I recently had a 15-year-old ask me, "will I ever use the stuff I'm taught in high school?" Just as an FYI, here's the answer I gave.

I’m the mom of a h.s. senior and I gotta admit that I wondered about the point was as she struggled to memorize the differences between a monarchy and an oligarchy. There just can’t be many practical applications for students in that!

On the other hand, I stumbled into a great, challenging job that required a lot of math. I even went out and bought a high school math book to figure out the equations we needed.

I remember visiting Europe and sneaking a touch of the Rosetta Stone (wanted to call my old high school teacher then and there). My language classes helped me remember key phrases in other languages as I traveled. I was grateful for my English lit classes whenever people I wanted to impress dropped references to “the Scarlet Letter” or debated whether Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer had painted the fence.

Most of all, I learned social skills when dealing with authority figures and peers. I learned to sift through facts and decide which ones were the important ones that I’d need to remember. I learned to prioritize and organize… all valuable life skills.

In retrospect I only have two complaints about our education system: 1) Students feel like they’re competing against each other. Kids are jealous of the smarter students, the better athletes, etc. In real life cooperation will take you farther than competition. You’ll can go far beyond your means if you surround yourself with people more talented than you. 2) Most student elections are popularity contests. That’s the voting strategy that people take into the real world, and it’s wrong. I once worked for a CEO who demanded excellence and kicked you to the curb if you didn’t meet expectations. None of us enjoyed spending time with this boss, but we all worked hard and the company was very successful. If that’s the hallmark of a successful manager, why are we taught to vote for our favorite drinking buddies in the polls?