When Will I Use This in the Real World?

Every one of us has thought this at some point in our education; it usually corresponds to learning geometry. Sometimes history. Or diagramming a sentence. At the heart of this question is an ignorance that really asks "What good will this knowledge do me in a life without imagination?" and the same ignorance that fails to ask "How can I make use of this knowledge?" "When will I use this in the real world" is, at its heart, a statement of one's own limitations rather than a question about the value of a set of information. The applications for information are limited only by one's willingness to discover them.

But "When will I use this in the real world" also raises another issue about education: how well are students being prepared for the real world? If a person drops out of school, if a person goes on (for whatever reason) to not hold a job or apply any information learned in school, that person remains to do at least one thing: be a citizen. At the very least, persons who leave school will forever remain citizens (of at least some country). How well are we training them for that?

What does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to live around other people? What does it mean to be an adult? What does it mean to be a human? What does it mean to be successful?

A descriptive (versus prescriptive) account of such questions being wrestled by some of the great thinkers of history could do much good (and wouldn't really be that difficult to do). Teenage years are beset with curiosity and frustration about the human condition. Why not, then, provide these starving minds with--at the very least--the labels necessary to identify these troubles? How well can we expect our youth to solve their problems if they haven't even a word to describe the issue? At the very least, issues such as social contract and personal responsibility could serve as the foundation of a solid curriculum.