Why just not make only primary school required?

I suspect you will change your mind about high school, in particular, once you discover girls!

They make college worthwhile, too!

This country needs more broadly-educated young people, capable of reasoning and – yes – math & spelling.

You’ll understand the advantage when you’re older.

Ditto answer here, sorry. School is not only about book learning, it’s about socialization, learning to follow rules as you get older, finding what you want to do with your life etc.

I used to feel the same, esp about math. I’ve never used the algebra etc. stuff I learned. It does help you to figure things out by yourself tho. Follow a logical pattern etc.

And if you don’t use your brain…it’ll dry up!!!! lol

I am a homeschooling mom. My husband & I decided to home school with a teensy bit of your logic behind our decision Klaas.

While it’s gaining in popularity, as you can read from the other’s here, conventional school has many fans.

Both of my grandfather’s ended their schooling at grade 8. This was COMMON practice until the late 1930’s. Were they successful in terms of modern society? YES!

One was a farmer until he was 65. The other a worked as a Shop Supervisor for Allis-Chalmers for 48.5 years. Both acquired wealth, owned their homes and cars, and had good health care. They were rarely in debt (much better than most today, actually). Both did what they needed to constantly educate themselves in their fields of expertise.

The problem for you Klaas, is that this is the way things are in this society now. You (unless your parents suddenly decide to home school) will be required to learn things you will never use again.

Do your best now. When you get to college, you will still have to learn some things you may never need, but your education will be much more focused on those areas you choose.

Try to do as much as you can in your current education to forgo some ‘simple’ required college courses.

Just a thought…how can you know you’ll never use it later in life if you never learned it? I agree with some of what spatzielover said, but I guess I’d rather learn it than feel stupid later on or have to learn it then. Easier to learn when your young.
I am NOT an advocate of home schooling tho. I think kids need to socialize on a daily basis in a school setting. I never understood the reasoning to home school; thee’s a big bad world out there. hopefully, parents teach kids morals to survive and cope with it. Hopefully, parents aren’t out of touch with what’s going on with kids (esp teens) that they pass on what they need to know. Times are changing…and I predict a bunch of college kids who are going to have a rough time in the dorms!
This is my opinion only; parents need to do what they feel is best for their family.

It’s good to have a broad education,
because chances are your career choice will change.
How many of your old grade school friends are actually astronauts?

Also, a lot of high school is (what DeadDolly already pointed out) about socialization.
You start to learn these skills in grade school. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
And, yes, that also (as JackAdams pointed out) includes girls.

High School: Socialization
College: Learn How to Learn (Realize that you don’t know shit.)
Work: Actually Learn (Come to grips with the fact that you don’t know shit. Haul ass.)

Your profile says you are ‘pretty good with computers’ Does that mean you like to play games or does it mean you are interested in designing computers, creating new games or writing programs that will make computers more useful for everyone. If your interest goes beyond scoring the greatest number of points on some else’s work, you are going to need advanced math and possibly engineering.

The people at Google, Apple, Dell, Yahoo, Microsoft etc who are hands on with computers have engineering and programming backgrounds. Even people like Gates and Jobs who did not graduate from college took all the math clases they could.

I never want to stop learning.

There are people out there who are smarter and/or more educated than me, and I constantly strive to understand them so as to avoid getting duped.

You have to go to school, because we don’t want to have to support you when you are not educated enough to get a job in technology-heavy world to support yourself.

@ Marina….love that answer!

Socialize? You mean everyone trying to impress one and other, and bash everyone that is not cool? Being dumped for your uncoolishness? Fake friends who are convincing you to get bad yourself? Yeah, sure.

To make things a bit more clear: I’m not not fond (yeah, you saw that right) of learning. Not at all, but I just want to explore it instead of reading it from books at school. And it would be helpful if you can choose your own subjects. I.e. drop some languages and art. (I think I meant that with ‘required’)

I will quote a few bits here and reply:

galileogirl: “Your profile says you are ‘pretty good with computers’ Does that mean you like to play games or does it mean you are interested in designing computers, creating new games or writing programs that will make computers more useful for everyone. If your interest goes beyond scoring the greatest number of points on some else’s work, you are going to need advanced math and possibly engineering.”

I’m interested in how they work. I design and program as a hobby. I don’t think I want that as my work, since that would be music, and since you don’t need maths to play the drums and I speak very good English…

Marina: “You have to go to school, because we don’t want to have to support you when you are not educated enough to get a job in technology-heavy world to support yourself.”

But only making primary school required doesn’t mean you can’t go to it. If you want to work in a technology-heavy industry, fine, go to school. But if you know you want to someone with a job which doesn’t need technology-heavy classes, don’t.

deaddolly: “Just a thought…how can you know you’ll never use it later in life if you never learned it? I agree with some of what spatzielover said, but I guess I’d rather learn it than feel stupid later on or have to learn it then. Easier to learn when your young.”

Interesting point, but I think I found a counter-point: career. Falling back to my situation (= knowing that I want to be a musician), I think you don’t need to learn, for example, real heavy maths (squares, root, making diagrams etc) if you want to be a musician. Or biology.

JackAdams :“I suspect you will change your mind about high school, in particular, once you discover girls!
They make college worthwhile, too!”

Nah, they don’t.

PupnTaco :“You’ll understand the advantage when you’re older.”

Such a cliché. Explain. What have you understood of that when you were older?

Well, that’s about it. Sorry if I’m a bit of a… what’s the word, know-it-all, but hey, I’m just a kid. ;)

Davey.

