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
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
You know people who use the unit circle on a regular basis? How about conic sections or the quadratic formula? These topics take months if not years to learn in school. We do so not because they’re useful in any practical sense for most people, but because they instill intuitions about how the world works.
I’ve never touched on the unit circle or conic sections as part of formal education, so I can’t really comment. The quadratic formula - occasionally. Almost all of the maths I learned at school until age 16 was practical or useful in some sense. In the UK maths is optional after the age of 16.
I’d argue my maths education at high school level gave me a sturdy understanding of day to day maths, the building blocks for more advanced topics and the knowledge that certain tools exist and how to use them should I need them. I won’t remember the specifics of everything, but a quick refresher is usually enough.
Again, most of the more advanced stuff in the UK is optional and mostly not done by anyone who won’t want to carry that on to a more advanced level - usually a degree with a STEM adjacent subject.