Homeschooling mom brags about teenage daughter learning to pump gas instead of learning to multiply fractions: 'This life skill is helpful if want to work in New Jersey.'

I definitely knew some kids in the third group growing up. At first, I was kind of jealous that they got to stay home and basically do no work, barely going to online school that didn't require anything of them, but I knew from my dog days of summer that I would not thrive in a lifestyle that allowed me to lie around all day at home during the daytime. Whether you like it or not, humans are made to work! We're made to wake up in the morning and do something productive during the day, whether that's learning, volunteering, or working at a traditional job, and if you rob your kids of the experience of learning to get up every day and do something. 

I would say learning to multiply fractions and pump gas can both be taught quickly enough to free up time for so much more learning. You can learn an infinite number of things if you can move on from the basics!

Even if you don't use math at your job, having a fundamental understanding of addition, subtraction, fractions, and division is totally necessary for functioning in society. If you had a good math education in elementary school, those skills are probably second nature to you, so it doesn't feel like you learned much. If you didn't have that foundational math education, you can really clearly tell how much you're missing.

I feel this way about all school subjects. Far too many people focus too much on the practicality of learning. They think that any class is not worth taking if it doesn't directly contribute to how much money you're going to make down the road. They don't think knowledge is work you do just to acquire it, and that's not true. Learning as much as you possibly can will make learning the "real-life" skills easier. It will make you more resilient when you face real-life challenges. A K-12 education shouldn't just be a completion grade for showing up. It should teach kids that learning is valuable, even when it's not for practical purposes.