Pay Attention, Kids

Oh, the groaning! Oh, the moaning! Oh, the suffering!

No, that's not me getting out of bed in the mornings- that's my offspring, getting ready to go back to school.  Oh, the agony! Can you see the eye rolling? I know, it's so hard to get back into the routine after being off all summer.

For the beginning of the school year, I have some Mom advice for all the young scholars headed back into the hallowed halls of learning.  That advice is this: Pay attention.  You might actually need this information someday. 

When I was a student myself, I used to complain endlessly about all this useless knowledge that was being forced into my brain. This was information that I would probably never use again; it was taking up valuable brain space that could better be used for storing Duran Duran lyrics.  All this school stuff was just some busy work The Man and his teacher minions were forcing me to learn because they liked to torture teenagers and make our lives a living hell.  I mean, geometry? Seriously? Who would ever need to be able to measure the area of a trapezoid? Who cares? Gag me with a spoon! (this was the 80's).

Several years ago, I volunteered to go on a temporary work assignment after a hurricane.  I was placed on a team that was coordinating the installation of temporary tarps on damaged roofs.  The first day,  I went out with a supervisor, who showed me how to measure a roof and draw it on the work order for the tarp installers. After my sketching lesson was complete, the supervisor asked if I had any other concerns. How do I know how to estimate how much tarp they need? I asked.

How good are you at geometry? he asked.  All you do is look at the geometric shapes of the roof and calculate the area. You can do that, right?

It didn't seem like a good time to tell him that I blew off geometry in high school; I spent an hour in the hotel business center that night on the internet reviewing geometry worksheets and wishing I'd paid just a bit more attention in geometry class. I called the Grandpa of No, who just laughed and told me that he'd told me so way back when I was in high school (he had, several times).

I remember doing a lot of doodling on my notebooks in civics class.  After all, who really ever needs to know how to amend the Constitution of the United States? 

I liked English class and I was good at writing papers, but I was never really sure what the point was when we were asked to write essays comparing Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story, or research papers considering the question "What were some of the social issues raised by Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure?" Like, whatever, who cares about late 19th century England? Now I realize the real point was to develop some critical thinking skills as well as some literary knowledge, but it just seemed like make-work back then.  (Mom of No side note: I'm still not a Thomas Hardy fan; just too depressing).

So listen up, scholars, as you head off to school- you're being offered a free education provided by knowledgeable teachers who want you to learn the material so that when you become an adult, you can be a productive and active member of society. The knowledge and thinking skills you learn in school will serve you well in many ways.  You may not use everything you learn, but you also may not realize you're going to use much of what's on offer in one way or another.  Take advantage of it now.  It will be worth it.