A continued railing on the education system's instence that facts be taught, rather than critical thinking and an understanding lying underneath everything.

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While the names and places always change, the way they interact will always be the same.

This is why rote learning is detrimental to the real importance behind every topic in education. The names and specifics of the topic detract from the simplicity behind it, and thus its connection to other subjects. The only part of a topic worth learning is what is simple, what is fundamental. For instance, in biology we are learning about the heart. Every morning in class, we review the chambers of the heart, including their name, whether they deal with oxidized blood, and what organ or area they supply blood to. The essential knowledge of this topic (for a 10th grade high school student's purposes) is that humans have a 4 chamber heart which evolved out of the necessity for efficiency. From this incredibly simple derivation, one may continue to explore other biological evolutions or the important concept of evolution by necessity. One may also take this notion of "no action without purpose" to sociology in terms of "no action without motive." The possibilities are endless. This may come to an advantage to educational facilities. Given the immense amount of information available to learn, and the relatively minuscule amount of knowledge needed to live a productive and pleasureful life, one must not focus on the specificities of a topic, but the broad generalities between subjects. From a utilitarian point of view, this is the best alternative to our current education system. Finding relations between subjects is an important skill, but it takes a keen eye to notice them when the majority of school time is spent repeating facts. Given the level of specificity required to be covered by the state, teachers are pressed to teach to the test, and to the facts. Long-term retention is neglected as is personalized education. A utilitarian point of view should be taken for the overall system, while a more personal approach should be taken in the classroom.