“When will I ever USE this?!” said every student ever!
(This article was previously published in March 2023 on Substack, which I have chosen not to keep up. So, I’m republishing here.)
We’ve all heard our children say this as we struggle to help them with their school work. If you’re in the position to be homeschooling, now you have to figure out how to counter their complaint, even while possibly bemoaning why you even have to teach those parallelograms, participles and Latin paradigms!
After all – It is true. Only in very specific scenarios will one ever actually use the knowledge of parallelograms in daily life.
Yet, when we evaluate a lesson based on its practical utility, I think we are viewing the subject matter through the wrong lens.
Let’s look at the word USE, which is defined as follows:
- (verb) to employ for some purpose; put into service; make use of
- (noun) the act of employing, using, or putting into service
Is the purpose of education to merely give us information only if it is useful in some way? (Hint: I think the answer is no.)
We live in a culture that values utility as an ultimate good. We emphasize learning useful skills to get a useful job. These skill will help us become a useful employee to be put into the service of the wheels of production.
Even our leisure seems to need a purpose beyond simple enjoyment. Think about all the stuff we try to accomplish in our free time! Often our judgment of utility even extends to the value of a person’s life which is meaningful only so far as his life is useful. (Hence the proclivity of doctors to recommend aborting children who are disabled, but that’s a topic for another day.)
So the question, “When will this ever be useful?”, is a viewpoint that is limiting and even potentially destructive.
A better question, one that allows for openness and discovery, is, “What is the purpose of this topic?”
After all, everything has a purpose, an end for which it was created by God. What is the purpose of learning how to identify parallelograms? Or understanding (and not using) dangling participles in our writing? Or memorizing Latin paradigms, the verb and noun endings of a long-unused language?
I believe one part of the answer is – for the joy of learning it!
And I realize that you may be thinking that I’m crazy. Grammar is boring, in English or Latin, Alexandra! Maybe sometimes, but I actually find the complexity of grammar interesting. And amazingly, I just had a child tell me he was excited to do his math test on prime factorization. We never quite know what is going to resonate with each person!
But how are we to view the situation when we must learn subjects that we do not enjoy naturally? And I believe the answer brings us back to God, in a couple ways (It always does!)
Here’s the first way:
Everything we learn through our God-given use of reason can help us to grow closer to Our Lord.
He created this beautiful, amazing world with an incredibly intelligent design, with form and structure. And he also created man with the gift of reason, an ability which God has given to humanity so that we can come to understand the world in which He has placed us. More importantly, the gift of reason is one characteristic that makes us like Him, made in His image and likeness. Our reason can get us to the point of knowing that God exists. And it helps us to recognize certain things about Him without any sort of divine revelation.
Now for some examples to illustrate this point:
- Learning the rules governing parallelograms, we understand that God has put order, form and rules into the world.
- Studying grammar, we appreciate that He’s given us a method of communication. Communication allows us to make ourselves known clearly, just as He wants to communicate with His creation.
- Memorizing the word endings of a language, we perceive that God has put every detail into its place with no detail overlooked.
- Most especially in a “dead” language like Latin that is no longer changing (unlike modern languages which adapt), we can also view the steadfastness of God Himself. It is, of course, significant that Latin is the language of God’s Church. It reflects His eternal, unchanging nature.
Now, here’s the second way:
The less obvious utility a thing has, the closer it gets to Truth, Goodness or Beauty in some way.
Here’s my pondering on this, and I’d love to know your response to this – We can view subjects, experiences, relationships, even things, as existing on a spectrum. One end of the spectrum is “Most Useful” and the other end is “Most Transcendent.” It appears to be an inverse relationship. The less useful a thing is, the greater its inherent dignity, purpose and transcendence, and therefore, the greater joy it brings us, and the closer it brings us to God Himself.
Take a scissor for example. It is a very useful tool, but with a limited purpose. It does not generally brings us great joy (unless its one of those amazing fabric scissors – IYKYK).
But then think about a stroll through the woods in the fall or a lazy day at the beach – limited utility but great enjoyment! Now think of your best relationships – you would never explain why you love someone by saying, “He’s very useful around the house.”
As far as school subjects, Algebra probably falls closer to “Most Useful,” while Calculus might veer more toward “More Transcendent,” parallelograms falling somewhere in between.
I would imagine this is why Aquinas referred to Theology as the Queen of all sciences – it takes as a close as possible to the “Transcendent” end of the spectrum as possible.
So maybe next time we are faced with the question “When will I ever use this?”, We just need to ask God to give us the grace to appreciate those pesky parallelograms, love those participles, and find joy in the paradigms?
And perhaps thank Him for whatever it is He is revealing to us through the lesson.
