culture ???

Is it valuable to learn about culture in the classroom? I don't believe that we should be learning about cultures in an English class because we should be learning about proper writing techniques and about things like metaphors, stuff that we can actually use later in life after we leave school. I'm sure there are many jobs that deal with culture and where you would need to know about other cultures, but if you want to learn about culture you should be able to take it as an elective class. I know it would be hard to find new things to teach in English in all four grades, but I don't see how culture is important to teach. If somebody really wanted to know about other cultures then they can learn it on their own time. In conclusion I feel that teaching culture in a class like English is not a good use of time, when we could be learning things that are useful at this time.