Sorry man, but this isn't new or unique. It's no groundbreaking insight in how schooling sucks and should be improved. Almost every kid has these feelings at a certain point, and that's because they (and you) are completely missing the point. The idea is not to get you to become an expert on something like transcendentalism or even care about it in the slightest. Your teacher is not trying to get you to retain information on the topic and use it in your later life. The point is for you to learn how to do research. How to critically asses information, gather insights from multiple sources, combine it and turn the essence of your findings into a presentable project. It's to foster your reading comprehension, your research skills and your ability to compile, analyze and communicate your insights to others. To get you to branch out and become acquainted with topics you otherwise would never encounter. TL;DR: they're not trying to teach you about a random and pointless topic like transcendentalism. They're trying to teach you skills which you might very well need throughout the rest of your education and / or career.