School spends a long time "wasting" our time but learning things is a great way to learn how to interpret information and make actual informed decisions

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[–] 0 points 10 months ago (1 child)

First of all no, school fails miserably at actually teaching anyone to learn effectively, so that's not why they do that. Second, they could just as effectively teach kids how to learn by teaching them things that are actually useful. I would've loved to have classes for note taking and studying, critical thinking, maintenance and repair... instead I've had to teach myself all of those things, meanwhile my school was too busy making me read about Victorian era dress styles to teach me any of that. Even math beyond algebra 1 is fairly niche and is probably better taught specifically to the people who need it. I'm in comp sci, I use that math all the time, but my friend getting his master's in plant breeding probably doesn't need to be intimately familiar with calculus.

It feels better to tell ourselves that all of the years wasted by school are actually for something but the reality is that school just does kind of a bad job at equipping people with the skills they need, and it needs to be improved dramatically.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    Abstract reasoning is the most “useful” intellectual ability you can have. However, the most important would be the normative insights we usually call “wisdom” (which isn’t taught but learned — for instance by reading literature and living life with curiosity). Critical thinking and other philosophy goes without saying.

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