RE: Do we really need to learn all that in school?
I loved this post too! I'll represent the other side of the argument to @branlee87... I've always been great academically (well since year 10), I scored in the top 4% of the state graduating from high school. Got an academic scholarship to study in the USA (I'm from Aus) and then got into medical school on my first try.
Through this time probably 95% of what I've learned will never be used if I become a doctor... but I needed to know that 95% in order to build on it and understand what I will use. For example, I'll never need to know organic chemistry in order to treat a patient, but I did need to know it in order to understand the molecular basis of the pathophysiology that underlines their condition.
I think the real key here is passion... if you're not interested in learning there's no point forcing it! So much research has been done into how we should be educating children in open environments that promote questioning and exploration, but none of it's ever put into practice!
It's such a shame because now we've got such a scientifically illiterate population with such low ability to think critically that we're seeing a resurgence in things like anti-vaccine advocates and anti-GMO fear mongerors, based solely on ignorance.
I think you make a great point about how it is not necessary to learn everything, but in a sense it is necessary to know about everything:
While doing my Master's, there was this professor that was infamous for expecting that his students memorized such things as the exact chemical structure for all amino acids. Luckily for me, he retired and I got the more reasonable professor who cared more about us learning about the properties of the amino acids and their functions within the body, since he reasoned that we could always check the structure in a book whenever needed. In a similar fashion, another professor who taught us cell cycle regulation told us that he didn't care that we knew by heart the names of each molecule involved in every step, but that it was important that we knew how the regulation occurred and which events triggered what action (he even said, "if you can't recall the protein's name, just write something like protein x in the test").
This strategy works because it takes off the pressure when learning and helps people focus in the important principles rather than overwhelming their brains with details that most likely will start to fade as soon as the test is over. To be a good researcher or doctor, you don't need to know everything by heart, but you certainly need to know what to look for and where to find the information you need.
Cheers, and thanks for this very thoughtful comment, @tfcoates!
I couldn't agree with this more! The importance is in understanding, not in memorizing, and ultimately it is this understanding which allows us to go forward and build upon our knowledge. No one ever failed to understand DNA because they couldn't memorize the structure of guanine.