Discussion about studying English language

A young friend of mine asked my opinion (during IRL discussion) on whether or not it made sense that everybody studies English language all the way through high school. He said he thought it was bad because some people already know English well enough to live their lives (the kind of lives they want to live). I gave my opinion (we also did a test) and now I want to submit for external criticism.

---------

I said that I broadly agree with him and that I want to say something that I think might change his opinion on a part of it. So here's what I said:

Some people want to have kids. Some of those people recognize that they should read books on parenting. He interrupted and we ended up talking about him in particular. He has said that he wants to have kids. And he admitted that he should read books on parenting before having a kid.

Then I asked him if he thinks his reading comprehension skill is good enough for the task of learning from parenting books. He said he believes that it's good enough. I asked how he knows. He said something but it was not an answer to the question of how he knows. I said that his belief is by faith instead of by reason. And I asked if he wants to do a test. He said yes.

I explained that I'll pick some text and he'll read it and see if he understands it. Before we started he asked, "but how will I know that I understood it"? I said that since he doesn't know that, it means he's not good enough yet.

I picked the Lying essay by Elliot Temple. The first paragraph is a passage by Ayn Rand. 

He read the Rand passage. Then I asked him if he understood it. He said no. (He then read the following paragraph and said he understood that.)

I explained that it's good that he recognized that he didn't understand it. I said that often times people think they understood when they didn't.

Then he asked me if I understand it. I said that I think I do. I explained and he said he didn't understand me. So I started writing a bullet point list of things about the passage, this time more clear than what I had said in voice. With each bullet point, we discussed it to conclusion (he claimed to understand) before moving on to the next bullet point. Here's the passage and my written notes on it:

> “The worst thing about dishonest people is what they think of as honesty,” [Gail Wynand] said. “I know a woman who’s never held to one conviction for three days running, but when I told her she had no integrity, she got very tight-lipped and said her idea of integrity wasn’t mine; it seems she’d never stolen any money.…” [The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand]

> Notes:

>

>    - what do dishonest people think honesty is?

>    - I knew a woman who never believed one thing for longer than 3 days

>        - that's an exaggeration. 

>    - i told the woman that she has no integrity

>        - She replied that she does have integrity - contradicting me. 

>            - What was her reasoning? She never stole money.

He asked me if I understood it the first time I read it. I said I don't recall because it was a long time ago but that I think I would have not understood it right away.

I don't recall what happened at this point. I guess we got side tracked with other things.