When I look back on all the crap I learned in high schoolIt’s a wonder I can think at all.

This line is from Paul Simon’s song “Kodachrome,” released by Simon & Garfunkel in 1973 during the duo’s brief reunion period. The song appears on the album *There Goes Rhymin’ Simon* and was issued as a single, becoming a major hit. In the lyric, the speaker looks back on school and early life with a mix of nostalgia and irritation, contrasting the dullness or irrelevance of formal education with the vivid, memory-preserving promise of “Kodachrome” (a color slide film associated with bright, saturated images). The line captures a generational, post-1960s skepticism toward institutional schooling and received wisdom.

The speaker’s complaint about “all the crap” learned in high school is less an argument against learning than a jab at education that feels rote, conformist, or disconnected from real thinking. The follow-up—“It’s a wonder I can think at all”—uses exaggeration to suggest that genuine thought survives despite, not because of, such schooling. Placed within a song about memory and perception, the line also implies that what endures from youth is not the curriculum but the images, feelings, and personal experiences that remain “in color.” It’s a comic, biting expression of disillusionment that still leaves room for affection and nostalgia.