this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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To be fair, most schools give those classes only out of obligation. Doing dumb calculations of mols and atomic masses in high school is definitely teaching kids to ask "why the fuck am I even doing this?"
Learning some chemistry basics is probably still good though. Not that we're using it daily but just in the "hey mixing this stuff can kill you" or, in the same vein, seeing how it only requires small amounts to make big changes.
We're surrounded by chemicals in our everyday lives, learning a healthy fear of them is probably for the best.
Also high school is meant to prepare you for further education, if you want to pursue that, so it really does cover a lot of ground for basic concepts you need to learn to understand and gain further education in whatever field applies.
Kids are wired to ask that, so what, basic chemistry knowledge is extremely useful.
I had a co-worker who decided to clean his bathroom and decided using a mix of chemicals would be better than just using one! Makes sense right?
He figured putting bleach and vinegar together was a smart move because it meant more cleaning all at once.
Don't worry, he's fine. He had a sore throat for a few weeks and the fumes singed the hairs off his hands when he was mixing it.
Dang! Good to not be absent minded, and actually check out the chemical equation, and consider the implications.
Good to be reminded, and learn from others mistakes.
Glad he survived mostly unscathed.
We learnt to titrate in later high school, played with acids and bases and crystallizing crystals in earlier high school
Sure we learnt to calculate mols of chemicals but we also learnt why — so you can balance an equation, so you have no more acid (for example) than you need.
I bailed out of chemistry though. I had a bad teacher in year 10 and moved to botany in yr 11 and 12 (working with scientists testing salt tolerance of eucalypts to address dryland salinity) (I went to a school that covered high school and college (years 7 to 12))