I can understand where Boyinaband is coming from with his video, but I think he blew it out of proportion. Yes, there are plenty of things you will learn in school that you will never use in your working life, but they are not completely useless. You don't know what kind of career you're going to end up in when you graduate from school. Middle school and high school give you the basic knowledge you need in many different subjects to prepare you for college. Thus, you receive a well-rounded education to open up the doors to thousands of occupational opportunities in the future.

As Durandal said, what is "important" depends on your own personal perspective. For example, you might think math is worthless and you'll never use it in life. Now, let's pretend schools let you choose your own classes. If you decided math isn't going to help you in life, you would exclude it from your curriculum. Now, your schedule is filled with classes you deemed as "important." There. Problem solved, right?

Now, fast forward to the future when you're going into college. You decide you want to become an engineer because you like mechanics and the job pays extremely well. Unfortunately for you, you will be far behind in your education because you don't even have the basic mathematical skills you need to pursue this career. You might not even be able to catch up at this point. The door to engineering is closed to you forever because you made a poor decision when you were five years younger.

Humans are extremely finicky by nature. I know this firsthand. Ever since my Freshman year of high school, I've changed my mind dozens of times. I wanted to be a Japanese teacher in America, an English teacher in Japan, a foreign ambassador, a Christian counselor, an interior designer, a musician, a composer, a conductor, ect... The list goes on. I'm only a Junior in high school now. Who knows what I'll want to major in by the time I graduate next year? If I had based my high school classes on what I thought was important at the time, I would be very poorly educated indeed. I started out Freshman year focused on languages, so I probably would have excluded math and science because they had nothing to do with being a Japanese/English teacher. Now, I'm starting to look into careers that require advanced math and some science. I'm thankful that my school has prepared me with the basics in both of these subjects.

[color=ed1c24]High school is a time to be prepared in many subjects. College is when you narrow down your options to the classes that interest you.[/color]

In regards to being uneducated about the "real world," I agree that this is a problem in many schools. I can only suggest that you research your options at multiple different high schools and find one that can offer the classes you need. Government, economics, and self-reliance are all good classes to look for. History is also a good thing to study. As the saying goes: Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

I'm fortunate enough to go to a school where all of the classes I just mentioned are required subjects. Students at my school cannot graduate without passing them, and so we all come out with the tools we need to survive in the world. We can handle our finances, take care of our health, fix a car, cook our own food, make educated decisions about voting, understand politics, and plenty more.

As more of a side note, I'm very impressed that you're thinking about things like this as a middle school student. Most of the junior highers I know only care about what's going on directly in front of them. It's a relief to see there are young students out there who actually care about the state of their education. You've given me hope for the future, so thank you, haha! :)