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All the Crap I Learned in High School
“When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall” — Paul Simon.
Today I came across a meme that said: “Name something you learned in school you have never used in your adult life.”
It’s popular to doubt the value of all the things I must learn, or at least temporarily remember, to graduate from high school then to earn college degrees. The person who posted the meme asked, “How much of what you learned have you actually used?”
I answered, “I’ve used it all.”
Even that portion I’ve never applied directly has enriched my being with a spark of the breadth and depth of human intellectual endeavor. And if Homo sapiens were not knowing, I wouldn’t be sapient. I wouldn’t be human. Knowledge and education have provided my only route to rise above my innate animalistic nature.
There is nothing wrong being an animal: I am an animal, after all, and I rather enjoy being an animal at times, but the one opportunity I have to break through my narcissism and animalism lies in getting in touch not with myself but with the human community that lies outside the bounds of myself. The greater nexus lies not within me but outside of me in the ongoing history of human…
