No question

Do you have to have a high school diploma today?

It is not only in mathematics that many things are taught that nobody will need later in life.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/lassedesignen )

The cabaret artist, author and expert on human nature Stefan Vögel answers questions that others don't even dare to ask. This time it's about the question of where the fear of a future without a school-leaving certificate comes from.

A mother from my circle of friends spends several afternoons a week studying math with her high school son. All of his tutors have thrown in the towel. The boy hates the subject. Math was, is and will always be foreign to him. And he will most likely not need much more arithmetic knowledge than the multiplication tables even after his school years, just like most of us and even those with A-levels. However, systems of equations with three variables, the harmonic series, even the discussion of curves (unless it relates to the opposite sex) will be as foreign to him at twenty as they were a short time ago at ten. So far, so normal and commonplace.