Who was the emperor of China in 1200 B.C.? How does a paramecium ingest and digest its food? Which author wrote this poem? Who knows the secant of a 17 degree angle? Who cares?

Why do teachers teach us these kinds of things? I don't see how knowing the gestation period of an Indian elephant is going to help prepare me for the real world. Yet, we are supposed to know this useless information for a final exam.

School is supposed to prepare us for the "real world," but we rarely use this kind of knowledge to help us get a job. They should teach us how to fill out a job application, a tax form, or even a check. They could explain how to balance a checkbook and other useful things that could help us when we get out of school. We could learn skills that teach us how to speak on a phone, give a talk to a large group of people or countless other skills that could come in handy outside of school.

School teaches us how to learn, but we could learn about important things. School would be more enjoyable if we knew that what we were learning could be applicable in our lives, instead of just trivial facts ?