system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: We should stop primarily teaching facts in school

*Currently, we teach students math, languages, geography, history etc. A wide variety of facts and techniques as applied to theoretical problems.* 

*Then, upon graduation from high school, we expect them to make an informed decision about their career (by choosing a major in university/college). Then, once that's over, they start solving real problems at some company.*

*They go from theoretical learning (how to calculate the trajectory of a projectile) to solving real problems and learning on the fly what they missed before (ie: how to design a better auto-pilot system for a plane).* 

*We all agree that eventually, students are ready to solve real-world problems. We just think they need a certain level of background information on Shakespeare first.*

*The problem is two things:*

*1) Student Motivation -- students no longer need to be taught endless lists of facts when they all have smartphones in their pockets. Teaching facts further reduces motivation by students to do the work...they know they can use a calculator, Google it, and so on.* 

*2) Accuracy of Career Choice -- how can we expect someone to know they want to be an engineer if all they've ever done is calculate the path of a projectile? So, they choose a major (with uncertainty), take a low-risk choice they don't really love because they've never experienced it, or quit their job at age 40 because they realize they never truly loved their job in the first place (but still have all the student debt from the uninformed choice they made at 18)*

*Here's what I think needs to be done with the education system as a whole, around the world (this is the essence of my view) -- we need to use real workforce projects as a way to teach students outcomes they can \*really\* help with, then use that to show them the skills they need. This means every lesson they learn has real-world applications, and they get a taste of what the industry is really like so they can make better choices as to what to pursue in their career.*

*This is already done at the MBA level, but there's no reason a student in high school (or even younger) can’t solve the same problem.*

*For example, take an R&D project about health care (ie: developing a heart drug, for example), and let them realize that they need to learn more about the parts of the body, how active ingredients mix with binders, proper dosage, how to interpret studies, and so on -- they'll see the need for the math, chemistry, biology, statistics, etc.*

*Instead of teaching facts to solve theoretical problems, student motivation will go through the roof if they are exposed to big hairy audacious problems and taught how to utilize the vast knowledge and resources now readily available on the internet, in books, and so on.*

*I'm an education researcher and would love to see the k-12 school system re-built from the ground up using this as a framework, and would love to hear some reasons it wouldn't work (either from an industry partner perspective or a school system/implementation perspective). Change my view.*
gpt
Here’s the thing... students aren’t just learning facts.

They are exercising their brains.

Like, for someone who works out a lot at the gym, how often are their times when a person in real life, outside of the gym, will need to be able to bench press 250lb?

None... but by constantly working out various muscle groups, your body becomes stronger overall.

Likewise, sure, most students who learn calculus never actually apply it in the real world, but learning it essentially exercises their brain, and gives their brain more “endurance” for critical thinking and problem solving.