Don't Stay in School

What I learned in school vs. What I didn't learn in school.
I can't remember feeling so passionate whilst writing something in ages. I absolutely love a lot of the subjects I mention in this - astronomy, particle physics, pure maths... but I hate that everyone is forced to learn them. It should be a choice. There are a million other things wrong with education, but this one stood out as the most obvious and most insane.

The point of this song is to get people talking - if you share it, use #DontStayInSchool so we can all get involved in the conversation.

Lyrics:
I wasn’t taught how to get a job
but I can remember dissecting a frog
I wasn’t taught how to pay tax
but I know loads about Shakespeare's classics

I was never taught how to vote
they devoted that time to defining isotopes
I wasn’t taught how to look after my health
but mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

Never spent a lesson on current events
instead I studied The Old American West
I was never taught what laws there are.
I was never taught what laws there are.

Let me repeat - I was not taught the laws for the country I live in,
but I know how Henry the VIII killed his women.
Divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived
glad that’s in my head instead of financial advice

I was shown the wavelengths of different hues of light
but I was never taught my human rights
Apparently there’s 30, do you know them? I don’t
Why the hell can’t we both recite them by rote?!

I know igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
Yet I don’t know squat about trading stocks
Or how money works at all - where does it come from?
Who controls it? How does the thing that motivates the world function?

not taught how to budget and disburse my earnings
I was too busy rehearsing cursive.
Didn’t learn how much it costs to raise a kid or what an affidavit is
but I spent days on what the quadratic equation is

negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared
minus 4ac over 2a
That’s insane, that’s absolutely insane.
They made me learn that over basic first aid

How to recognise the most deadly Mental disorders // or
diseases with preventable causes // How to buy a
house with a mortgage // if I could afford it
‘cause abstract maths was deemed more important

than advice that would literally save thousands of lives
but it’s cool, ‘cause now I could tell you if the number of unnecessary deaths caused by that choice was prime.

Never taught present day practical medicines,
but I was told what the ancient hippocratic method is
“I’ve got a headache, the pain is ceaseless
what should I take?” umm... maybe try some leeches?

“Could we discuss domestic abuse and get the facts
or how to help my depressed friend with their mental state?”
Ummm... no but learn mental maths
because “you won’t have a calculator with you every day!”

They say it’s not the kids, the parents are the problem
Then if you taught the kids to parent that’s the problem solved then!
All this advice about using a condom
but none for when you actually have a kid when you want one

I’m only fluent in this language, for serious?
The rest of the world speaks two, do you think I’m an idiot?
They chose the solar over the political system
So like a typical citizen now I don’t know what I’m voting on

which policies exist, or how to make them change
mais oui, je parle un peu de Francais
So at 18, I was expected to elect a representative
For a system I had never ever ever ever been presented with

But I won’t take it
I’ll tell everyone my childhood was wasted
I’ll share it everywhere how I was “educated”
And insist these pointless things
#DontStayInSchool
★ ★ ★

THANKS TO MY PATRONS FOR SUPPORTING ME!
Bart aka FantasyIH, Ema Simpson, Thomas Lloyd, Vincent Olsen, Ofer Mustigman, Sergey Khegay, Lance Thackeray.

[bethcrawley]

The way this song was released 6 years ago and still has comments from an hour

[BoxyPlains]

I'm Russian and I'm very good at English. The teachers think I learned it from lessons, and the English teacher tells the class to learn English, showing me as a good example. The problem is... I learned English from memes and videogames.

[boleslawpetroski]

-My man dropping a diss track on the public education system-

EDIT: He is no longer my man

[S_MAN_CHAN]

this touched children across the planet

[budemawa]

This song is extremely important, this is an outcry from every child in the world but it will fall on deaf ears.

[koortz]

Me: How do i pay taxes? How do i buy a house?

School: if you had 3 apples...

[reinyakuma]

Is it ironic that this epic song actually taught me to memorize the quadratic equation

[pixelchu]

“I was never thought what laws there are”

This line hits differently now

[seahawk]

it's scary how true this is. even 4 years later.

[titash]

"Then if you taught the kids to parent that's the problem solved then..."
That hit hard.

[lunaboom]

Student: *throws away tissue without asking*

School: *we don't do that here*

[TheLivingThanos]

"Your Honour, My client was never taught what laws there are"

[jordyjohnson]

"If you taught the kids how to parent that's the problem solved then." I love this line, for the fact that in a way its right.
2019 Edit: Thank you for all the likes!

[theonlypersontoeverexist]

*reads title*

Me: well, i mean since you asked so nicely

[lynthex]

Imagine someone in the woods seeing him from far away like ‘-‘

[JaelynnGrace]

Being smart shouldn't be about having a 99 average or how well your memory retention is, it should be about how you've applied that knowledge you've obtained into real world situations and try to better humanity.

[diamonddog]

Four years old, and it still sends chills up my spine. Even more so now. Back then, I was a still a kid, not understanding most of this. But now all of these words... They're so true. All of them.

[sophiasaenz]

This also brings back that time in the song life is fun saying “98% what you learn is a waste”

[Frostytip]

Ironically, some asked me today, 9 years after i first heard this song, what the quadratic equation is. I literally forgot almost everything from school but was able to recite back the formula like a stenographer. Proving this song was more beneficial than school!!

[chameleons]

“So when I was 18 I was expected to elect a representative for a system I had never been presented with” is that best line