Congrats grads of 2011! You just proved you could memorize enough stuff, paraphrase spark notes, and show up often enough for class to earn some sort of diploma. But there a surprise waiting for you once the party balloons pop and you burn through the money you got from the graduation parties. You do not know the exact time or the place but it will hit you: You will need to remember some of the stuff you learned from school.
Before we go further I'd like to explain that I am not an expert on the subject. I am a college student a semester away from getting a bachelor degree of liberal arts in journalism. My knowledge on the subject comes from getting a part-time job at a library and learning that I still needed to remember a number of things from High School. Here the top things that every human needs to retain after throwing their caps in the air.
1. Spelling: Even in today's increasingly computerized society, there is not going to be a red squiggly line under every misspelled work. There are going to power outages and there are going to be times when hand-written notes are easier to spot than e-mails in a work place. If you can't spell a simple words, it doesn't look good.
2. Math: Not that crazy geometry involving logs and powers, simple cash register math. You may think that is what your cell phone is for it will take more time than remembering you multiplication tables.
3. Any random fact you ever learned: Quick story: I found out my boss's grand daughter was born three months premature. I was able to ask about how scary it must have been to see her grand baby wrapped in tubes. I remembered what the premature baby nursery looked after visiting one as part of a science club field trip. The whole point of school is to get a broad base of knowledge to use at the most random times. This doesn't just apply to school stuff either: sports, books, if you can make conversation about with some one, you can show competence.
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