why should I go to school?

zleppelin

zleppelin

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School is a waste of my time. 90% of all the stuff I have learned there I have forgotten, so it's not doing me any good. I don't like most of the people at my school anyway. Most of them are party guys and I am not like them. I'd rather stay at home playing video games or writing computer programs instead of going to parties, which are just an excuse to get drunk and act stupid (ie: cool).

So if I am not going to school to solialize, and if I am not going to school to learn anything worthwhile, why am I wasting my time going there? Is it because that's what society expects me to do then?

Those are rhethorical questions. The only real question here is whether learning history and science and literature is making me more marketable for the world of work. All the time wasted... Just imagine what a super programmer I'd be right now if I had spent all that time learning ONLY computer science. I wish school was like that. Not even college is like that, since half your classes would be core requirements.
 
School is a good way in helping you find out for yourself what you like most. Sure, you'll get ghey classes, but it'll make sure you've made the right choice for later studies.
 
Don't waste your teenage years with your nose in a book. Go party, **** chicks and drink beer. You'd be surprised how great these things are!
 
zleppelin said:
...
Is it because that's what society expects me to do then?
...
Click to expand...

Yes.

Even if you know more than the other guys trying to get a job, they will likely have a much better chance of getting it if they have a high school diploma, and an even better chance with a college degree.
 
Core407 said:
Don't waste your teenage years with your nose in a book. Go party, **** chicks and drink beer. You'd be surprised how great these things are!
Click to expand...
Yes, but education is invaluable. Unless of course you're content to go through life being thick as pigsh*t and twice as ignorant. In which case by all means decide not to go to school.

I think you can never underestimate the importance of having a good time, but balance it out - burn the candle at both ends if you must (and I'm no stranger to that) but don't neglect one over the other.
 
Go to school so that you won't be living in your parents' basement when you're 30.
 
Sod that - if my kid didn't go to school then they'd be very lucky to live in my basement.
Now all I need is a kid and a basement.



Oh dear, that sounds wrong.
 
el Chi said:
Yes, but education is invaluable. Unless of course you're content to go through life being thick as pigsh*t and twice as ignorant. In which case by all means decide not to go to school.

I think you can never underestimate the importance of having a good time, but balance it out - burn the candle at both ends if you must (and I'm no stranger to that) but don't neglect one over the other.
Click to expand...

I thought that was implied. The guy sounds smart enough to understand his capabilities and limits.
 
zleppelin said:
School is a waste of my time. 90% of all the stuff I have learned there I have forgotten, so it's not doing me any good. I don't like most of the people at my school anyway. Most of them are party guys and I am not like them. I'd rather stay at home playing video games or writing computer programs instead of going to parties, which are just an excuse to get drunk and act stupid (ie: cool).

So if I am not going to school to solialize, and if I am not going to school to learn anything worthwhile, why am I wasting my time going there? Is it because that's what society expects me to do then?

Those are rhethorical questions. The only real question here is whether learning history and science and literature is making me more marketable for the world of work. All the time wasted... Just imagine what a super programmer I'd be right now if I had spent all that time learning ONLY computer science. I wish school was like that. Not even college is like that, since half your classes would be core requirements.
Click to expand...



why do you go to school? so that when you're in your 30's you dont say this to yourself every single morning "i hate my job I wish I had finished school" (no that's not me)


you pretty much have 2 choices: stay in school or drop out ..just dont forget that if you do drop out there is a very slim chance you'll ever do anything besides manual labour ..doesnt matter if you can program up the wazoo ..most companies wont even look at you if only have a high school diploma, unless you're really freakin talented ..and if you were we wouldnt be having this conversation
 
I can't tell if you want a serious answer or not. If you do, read on, otherwise, read the posts about drinking beer and having sex your entire life. Your choice.

