QUESTION: What’s something schools taught that turned out to be mostly useless?
The Water Cooler – What’s Something Schools Taught That Turned Out To Be Mostly Useless
© Copyright 2007 – 2025 Claycord News & Talk
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QUESTION: What’s something schools taught that turned out to be mostly useless?
Subscribe to our newsletter!
© Copyright 2007 – 2025 Claycord News & Talk
Driving Ed.
i had mine in high school but now one can come
from another country and just get it.
No education required
Memorizing State capitals and disco in P.E.
(that second one is courtesy of my wife who learned The Hustle in gym, Northgate HS, early 80s.)
I was probably in her class. NGHS ’83.
We also had ballroom dancing in PE, right before Xmas break.
Algebra. In all my years, I have never found a use for it. When I was in high
school, I thought Latin was useless, but years later when I was studying for
my Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing it came in handy since most
pharmacological and medical terminology has its roots in Latin and ancient
Greek.
Algebra II especially – I questioned a high school math teacher not too long ago and he was hard pressed to even come up with even a crock of an answer
You use algebra more than you believe. When you buy paint; height times width = sq feet (h x w). The paint can label displays square feet it will cover. When to leave so you arrive on time; distance divided by average speed show how much time is needed for travel (d / r = t).
That ain’t algebra that’s common sense arithmetic.
the first example isn’t algebra – geometry
I use algebra all of the time, as well as calculus. However, I teach aircraft design at a local university. I believe that you should always be learning something, so none of it is useless. Some learning may not have an apparent practical use, but expanding your mind and keeping it active should be something you do until your last breath. I took classes that I didn’t think were useful, such as art history. However, art history helps you appreciate art when you see it. If I had to name one class that I disliked the most in my undergrad years it would be accounting. However, you should understand it to be a fully functioning adult.
Art, music, foreign languages, mostly the liberal arts
But what a flavorless life 🙁
Algebra and calculus.
Never used them but I have a calculator now if they ever pop up.
Calligraphy
Shorthand!!!
I remember our 4th grade class being shown a video of the WW2 concentration camps. We were allowed to opt-out if our parents didn’t approve. But one did.
7-8 year olds aren’t old enough to understand context. Instead we were exposed to the most graphic footage of our short lives and led to believe that one specific group had solely endured the torments of war. The context of war-time famine was not given, nor that of parallel atrocities such as Stalin’s Russia, China, Africa, etc.
And now grown, my generation idiotically calls political opponents, Nazis or Hitler, while criticism of Israel is antisemitic.
We had to learn square dancing 1 year and disco dancing 1 year. I would state that they weren’t mostly useless, they were completely useless.
Spanish! I knew it even way back this state was headed that direction. No way I was gonna take Spanish
This makes no sense. If you knew the Spanish language would be benificial to you, why would you not learn it?
I took Spanish por cuatros anos and can speak with my neighbors o algunes whenever es necessario.
No entiendo este comment.
Why? Nothing I have done in my life needed Spanish are you effing kidding me.
No, I am not kidding you. And I am grateful to have the ability to communicate with more people than I otherwise would not have.
Who would have thought typing class would end up being one of the most useful subjects.
Fearless, my Typing Teacher in High School
would incorporate small contests and Willy Wonka chocolate as incentives. Didn’t matter to me.
He could never figure out how I’d hit 82 wpm
on a manual typewriter with three errors or less.🙂
When I was in high school, the only people who took typing were girls who wanted to be secretaries and boys and girls looking for a career in journalism. My kids all mastered keyboarding in middle school, while I still type with two fingers.
Back in the 1960s if you were planning to attend college you would want to be able to type because professors expected papers to be typewritten.
Yes, Captain, I agree that knowing how to type would have been very helpful, but I got through it, using the Columbus System (find a key and land on it.)
Typing class was an elective, easy no brainer to get credits without any BS. One good thing learned was dodge ball taught us we could cream the crap out the weak.
It taught me to keyboard, which is essential for the work I do. My dad, on the other hand, still hunts-and-pecks, which results in super slow typing.
Ag. Growing up in a farm community I was placed in the small town school Ag class which was useful for the farm kids but my family did not run a farm. After a couple months I was removed and had a study hall for an hour which meant I got to watch TV at night being I had any homework out of the way.
.
OTOH, I loved math and sciences. Algebra was useful for computer programming. I had two years of it as well as geometry. I wanted more like trig and calculus plus physics and chemistry. But the pre college tests back then decide I had enough science and needed more social studies. Apparently they wanted to groom me to be a politician (yuck!)