Important, Relevant, Interesting

I know, I've complained about the school system a lot lately. I'll promise that after this post I'll hold back a little. (Hey, at least I'm posting, right?)

It seems like teachers give us too many pointless assignments, and we study too many pointless things. I was pondering the criterion that keeps something from not being pointless. I came up with this: Work or information in school is worth it if it is either important, relevant or interesting.

Something is important if you need to know it, regardless if you like it or not, or if an individual student is going to do something related later in life related to the subject. Multiplication is important. Fundamental US history is important. Basic grammar is important.

Something is relevant if you need to know it in order to be able to understand something that is important or enjoyable. Although few people in my networking class (sans moi) enjoyed learning about binary math, it was important to be able to understand IP addresses, and was thus relevant.

Something is enjoyable if the learner finds the topic or work interesting or fun. Although there is nothing that everyone finds enjoyable, there are things that no one finds enjoyable.

It seems so often that teachers give out work without thinking, "What will my students get out of this?" It seems like we're forced to take courses just because they're hard, and not because we'll get anything out of it.

Too bad I can't just title an English paper Beowulf: Nobody gives a s***.