy, the exciting and the drab with the right outlook; these accomplish their goals and find satisfaction in every step of the process. And in a very curious phenomenon, they seem to be working with more time than everybody else. Like all the regular, boring stuff we all have to do just doesn’t apply to them. We all know someone like this, the ones who leave you wondering how do you find the time to get all that done? I have my reasoning and beliefs for this; contemplate on it if you’ve never thought about it consciously.

So the next time you are sitting in class, bored or defeated and the thought crosses your mind: why do I have to learn this? Close your eyes and reframe the situation in your head. Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture: developing the skills, fortitude and perspective to find success in whatever your chosen paths in life may be.