This semester I am enrolled in a computer science class. Most of the time it makes my eyes and my mind hurt, makes me think in numbers instead of words, and makes me more stressed out than any other class has before. Just last week I was assigned a project in which I had to design a computer program that completed a specific task on a simulator. I read the instructions for the project over and over, but could not for the life of me figure out where to begin. After countless hours of stress, googling "how to use computer programming software", and even a few tears I was eventually able to make the program successfully and turn the project in. Many of my friends can attest to the fact that I bragged hardcore about that program I had designed and showed it to everyone who would take the time to look. I was exhausted, yet I was elated that I had successfully completed this task that seemed impossible when it was given to me. The thing is though that, while I was happy in the end, perhaps the stress wasn't worth it; perhaps the end did not at all justify the means. See this class is completely "useless" to me by many standards. Assuming that I follow the career path that I intend to and become a middle school English teacher, I will never in my life be asked to indicate that I have any knowledge whatsoever about computer programing. That fact makes this class useless, right? Well, maybe not.
Maybe one day there will be a nerdy kid sitting in my English class feeling the same stress that I have felt this semester because he or she thinks in numbers rather than words and can't possibly write the essay I have assigned. Perhaps I will be able to make some connection with that kid anyway because I can at least speak a bit of the computer language he or she knows so well. Or maybe, and this is the most likely, maybe I will have to complete another task down the road that does not come easily to me. It probably won't have anything to do with computer programing, but at least I will be able to navigate through it because I now have the confidence necessary to succeed at something that seems impossible. Here's my point: just because you learn something in school that doesn't directly apply to your future career, that doesn't mean it is useless. Think about the most awful class you have ever been forced to sit in. Maybe you didn't even learn a single academic thing. Maybe all you learned was how to sit quietly and respectfully and listen to someone who doesn't say anything worthwhile while you are sitting there. Well, that's something that we are all going to have to do in life, and maybe it's good that you learned how to deal with that early on.
Here's a more optimistic way to look at it: no matter how uninterested you are in a subject, there is someone out there who is completely passionate about it. How are we, as diverse human beings, supposed to connect with others different from ourselves if we stick to only learning about the things we personally enjoy. You are going to encounter all sorts of people in your life; people with different cultures, religions, family structures, experiences and interests than you. And you won't only encounter them, you'll work with them, maybe even live with them. Everything we learn then applies not only to ourselves and our own work, but to that of others as well.
My friend Charlotte and I often bring ourselves to laughter by saying "um...it's about learning" in our most nasally voices as if we had just killed the music at a raging party and told everyone to go home and study on a Friday night. I'm not by any means suggesting doing homework on a Friday night, but maybe that tagline isn't so far off. Maybe this computer science class is useless and maybe it's not. But maybe that doesn't even matter. Maybe it really is just about learning.
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