Mr Peter: Why Bother Going to School to Study? [OPINION]

I come to a point in my life when I start to doubt formal education. These few days I had some experiences that got me thinking about the point of learning things, that we know we don't like, we're not familiar, and/or we'll never use e.g. GE courses.

According to University of Illinois: "In order to be a well-educated, successful, and valuable participant in our rapidly changing global community, students need more than a professional or vocational training. When they graduate, they will enter a world in which they can expect to hold different jobs, and indeed even work in a succession of careers over the course of their lives. In order to prepare for this exciting, challenging future, they need during their college years not only to specialize in a major and train for a career, but to become more broadly educated, conversant with at least some of the many rapidly changing disciplines. They need to gain a sense of our past achievements, present developments, and future possibilities."

The thing is, if we never use/re-cite/talk about things that we learn, we'll eventually forget about it. I know that because I just had an experience with it. I feel that I've wasted my time and money in learning something that I won't use. 

I know that some of that stuff might come up someday, somehow, when talking to someone, but....if I can't recall what it is, it won't make me look or sound smarter. 

Example conversation:

Buddy: "We need to save paper more dude. If we keep on wasting paper, the trees that help sucking carbon dioxide from atmosphere will be depleting. You know, global warming will get worse."

Me: "Since when trees can suck carbon dioxide?"

Buddy: "Photosynthesis dude. Remember? From biology? Trees breathe carbon dioxide and produce oxygen during photosynthesis."

Me: "I guess I've heard something about photosynthesis from somewhere..."

Buddy: "..."

At another time, sometime after conversation with Buddy. In a group meeting to discuss ideas to reduce global warming. 

Me (enthusiastic with his "brilliant" idea): "You know, I think we should build an Air Conditioner-type of machine that can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. So, we reduce carbon dioxide and produce oxygen at the same time!"

Group member: "Dude... it's impossible, the energy required to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen is huge. And to produce that energy, we'll burn more fuel and produce more carbon dioxide than we can convert."

Me (thinking): "Was it taught in biology class too?"

These conversation are just made up, and honestly I don't really know if it's actually true or not. It's just a sample conversation I made up, so don't sue me. 

Back to my point, I see the point of having to learning something that you don't know you'll use. I know my Flash class makes my Resume looks great, but if I'm offered a job in Flash, I'm sure I'll be fired on the next day. 

I have talked to several people about this, and they say that knowing more make them feel better about themselves. I can understand that, and sometimes I feel excited in learning something new too. But for me the "feel good" is only temporary. And eventually, the knowledge will be rotten somewhere in a corner of my brain. 

So to sum up, I'll put a quote by Don Akchin: "The more you learn, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why study?"

Credit: Peter's Blog