aries2756: I don't think learning first aid, how to cook, etc. is silly. The only class I really think was silly is my Home Ec class. But that wasn't even my point. Actually, you pretty much hit on my main grievance here:
In all honesty in all my years post High School, and I am a bubby of quite a few at the moment, I never had to know any of the "mi amar l'mi" post High School ever again. Nor did I have a need to know any dates, that we were tested on through the 4 years. There were thousands of bits and pieces of information that I never had to use again.
When I was in HS, a bunch of my classmates were once venting to a teacher about how they thought a certain class (French) wasn't a good idea - too much work for not enough application. The teacher answered that that's not the point of education. We don't go to school just to acquire skills of tangible value, because in the long run, that's not enough. Every piece of knowledge you acquire, she said, however trivial it may seem to you, enhances you as a person.
I really think this is true, and especially so with limudei kodesh. It’s true that the process of acquiring knowledge is tedious, but I look back at all those dikduk drills and long meforshim, and I see the patience, the diligence, the love for the complexity and awesomeness of Torah that I acquired along the way. Really, even the fact that you’re learning something l’shmah, without seeing any sort of benefit (tangible or otherwise) adds something tremendous. I, personally, wouldn’t give up my HS chumish classes (okay, math classes too) for the world. My parents are BTs that went to really high profile universities and studied fields that most people would think highly impractical. But that love of learning is what brought them to Yiddishkeit. And that’s really what’s bringing me to say this now.
Learning practical skills is very important. I don’t discount that at all. But stam knowledge has its place too, and there needs to be a balance. Additionally, it’s important to realize that while practical skills are very easily picked up later in life, if children aren’t inculcated with a love of learning in their formative education, they’ll never attain that depth of wisdom. So while I don’t think learning cooking, sewing, first aid, etc. is a waste of time, I think it’s shortsighted to see it as so superlatively important.
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