I remember asking this frequently in school, usually in yet another dreary math class in which I struggled mightily. It would be several years and a lifetime later that I could answer this question to my satisfaction. I never had a teacher answer it in such a way to make me knuckle down and accept the illogical hoop-jumping that is our system of public education.
Why go to school? Why further your education? Why continue to read and investigate on your own after you have left educational institutions? In short, because your life may depend on it someday. The answer to the title question is this--you never know what you'll need to know, so you should know as much as you can.
Before I drive the point home with a true life and death example, I have a fun story. I was working in a restaurant as a dishwasher, and we had several metal cylinders that held salad dressing which took up alot of space on our shelves. Since the base of the cylinders was narrower than the tops, I took to nestling them in each other to leave room for other things after I had washed them. Over time, the number of these nestled cylinders doubled, then tripled. Why the hell were they buying so many extras? I found out when I was told I would face a written reprimand if I continued to nestle the containers after washing them, because they could not be pulled apart in the morning. Management considered they were ruined because they had become fused together. They bought extras to make up for the ruined containers. I laughed when I was told this, because I understood exactly what was going on. Using my high school science classes, I knew the air between the cylinders was hot when I stacked them together and was expanded. As the air cooled through the night it created a vacuum of sorts as the volume of air shrank, drawing the cylinders together. To free the cylinders, I placed a stack on the stove and turned up the heat to re-expand the volume of air between them. With a pop the cylinders were freed, and my manager looked at me like I was a wizard. I was 16 years old.
Education, or rather knowing things regardless of the source of information, is like Batman's toolbelt. Batman is a normal person just like you and me, so he needs toys to get him out of sticky situations. He cannot fly away to safety like Superman, or zap threats with laser vision. Batman needs to carry everything he might need to use to get to safety, and what he will use will vary based on what he faces. He might need a zipline, or to rappel up a wall. He may face bullets or a knife, might even need to swim. Because he can't pause life to go retrieve what he needs, he must carry all of these different tools on his utility belt. Knowledge is that utility belt, every piece of information a different tool. The better equipped Batman is, the more likely he is to survive. But we aren't Batman are we?
Imagine a special forces soldier hot on the trail of an Iraqi army unit in the latest Gulf War. He and his squad have been looking for this unit to wipe them out and keep the push toward Baghdad from attack from the side (or flank). The unit has been difficult to locate, and lost in the desert this special forces soldier has to pee. Relieving himself against a hill, he notices the hill does not look natural. How does he know it doesn't look natural? In basic training he and another recruit talked at great length about geology. His friend showed him how nature piles up rocks and dirt to determine man-made versus nature made structures. It was idle chitchat at the time, a minor detail the two discussed on training in the woods, but now that information was coming back to the special forces soldier in the deserts of Iraq. He walks up the hill to investigate it just as an armed Iraqi soldier was walking up the other side, and the two engaged in hand to hand combat. Victorious, the special forces soldier radios his men, for he found the edge of the Iraqi military camp. Had he not realized the hill was man-made, he would have turned away just as the armed Iraqi crested his side of the hill, and probably been shot. The chance discussion of geologic processes in basic training saved the special forces soldier's life.
So no, we are not all Batman. We might be a 16 year-old dishwasher keeping his job, or we might be a special forces soldier peeing against the enemy's fortifications; the only thing we know for sure is we never know what we may need to know, so we should know as much as we can.
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