Again your lack of life experience is showing. Math intelligence is very close to musical intelligence. Our IT guy is a former musician who foud that a career playing an instrument will keep you sharing an apartment with 5 other dudes on a diet of Top Ramen and Ketchup soup. But at some point you have to use all your gifts to live well.

@klaas4 What happens if you suck as a musician and are never successful? Having a well rounded education gives you more opportunites for something to fall back on. Not saying you suck…it’s just a for instance. How many musician wannabes are out there?

@ klaas: When I became older, I realized the importance of a well-rounded education. It has helped me with my career, my friendships, and my overall outlook on life. Specifically with math, even if I haven’t retained specific formulas or processes, learning math helped train my brain how to think about numbers, logic, and reasoning – three qualities in short supply culturally these days.

Hope that answers your question.

This is the reason it is required. Until young people finish growing (which includes the maturing of their brains), they don’t have the skills to make good judgments about their lives without guidance. Thus, adults require a certain level of education. Further, school provides some of the material to help form your thinking.

If you are, in fact, serious about pursuing your own course of study, there are ways to make that happen. You just have to show that you have cover the basic required levels of knowledge in math, reading, history, etc. first.

Getting back to your question, if you were only required to complete primary school, you would not have any knowledge of geometry or algebra, history, literature, the sciences.

You could study on your own to complete the basics faster and test out. Then, go forward with the course of study you want to pursue. You would probably have requirements for showing that you had absorbed the material you set out to cover.

What you’re referring to as “real heavy maths (squares, root, making diagrams etc)” aren’t “real heavy maths”. That coupled with “I speak very good English…” makes me think you’re pulling our legs.

If you are the genuine article, then you really should know more about math just to be able to handle money without being had. And there’s always understanding your equipment and what your producer and engineer are talking about with respect to your music. That’s even assuming that you’ll still want to be a musician and that you’d be capable of it on the sort of scale where you could make a living at it. Neither of which are a given.

Q: What do you call a drummer who breaks up with his girlfriend? :^>

“What do you call a drummer who breaks up with his girlfriend?”

What are you talking about?

@marina: That’s exactly what I mean, Marina. Wonderful! Why isn’t it that easy as you just said? :)

It’s a joke.

Q: What do you call a drummer who breaks up with his girlfriend?
A: Homeless

Have a nice day.

Ah, have a nice day, too.

klaas4 If you don’t get the above joke, that in itself, is reason to continue primary school…and then some.

deaddolly: I have finished primary school already. I’m in 3rd grade of mid school now, but I still don’t get the joke. Or is it just that it’s not a funny joke?

klaas4. Some things are funny because of life’s experiences, Some day the clouds will open, things will become clear and you will be laughing your ass off…To speed things along try broadening your horizons and read and learn and listen as much as possible. I think what everyone here is telling you is you have NO IDEA what is out there.

So, if you only make primary school required, you have more time to explore those things.

And by the way: I’m not gonna laugh my ass off later in my life thinking back about my youth. Do you even know what a hell you are putting us through? Lots of homework, tests, stupid essays and projects, and you think that’s FUN? No! It isn’t, it’s a hell! You think we like that sorta crap? You think we like to study?! NO!

We must prepare for the world around us, but we can’t even choose if we go to school or not! I just f*ckin’ HATE school!! Sorry for bashing you school-system, but it’s just stupid.

Okay, calm down. Easy… It’s just, I want to be free of school. I would like to learn things on my own, or for example from you guys, you can pass the knowledge you have to us, for example online. That’s much more fun than learning. It really is. We have the internet, books, everything we need to learn things. You created that. We appreciate that, but we want to learn what we want, not what you want us to learn. We will take care of your knowledge, but please don’t push us to know about everything. Everyone has their specialities, and there are kids out there that want to know much more about maths than I do.

Give everyone the knowledge they want to know. Just let me, make my music…

Thanks for reading.

Do I know what we are putting you through? Already I’m laughing my ass off as I am grading over 100 essays-grades are due Tuesday for the next report card.

klaas, kiddo, you don’t even begin to understand how much stuff you are going to hate doing in your life, but you will still have to do it. If you expend so much energy focusing on what you hate, there won’t be anything left for enjoying what you like. Lesson 1-if all you have is lemons, make lemonade.

klaas,

I totally respect and understand your desire for individual learning and freedom from school. In high school I dropped computer science because I wasn’t learning anything I hadn’t already taught myself at home. And now, the temptation to stop paying for tuition and dropping all of my university classes is stronger than ever.

If I was an employer, and you applied to work for me, I would completely understand that many of your skills came from somewhere unorthodox. However, the reality is that many people don’t see that way – most companies require at least a high school diploma to even be considered. Even if you’re your own employer, having a degree is an edge that will draw clients to you. It’s a useful asset in many situations.

Right now, you may not want to learn about math or science. But one day, maybe you will learn something that will inspire you. Maybe, in grade eleven physics, you will learn the basics of acoustics and its relation to music will intrigue you. Or maybe you’ll learn something completely unexpected and you’ll want to learn more about it. Or (more likely) you may meet that one special teacher that will change the way you see the world and connect to you in a significant and positive way. Why close those doors?

Stay in school while you can, and the world will respect you more, and your family will keep you around longer (probably), and you can stay young (I get away with A LOT by saying that I am a student) for a long time.

SO, find a school that has the options you want. Take as many music courses as possible. Maybe a technical college would be right for you after you’ve graduated. But be sure to keep those doors open or you may regret it for the rest of your life.

AFTER WRITING ALL THAT, I found this recent Fluther question that may interest you. Sorry for writing so much…

Allways is balance among people witch has a aducation and those who has not.Education keep the economic system up.Practicly say.

I guess that says it all!

Yup! :}