High school exists as a basic introduction to our modern age, if you cannot read or write, if you cannot socialize, if you cannot do basic math, then most of society will not want you. There is a simple reason why we do not just teach for specialization ONLY, even in college:
Liberal education is an open invitation to join the human race and become more fully human. Its general goals include the ability to read and write and thereby think independently, a critical appreciation of the past and creative participation in the future, and an appreciation of lasting values coupled with the ability to make sound value judgements and live by them. Generalizations of this sort can readily be translated into objectives for different disciplines, so that the science professor will stress understanding and appreciation of methods and concepts, and the historical development of his science and its cultural ramifications, rather then stressing technique alone or making the student into a narrow specialist. A considerable degree of specilization is of course appropriate in any major field of concentraion, sufficient to prepare the student for graduate work in a highly competitive situation, but the liberal arts college has no business producing narrow specialists who see no further than their laboratory, and who have no sense of human and cultural undertaking. It would be inexcusable nowadays for a college to teach science without discussing the moral and social problems it has raised. Similarly the art teacher will work toward an understanding and appreciation of the creative process, of aesthetic values and history and social role of art, for artists like scientists can become narrowly specialized technicians.
Click to expand...

If your so smart in high school then why dont you try and take honors courses or get into a few classes at a community college. Sounds to me like your merely not rising to your own abilities. Which is no ones fault but your own.
 
el Chi said:
Yes, but education is invaluable. Unless of course you're content to go through life being thick as pigsh*t and twice as ignorant. In which case by all means decide not to go to school.
Click to expand...

el Chi, you seem to think that an education can only be obtained in school, and that those who did not go to school are thick as "pigshit" and twice as ignorant.

I think it depends on the person. I know people without college degrees who could engage with you in almost any discussion on any topic and sound way more intelligent than some people with college degrees.


CptStern makes a good point though. If I don't go to school, and if I fail, I don't want to live the rest of my life making excuses for why I did not go to college even though deep inside I'd wish I had.
 
It's all about the future. You go to school to get a successful career going. If you want to be a bum working a minimum wage job, go ahead and quit. I'm not saying everybody that doesn't go to school is worthless trash...just shows that they can't even get through something so simple as school, why would anybody want to hire them to do something important/meaningfull/worth money? I'd rather choose somebody who can stick to something and get it done.
 
You will need the qualifications to get where you seem to want to go in life. Simple as that I think if you don't enjoy anything else about it.
 
zleppelin said:
el Chi, you seem to think that an education can only be obtained in school, and that those who did not go to school are thick as "pigshit" and twice as ignorant.

I think it depends on the person. I know people without college degrees who could engage with you in almost any discussion on any topic and sound way more intelligent than some people with college degrees.


CptStern makes a good point though. If I don't go to school, and if I fail, I don't want to live the rest of my life making excuses for why I did not go to college even though deep inside I'd wish I had.
Click to expand...
I don't think you need to go to college to be intelligent. I fully recognise that there's an enormous differece between being academically clever and being clever in other ways and the two aren't mutually exclusive (or inclusive for that matter). Hell, I've met some people who graduated with good degrees from good universities who seem genuinely moronic most of the time.

However school (not college) is important in forming you into someone who can take in information, situations and problems and evaluate them, learn from your mistakes.
I'm not saying that, without school, you would never be able to do that, but schooling definitely aids it.

I think what I'm basically trying to say is that, whilst school can seem like a drag in terms of it being a requirement on your time and life, it's extremely important in the long run.
Don't go to school, but it will make your life more difficult and not just in terms of getting a job.
 
It's not just about the papers for later. You sound like you would just study at home into computer programming and overspecialize in one area. But a little bit of common knowledge is a good thing. By all means, you should know some maths. Some physics. Some biology. Some literature.

A common argument against for example learning math is "I'll never use it later anyway", perhaps not, but it helps shape your analytical mind, as does physics. It helps you solve complex problems step by step, structural thinking. School also helps you socialize, or at least with social problem solving. Speaking in front of people, learning how to coach and steer others, etc.

