Why are we learning the material that we are learning?

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Why are we learning the material that we are learning?

Learning a variety of different subjects in school, falling under such categories as the sciences, humanitarian, linguistics, the arts and otherwise, it is often lingering in a student’s mind how exactly this seemingly irrelevant information could possibly be beneficial later on in life. Although I am myself prone to this thought more often than I’d like to admit, looking at education from a broader, more objective standpoint, there are very valuable reasons to why exactly education is important to us, even when we fail to realise it.

On the most basic level, we learn as young children to speak, read, write and tackle simple maths problems in order to communicate. Maths and sciences make up a large part of the academic curriculum for many students; it is four out of nine GCSE’s for me personally. Subjects such as chemistry, physics, biology and maths are valuable in that they help us to understand the physical workings of the world and answer some very basic questions of ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’. In order to understand the mechanics of the world in which we reside, we need to turn to the knowledge of scientists, doctors, inventors of the past and their theories. Biology (and also chemistry to some extent) allows us to understand why humans ‘work’ and function the way we do, enabling us to better understand our physical and mental workings. This acts as the basis and solid foundation on which advances in technology and medicine arise. Without the fundamental knowledge of Pythagoras’ theorem or Newton’s Laws of motion, new inventions could not have been produced, theories could not be proved wrong, new cures could not have been discovered. Maths and science are universal, they are facts that remain true over a range of different languages, countries and cultures. We live in a world that is shrouded in ambiguity, so why not enlighten ourselves to the fundamental workings of the world to which we do have access to? This encourages us to ask more questions and in turn to find more answers, perhaps even investigating the ‘How’s’ and ‘Why’s’ ourselves someday.

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The arts, such as drama, music, design technology and art itself are often thought of as less taxing subjects in terms of not having to remember set dates or formulas. These lessons are of course valuable in their own way; they nurture creativity and allow artistic potential to bloom. They also allow for the study of other people’s work; to study the life, works and techniques of genius’ and ‘artistes’. There is room to explore the inspiration behind a piece of work. There is a chance to interpret a hidden meaning; a statement, political, social, emotional that is the ...

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