Learning for Learning's Sake

I really should be studying now, but I just wanted to say something.

I'm as pissed and stressed about the Junior Cert as anyone else, but I'm quite sick of hearing "Why do you we need to know Shakespeare to get a job?" or more commonly; "sure, this isn't gonna help ya get a job like."

My initial response is "because you're an illiterate fuck, now shut up" but that's not really very nice, nor informative. Truth to the matter, in most cases the only way Shakespeare is going to help you get a job is because you need it for the exams, to get a good grade and go to college and then get a job with whatever you achieve in college. If you're going to be a teacher (and therein the cycle repeats) or a lecturer or a Shakespearian actor or, I don't know, a Shakespearian analyst or something, then of course Shakespeare will help you get a job. But, my problem, dear children, is why should everything we learn have to do with getting a job? Is getting a job all that's important? Should we know nothing other than what is required for our employment?
Whatever happened to learning stuff, just for the sake of learning it? Since when was knowledge something only used for employment? Why, in this day and age, is the concept of learning something just for the sake of knowing a little bit extra, so foreign?

I'll probably come back to this topic again, but it's back to Irish questions for me. Yay.

Love,
Cíara
xox