No company wants an autistic (no offense meant to autism) coding machine. They want someone that can present and sell his ideas onto others, lead a team of other programmers, talk with the customer to shape the product accurately. Someone who isn't bound by knowledge (be it, very deep knowledge) on one area and utter ignorance on all others.
 
PvtRyan said:
It's not just about the papers for later. You sound like you would just study at home into computer programming and overspecialize in one area. But a little bit of common knowledge is a good thing. By all means, you should know some maths. Some physics. Some biology. Some literature.

A common argument against for example learning math is "I'll never use it later anyway", perhaps not, but it helps shape your analytical mind, as does physics. It helps you solve complex problems step by step, structural thinking. School also helps you socialize, or at least with social problem solving. Speaking in front of people, learning how to coach and steer others, etc.

No company wants an autistic (no offense meant to autism) coding machine. They want someone that can present and sell his ideas onto others, lead a team of other programmers, talk with the customer to shape the product accurately. Someone who isn't bound by knowledge (be it, very deep knowledge) on one area and utter ignorance on all others.
Click to expand...

Good point on the company part. You have to have soft and hard skills to do well at a company. The type of person that just has hard skills is an engineer and you don't want to be one of those. ;)
 
Easy answer. Go to school and learn how to program games.

Its what you want to be doing... you will have to socialize (a good thing), and you will be stimulating your mind by learning new things every day.

You arnt supposed to go to school just so that you are going to school. You go to school to learn things you want to learn, so that you can better do the things you enjoy doing.
 
To be honest, to say I dont want to go to school because I find a waste of time learning other things than what I want to do is just being damn right lazy. NO ONE likes school, and NO ONE likes college, but everyone goes anyway because its about getting an education and proceeding into the adult world properly. If you just sit there at home playing computer games and saying that you want to study computer science then im sorry, I think you will find that you will be doing that for the rest of your life. School and college is about gaining a wide range of qualifications so that you can progress to university to do the course that you ultimately want to do, in your case, computer science, but if you dont to school and college, then there is no way in hell that you will get in any good university. Plus school isn't just full of 'cool' people, thats myth, I can tell you aren't very socially strong, well a lot people aren't at first, but as you get into it, you do find yourself meeting new people and talking to new people, before you know it, you have made a lot of friends. Basically, go to school or I garuntee you WILL regret it for the rest of your life.
 
Only Chav's dont go to school and you dont want to be a chav do you?!
 
It's really not very hard to balance fun and work. I mean, I party all the time, and barely do any homework, yet I have a 3.4 GPA and great standardized test results.
 
Go to school so you can actually be part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem in this world. Most of the problems that are out there all over the planet are due to small-minded, ignorant jerk-offs. The more knowledge you have about the more subjects, the better you will be and the better all those around you will be. If we each strove for such things, the world would be an exceedingly different (and better) place.

(Of course, that includes learning as much as you can about the female anatomy, alcohol consumption, and tomfoolery too.)
 
JNightshade said:
It's really not very hard to balance fun and work. I mean, I party all the time, and barely do any homework, yet I have a 3.4 GPA and great standardized test results.
Click to expand...

so what? I have a 3.8 GPA and the time you spend partying I spend playing video games.
 
Shift said:
To be honest, to say I dont want to go to school because I find a waste of time learning other things than what I want to do is just being damn right lazy. NO ONE likes school, and NO ONE likes college, but everyone goes anyway because its about getting an education and proceeding into the adult world properly. If you just sit there at home playing computer games and saying that you want to study computer science then im sorry, I think you will find that you will be doing that for the rest of your life. School and college is about gaining a wide range of qualifications so that you can progress to university to do the course that you ultimately want to do, in your case, computer science, but if you dont to school and college, then there is no way in hell that you will get in any good university. Plus school isn't just full of 'cool' people, thats myth, I can tell you aren't very socially strong, well a lot people aren't at first, but as you get into it, you do find yourself meeting new people and talking to new people, before you know it, you have made a lot of friends. Basically, go to school or I garuntee you WILL regret it for the rest of your life.
Click to expand...

