Lyric discussion by dubhshlain 

Cover art for Black Math lyrics by White Stripes, The

The song is about having to learn things that you think you don't need to know, like complicated maths (calc, trig, analytical geometry etc.). You don't have to understand it, you might not need to know it in the future, but here and now, you can only pass beyond this point if you get it right.

@dubhshlain I fon't think he's saying that you don't need to know it, but that it's taught in a manner that's just aiming at regurgitating information without actually having understood it