The mitochondrion is not a power plant.
The Golgi apparatus does not stamp proteins with labels for UPS trucks to use.
The chloroplast cannot turn light into sugar.
It may be a sign of cultural madness that we teach cells as parts, and not much else. We break things down into components, attach a "scientifical" name, ascribe an analogous function that means as much as the scientifical name, and call this science.
Memorizing the parts (and the cell is no more just the sum of its parts than you are) will help our children develop their memory, and there are good reasons for that. But if that is the point, a child's time would be better spent memorizing things they can use (like the times table) or poems they can love (maybe "Blackberry Eating" by Galway Kinnell).
If the rationale is that we need more "scientists" or technicians or whatever you want to call people willing to drive an hour to sit in a cubicle contributing to the international economy manipulating human symbols so a few other humans can collect symbols that grant them inordinate power, well, maybe learning to recite that a mitochondrion is like a power plant (even if you have no idea how a power plant works) serves a purpose.
But it does not serve a child.
But it does not serve a child.
Howard Zinn once said "Our problem is civil obedience."
I bet he was a pain in the ass to teach.