I like college/uni, and many of my friends do too. :p
 
Two words : screw school

I'm only doing it because its basically required to get a decent job. I mean damn I just want to LIVE already! I'm just so friggin sick of this homework/study/test crap every day, I want to be in the real world making money and maybe even have a family. Its like being locked in a cage. Thank god im in my senior year of high school, heading off to community college get my 2 years there and possibly transfer after...haven't decided. But I'm so close to being in the real world I can almost taste it
 
zleppelin said:
so what? I have a 3.8 GPA and the time you spend partying I spend playing video games.
Click to expand...

I'm on course for a 1st at University and I probably go out more than most members of this forum - clubbing 3-4 times a week.
 
Well, then, in that case, you should definitely go to school. If your grades are that good (assuming that's an unweighted GPA) then you're clearly intelligent (or at least good at taking tests), and it'd be a waste not to use that for something.
 
Keep this in mind:

In every single one of your classes (no matter what subject), you are likely to find at least ONE person who finds the class interesting and would want to persue it as a career. At the same time, you'll find at least one person who doesn't yet know what they want to do as a career.

Both of these reasons are why we enforce schooling onto youth. Most of the time they won't have the passion in themselves to discover new subjects out there until they're forced to. For example, I would of never chose to join band classes in high school... but since I was forced to go, I actually found out it was pretty fun and I might have chose to persue music as a profession.

You may believe programming is your passion right now, but you won't know that until you have discovered it all for yourself.
 
Zeus said:
Two words : screw school

I'm only doing it because its basically required to get a decent job. I mean damn I just want to LIVE already! I'm just so friggin sick of this homework/study/test crap every day, I want to be in the real world making money and maybe even have a family. Its like being locked in a cage. Thank god im in my senior year of high school, heading off to community college get my 2 years there and possibly transfer after...haven't decided. But I'm so close to being in the real world I can almost taste it
Click to expand...

Being in the real world's not all it's cracked up to be. ;)
College was a lot more fun...and I thought I hated it at the time. Couldn't wait to be in the real world. Didn't know how lucky I was.
 
JNightshade said:
Well, then, in that case, you should definitely go to school. If your grades are that good (assuming that's an unweighted GPA) then you're clearly intelligent (or at least good at taking tests), and it'd be a waste not to use that for something.
Click to expand...

JNight, I didn't mean to sound like a dick... IMHO doing well in a standardized exam says more than doing well in class. To give you an idea, I took an AP chemistry class my junior year. I was getting As and A+s in that class, but then when I took the AP exam I ended up with a score of 2 out of 5. See? I didn't learn jack in that class, but I got good grades.
 
tehsolace said:
Keep this in mind:

In every single one of your classes (no matter what subject), you are likely to find at least ONE person who finds the class interesting and would want to persue it as a career. At the same time, you'll find at least one person who doesn't yet know what they want to do as a career.

Both of these reasons are why we enforce schooling onto youth. Most of the time they won't have the passion in themselves to discover new subjects out there until they're forced to. For example, I would of never chose to join band classes in high school... but since I was forced to go, I actually found out it was pretty fun and I might have chose to persue music as a profession.

You may believe programming is your passion right now, but you won't know that until you have discovered it all for yourself.
Click to expand...

Also a good point. I used to think I was going to work in computers or journalism (because computers were always my big passion and writing my great talent).
Boy oh boy, how wrong I was. Now I'm looking at a career in sales. By choice, before you ask.
 
You didn't sound like a dick o_0

Anyway, it doesn't matter whether you learn jack or not. This is high school. College is where you really start to learn things- that's why it's so important.
 
Take it from someone who knows... stick with school, and do your best. Or else you'll regret it for the rest of your life, and have to regain alot of that knowledge some other time.
 
And he got his face crushed in by a giant rock. Poor guy :(

I loved that movie. I want to see it again.
 
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