Other Most Useless skill they taught you in school?

[Morlock]

I'm probably older than a lot of people here so my skill might not be the same useless skill they taught you guys. Ok, so when I was at school penmanship or neat handwriting was a big thing. You had to write very neatly in cursive no less. It was even a big deal when they let you graduate from grey lead to pen!

So silly and even 20 years ago when I started work I found I would just print words anyway when I had to hand write something because it is so much easier to read. I really hate having to try and read anyone's cursive writing. And when you don't hand write, you use a computer now anyway. So that is the most useless skill they got us to learn in school.

What is yours?

 

[Abendrot]

Well, if you ever need someone to tell you that there's a girl sitting under the tree in Latin, I'm your guy.

 

[Debacle]

I remember being taught how to balance a checkbook. Which sounds like it might be useful, except we all have instant access to our bank accounts these days, so I don't need a checkbook to know my balance.

 

[Countofcristo]

How to search up a passage in the bible

 

[adrian_]

No matter what you do, cursive is always swirly letters and garbage handwriting, there is no method to it's madness.

 

[Miles]

Geometry. I know that some occupations use it, but retail does not. I still think that Geometry should be administered as an alternative to spy torture. It's the worst kind of math. >.>

 

[Morlock]

Geometry. I know that some occupations use it, but retail does not. I still think that Geometry should be administered as an alternative to spy torture. It's the worst kind of math. >.>

I found that with Pythagoras, I sucked at normal math let alone the complicated stuff. Anyway one day my friend and I asked our math teacher when we would need to use Pythagoras in real life, the teacher told us we use math every day, addition, subtraction when we buy something. That isn't what we asked though, we asked about Pythagoras. The fact that he dodged the question proves to me that it does not have any day to day application, unless perhaps if you really wanted to go out of your way to apply it to something that just doesn't require such complexity.

 

[SalmonSwimmer]

Not sure if it was useless? But we were taught how to trade stocks on the stock market?

That or writing in cursive. It's apparently fading out these days.

 

[Debacle]

Not sure if it was useless? But we were taught how to trade stocks on the stock market?

I wish I'd been taught that! Or just more about smart strategies for handling money. I grew up being told you put your savings in a savings account, and that was about it. No one really told me about how most banks have really crummy interest rates on their savings accounts. I didn't know about investing. Honestly, it's still something I don't feel confident handling. I'm lucky to have a spouse who does understand investment strategy. But I think the fact that you were taught about stocks is wonderful. Maybe you're not using that knowledge right now, but I'm sure at some point it will benefit you.

 

[Morlock]

Not sure if it was useless? But we were taught how to trade stocks on the stock market?

That or writing in cursive. It's apparently fading out these days.

We weren't taught that but we were told how to place bets on horses! It was a very different time lol. We were even told about SP Bookmakers which were like independent bookies!

 

[Nekochan]

Well, I've never understood why we were taught the alphabet goes in a certain order? It doesn't apply to anything ever. Maybe cursive too since its fading out.

 

[Kasterine]

How to make sure no bubbles are in a tube of water

 

[Winter_Wolf]

I dunno, I've found cursive to be useful, not necessarily on its own (I do sign my signature in cursive of course), but I incorporate elements of it in my printing, to write a bit quicker and more efficiently. I don't loop together every letter nor do I use some of the more odd looking cursive letters, but looping and linking together a few here and there helps a bit and is more efficient.

 

[Elernia]

Woodwork and sewing were an absolute waste of time and funding at my school.

 

[h2h0e]

My middle school (when I went there) had a class that everyone took: Careers. I mean, yeah, we need to explore them, but there was only one teacher for the class and we worked on the same project all year, and it was about managing your money. I mean, ok, yeah, money is essential, but we spent the whole freaking year on it. Almost my whole grade was pissed because they wanted to take other classes. I for one never got to take that art class I always wanted to take. And did I mention we had to take it both years?

 

[Morlock]

Woodwork and sewing were an absolute waste of time and funding at my school.

