Education.

The lament of students around the world since school was invented has been: Why do I have to learn stuff that I will never use?

A fair question to be sure. Whom among us has ever busted out the Pythagorean Theorem (an overly used example)? A need to extract the theme of a good book? Perhaps you have at some point needed to know the preamble to the Constitution. Maybe citing sources according to MLA is an important part of your daily life. I thought not.

While there are many occupations that require the continual use of some of these skills or facts (teachers not included), the vast majority of the population never has to know or use them. And if they did, Google is just one finger tap away on our smart phones.

People cannot come up with a good answer to the question of why we all must learn the things we learned in school. The answers range from: "Well that's what I had to learn." to "You just need to know it." And it is these unfulfilling answers that young people do not like. Shooting back are: "What job requires the need to know the state capitals at a moments notice?" Perhaps you manage to list one or two where that would be required; and it is instantly countered with "I'm not interested in those jobs." Checkmate. A feeling of smug superiority makes anyone happy at wining an argument.

Let me lay out the reason I believe we all must learn uses facts and practice skills that we will never have the use for. The mind is a powerful thing. It must be developed and strengthened in order for a person to function at a level appropriately expected in adulthood. We do not do that by result of memorizing the periodic table or learning how to build a capsule that will allow you to safely drop an egg off a second story. The answer can be summed up in two words: critical thinking. Critical thinking is a building block of a successful person. Show me a job that does not require critical thinking and I will show you a job that is becoming obsolete. We can build machines that can perform tasks without critical thought.... and they will work 24 hours a day for no compensation, vacation, or benefits package.

What does all this have in common? When you memorize the state capitals, you have to think critically about how you are going to imprint those on your mind and recall them later. For some that may be flash cards and quizzing. For others, it may mean an mnemonic device or little ditty. For people like myself it meant taking the seat directly in front of the class globe and making sure North America happened to be facing my direction. When the teacher figured it might be a good idea to move the globe, it meant creating and memorizing a substitution alphabet and writing the names in a decipherable grid pattern on my arm to reference. It conveniently looked like something from math class and was therefore not an issue in a history test when questioned. I may have gone a little overboard on the critical thinking skills on that one. The point was not that I came out with a gleaming bit of factual knowledge; it was that I exercised my brain to solve a problem. Everything you learn in school can help you flex the brain muscle and make you a better thinker. This means that History, English, Literature, Geography, etc all had a point. Plus, you may now be one of the few people left in the world that can write a formal letter properly.

These concepts would not be so hard to convey if the current hip culture put value on critical thinking and problem solving skills. Instead, the answer is always: "Google it"; or even worse, "I don't care." People are impressed with your excessive hashtag usage, the number of followers you have on Instagram, or your words per minute typing on your phone. Thinking is no longer cool. Why put forth the effort when someone has already thought of it? Not giving two shits about how an ant walks may be the wrench in the gears that prevents the invention of something revolutionary.

Fortunately, there are still people that value contemplative thought that goes beyond the gossip section of the highly biased political news site you happen to come across. Culture has not completely killed critical thinking just yet. Let's try to keep it that way.