None the Worser

I love it when students ask me, “When will I ever use what I learn in school?”

It's an honest question. An important one. A faint trace of the fear many students have in their hearts that school is just a big ol' giant waste of time.

Sometimes, I like to answer it like this.

Students, I'm an old man next to ya'll youngsters. Some time ago, I went to my twenty-year high school reunion. I so enjoyed talking with folks I went to school with, folks I hadn't seen in decades. It was a true delight.

But in all that time, you know what I couldn't find?

I could not for the life of me find a single person that was mad about how much they learned in high school. There wasn't anyone who was like, “Dang it! I learned too much math! And I've never used it in my life, so I'm mad I learned it!”

My point with this is simple.

Learning, in the final analysis, is only additive, only empowering, only emancipatory, only access-in to disciplinary cosmoses. No one has ever been the worser for gaining mastery in mathematics, or science, or history, or physical education, or personal finance. It's all gravy. Learning is gravy.

The trick is to see it this way. That's what Value work like I'm sharing in this post is about. It's a bunch of little, emphatic mini-sermons that paint a full-spectrum portrait of how very good all the subjects are.

Best to you, colleague,

DSJR

P.S. This is the kind of thing covered in the Value section of my new book, The Will to Learn. Learn more about why folks love the book here.