School is like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch™

I've had a pessimistic view of formal education in the past, but I've been thinking about a quote I heard somewhere about a smart person reminiscing about reading all "the important books you were supposed to read in high school". I too paid the bare minimum of attention in high school and have found college to be a poor method of learning as well and also, only recently, started reading the important books on my own.

Does this mean that formal education isn't doing its job? Maybe. I'm certain school could be improved in some ways. But consider this: we can't force anyone to be interested in something they aren't, but we can make them aware of it. This is exactly what advertisement is. I don't give a crap about Geico insurance, but that little lizard is burned into my brain regardless. In the same way, I couldn't care less about trigonometry back in the 11th grade, but a decent understanding of what it is and the fact that it exists is burned into my brain.

Being aware of something doesn't mean you remember much about it. Math is a little too abstract to hold my interest for long periods of time. I would probably have a hard time recalling most trig stuff right now, but it doesn't matter. The important part is that I could recognize a trig problem and use other resources of knowledge to figure it out; I don't know trig but am aware that it exists. That is okay.

I also feel this way about subjects I really love too. I'm a software engineer, and I have been disappointed because most of my classmates think about programming the way I do trig. So the curriculum has to be, kind of, watered down to fit the needs of the majority. Most computer science majors will graduate only being aware of all these algorithms and tools, but I, as someone who loves this, will have a better, deeper understanding mainly from time and effort spent outside of the class.

Real learning can only be triggered by an internal desire of curiosity and interest––maybe school isn't meant to teach us at all. Maybe school is for making us aware of the basics we might encounter, and that is enough. The rest is on us, and that is okay.