Echo Beach Tide Pools

By Keith Alan Johnson
05-29-2000

          Most of us have asked that question during our school lives. We figure if we're going to be artists, career athletes, writers, actors, computer geniuses or whatever, then why do we have to learn about U.S. history or Chinese history? Why do we need to know Political Science? Why do we need this "well rounded" education? We wont ever use it.
          Most of us never get a satisfactory answer. Some of us never had to ask the question. Some of us get the answer some time down the road, after having lived a bit of life. That's where I fall in. I looked over some of my previous essays and I started to get a picture, not a picture of myself, but a picture of the affect of knowledge.
          Perhaps it's somewhat presumptuous of me to say that I see knowledge in my writing. The truth is I don't. I see emotion in my writing, and perhaps a little philosophy. I see some personal history. I don't necessarily see the affect of knowledge in there. I was one of those students who simply put in my time at school. I wasn't the sponge for education that perhaps I should have been.
          So what is my answer? Why did we have to learn that stuff? I came back to this question while rereading my last essay about lyrics. Of course a lot of the music is from my childhood days, back when I was actually asking the question for the first time. Some of the lyrics are quite passionate. Some of them are clever and end with a twist. Many of them are eloquent and thought provoking.
          I got to thinking about the good books I've read or the great movies I've seen. Those that make me think are the ones that go into the history books. The book Dune [not the movie] made me think. 'Sixth Sense' made me think. This years Oscar winner, 'American Beauty' made me think. I find myself thinking about the minds that created those thought provoking stories. Surely imagination has a lot to do with it. How much did education have to do with it?
          I have some friends who have taken advantage of their education. Coming from one who didn't, I have to ask myself if they realize what it is they've been doing. They speak eloquently; they have their thoughts carefully laid out. They are aware of their progress and their goals. Furthermore they have a presence that sets them apart. They have a passion for what they do. Life is not passing them by.
          So perhaps it's not what we are learning as much as it is the journey of learning. In school, while we are struggling to learn all that worthless information that we will never use, we are learning how to think. We are opening all those chemical synapses in our brains, wearing in those paths through our brain cells. It's like that passion for asteroids I had. Eye hand coordination and mental coordination both are learned skills. They require practice as much as any skill. Much like an athlete practices his sport or an artist practices his craft, or a writer follows his passion, thinking needs the same training. We were developing our minds. Okay, so we were sick of hearing that in school, but there it is, I understand after 42 years. I was developing my mind.
          So I may not have ever used the chemistry I learned in Junior High, or the History I learned in High School. I struggled against a lot of the teachers that tried to force feed my mind. Yes, some of them were just putting in their time as well, putting their students in boxes. Others were outstanding pains in the ass. To them I really need to tip my hat. I may not have retained much of what they taught me. I have the answer as to why I had to learn all that unnecessary information way back when;

          It's thinking that counts.