I always wished I was better at trades kind of stuff but I wasn't and it never made sense to me that despite school supposedly being a place of learning the wood work teacher would always expect people to already have some skills in the area. I actually managed to get out of woodwork to do textiles (sewing) it still sucked but me and my mate got to be around the girls lol.

My middle school (when I went there) had a class that everyone took: Careers. I mean, yeah, we need to explore them, but there was only one teacher for the class and we worked on the same project all year, and it was about managing your money. I mean, ok, yeah, money is essential, but we spent the whole freaking year on it. Almost my whole grade was pissed because they wanted to take other classes. I for one never got to take that art class I always wanted to take. And did I mention we had to take it both years?

We had 2 weeks of what they called "Work Experience" where you would go to an actual workplace and observe what was going on. I was interested in journalism at the time so they got me a place at a local newspaper. I didn't learn anything really. I was ignored most of the time which was fine and it was really just a big waste of time.

Speaking of wasting a year on useless stuff, had an English teacher who spent the whole year on Romeo and Juliet, he even wanted us to act it out because he thought it would make more sense for us. It really isn't a difficult play, I got it. Why are we spending all year on this? There were actually 2 other books we were supposed to study that year that we never got to because of Romeo and Juliet.

It's a shame you never got to do art, I am not good at it and to me subjects like Art, Music, Gym, Woodwork etc should be for those who have a passion for it. I like music but my school just made it into a joke. So much time was wasted at school learning crap that I would never become any good at and to this day have never needed.

 

[Insidi]

Hm, easily the Quadtradic Equation. Seriously, anything going that and beyond should be relgated to electives where you will actually need to use those principles of math, for example, knowing advanced geometry when your in construction

 

[Morlock]

Hm, easily the Quadtradic Equation. Seriously, anything going that and beyond should be relgated to electives where you will actually need to use those principles of math, for example, knowing advanced geometry when your in construction

Some people don't have a clue what they want so the general broad stroke education where you learn a little about everything but never become an expert is ok for them. The area I grew up in was working class and it was assumed we would all grow up and become factory workers or tradesmen. So math was very important and they loved sports. I wanted to learn history, philosophy, literature, I guess more of a classic education. It would have been nice to be given the room to specialize in learning what I was interested in.

 

[ChronoMinstrel]

I don't know... I feel like anything taught at school is useful depending on where you go in life. Now what I wish school would teach? How to make cvs, file for taxes, open bank accounts, deal with anxiety and stuff like that. I feel like school should prepare you for life too rather than just the job.

 

[LadybirdMooch]

finding angles and lengths of sides of a quadrilateral ._.

 

[Hablmet]

I have a feeling sociology is a big no for me - yes, you can learn etiquette. Yes, you can learn the different personality types to help you talk to people. And yes, if you get far enough without wanting to strangle the teacher (it's that bad here), you can actually learn a bit about law. Is it worth the three years? Hell no.
Mathematics, even though I loathe them, can still be very useful for anyone who wants to become an architect or a scientist in some degree.

The way education is going here I might as well become a history/English teacher and make the students actually comprehend what I'm saying. (My history and English teachers are pretty neat though.)

 

[jakthemenace]

This really depends on the person, but learning in physical education how to play a bunch of sports that i will never think of playing as a career, or a hobby even. I mean, my friend could invite me to play tennis with her, but that the only sport im a bit decent at.

 

[Morlock]

This really depends on the person, but learning in physical education how to play a bunch of sports that i will never think of playing as a career, or a hobby even. I mean, my friend could invite me to play tennis with her, but that the only sport im a bit decent at.

I hated gym. Really hated it when they tried to get us to do back flips and gymnastic type stuff. Some people just aren't capable and having the whole class laugh when you fail just isn't good for an already damaged self esteem!

 

[Chimney Swift]

Unless you're going to be an engineer, all the math after 4th grade is useless.

 

[BluDaBaDee]

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.