Knowledge learnt at school can be stored up, and reapplied years later. Is this your experience? Most of us remember very little of the scattering of knowledge that took years to pump in. What we gained was much more ways of thinking, knowing how to set about doing things, from solving problems to analysing information, from writing something pleasing to spotting when people are not telling the truth, from singing a harmony to working in a team. If we were lucky, we learnt that life and being active in it can be a joyful business. If the Minister for Education were to sit all his childhood exams again, I wonder what he would score?
