"Why do we need to know this stuff?"
Brett Morse, M.S.Ed.

    As a Geometry teacher, I hear this phrase probably more than any other phrase throughout the course of a day.  For one part, the question is founded.  You are not going to use geometric proofs in your life every day.  In fact, if you work hard enough at it, you can probably eliminate making any kind of mathematical calculation ever again once you close your math textbook for the last time.  However, if you are continually closing your mind and limiting your experiences to only those things that lie within your comfort zone, you are depriving yourself of the opportunity for growth and of the fullness and richness that life has to offer.  My challenge to you is:  instead of relying on somebody else to provide motivation for learning, provide your own motivation.  Start answering your own questions.  Look beyond what is in the here-and-now to what may be.  Develop a thirst for knowledge and a love for authentic learning and you will begin a life-long process that will serve you well beyond the times you spend in the classroom.  There is a reason that a graduation ceremony is called a commencement.  It does not symbolize and ending.  Rather, school is to have provided you with a framework of cognitive processes and knowledge that will allow you to commence living the remainder of your life as an active and productive member of a society who is capable of unsolicited, original thought.  Are you going to use every discreet piece of information that you learn in school every day?  The answer is a simple "no."  But if you allow yourself to see beyond the classroom to how a love for learning will impact your life and those around you every day, then you will stop limiting your mind to just what you see in front of you.  You will begin to make connections and see that learning is compulsory in all areas of life.  So... instead of asking "Why do we need to know this?", ask "How am I going to use this information to better myself?"