What was the most useless and the most useful classes you took in HS? (high school, psychology)

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

I actually received much better, more useful critiquing of my writing in my college-level English classes, although it was obviously not necessary that the basic mechanics be a subject of focus at that level. In HS, I think teachers were so thrilled that I was a solid and competent writer that they just let it go at that, rather than help me improve. I suppose they had their hands full walking a lot of their other students through basic grammar and mechanics, though, and figured I, along with other good writers, could fend for myself. My college writing classes taught me to become a much better self-editor, something on which my HS teachers didn't really spend much time.

my college english classes were nothing short of just showing up. i remember the one i took over the summer between by junior and senior years of college was called "Reading Drama". It essentially covered all the literature we discussed in AP English my senior year of high school. I remember after the first essay I called home to my dad to e-mail me all my old essays from that year that he had saved on our home computer. I turned them each in and received better grades on them in college than I did in high school. Go figure lol.

[TabulaRasa]

We were required to take home ec in middle school (though not HS). I still make omelets the way I learned to in 7th grade. But had I not learned then, I think I would have figured it out just fine on my own, with or without a class, as I have many cooking techniques.

Keyboarding was definitely an asset for me. I was in HS right on the cusp of the Internet becoming commonly accessible to most schools and households, and it was taught as a HS elective (required for college prep track, though). In one of my early jobs as a newspaper reporter and writer, I was the fastest typist in the house, which was helpful. I still type/write faster than most of my colleagues.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by greenvillebuckeye

my college english classes were nothing short of just showing up. i remember the one i took over the summer between by junior and senior years of college was called "Reading Drama". It essentially covered all the literature we discussed in AP English my senior year of high school. I remember after the first essay I called home to my dad to e-mail me all my old essays from that year that he had saved on our home computer. I turned them each in and received better grades on them in college than I did in high school. Go figure lol.

Not my experience at all...my literature classes, especially, were gloriously intense and intellectually demanding. I was in heaven, as an English major. Most literature discussions in HS were very limited by the majori of other students...so painfully simplistic and perfunctory, it was wonderful to be in small, intimate, salon- style discussion based classes in college with people who actually had something worthwhile to say, and a real interest in being there and learning. Really refreshing.

Really, though, at my alma mater, all classes required quite a bit more than just showing up. It was a fairly demanding school...I loved it.

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

We were required to take home ec in middle school (though not HS). I still make omelets the way I learned to in 7th grade. But had I not learned then, I think I would have figured it out just fine on my own, with or without a class, as I have many cooking techniques.

Keyboarding was definitely an asset for me. I was in HS right on the cusp of the Internet becoming commonly accessible to most schools and households, and it was taught as a HS elective (required for college prep track, though). In one of my early jobs as a newspaper reporter and writer, I was the fastest typist in the house, which was helpful. I still type/write faster than most of my colleagues.

I went to high school probably at the same time you did as we had this glorious comp lab in the library but i never saw anyone using it. I think they were all still "afraid" of the big bad internet haha. most teachers i'm sure had no clue how to incorporate into their lessons yet at that point. which was actually a good thing because when it came to research they all still made us crack open books, something that helped me a lot in college even though that was the early 2000s when as you said the internet became commonly used by the masses. I "scold" my students weekly it seems about relying so much on google to do their research and how in my day (the 90s haha) we had to open up a book. I have kids who have no clue what an encyclopedia is and it breaks my heart haha.

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Not my experience at all...my literature classes, especially, were gloriously intense and intellectually demanding. I was in heaven, as an English major. Most literature discussions in HS were very limited by the majori of other students...so painfully simplistic and perfunctory, it was wonderful to be in small, intimate, salon- style discussion based classes in college with people who actually had something worthwhile to say, and a real interest in being there and learning. Really refreshing.

Really, though, at my alma mater, all classes required quite a bit more than just showing up. It was a fairly demanding school...I loved it.

the class itself i took in college was probably 50 kids and was one of 3 english choices you had to take to get your english credit to get your BA. so maybe thats why it was a little less than intense. kinda like english for Bio majors or something to that effect.

by contrast AP english senior year had 16 of us in there and had very little lecture, almost all discussion based. 3 of the 16 in that class went to become litigation attorneys so yea you can imagine that discussion was never short haha.

[buffy888]

Useless - trig, plus some business something-or-other blowoff class that I took just because a couple of my friends were taking it and all of my other classes were Honors/AP/IB

Useful - English, speech, French

[John23]

Useless - everything except p.e. (lol). Just kidding.

Useless, definitely 2 years of french, and 2 years of spanish! Forgot every word of both of them.

People complain students don't like school, think it's boring, wasteful. Pefect example of that is foreign language. Isn't there a better way of teaching foreign language other than memorizing everything and dumping it at the end?

Where's the innovation? I think its funny, something like Rosetta Stone is popular in the private market for learning a language. But in prison (school), mental prison.....they just slug it out the same old way. Dry textbooks, lecture? Tests and memorizing?

Wouldn't you incorporate audio cd's or visual aids or something to learn a language by now?

If schools were smart, they'd be incorporating language, grammar, spelling, and the history of words (like latin) all into one big course. It would help you on something like the national spelling bee (on the other day). You'd understand words better.....not just well enough to pass a test.

-Something I found surprisingly interesting was college level calculus. I was real proud of myself for getting an A. I think maturity plays a big part in math. Just because you aren't up to it in 6th, 7th or 8th grade doesn't mean you can't do well.

[zthatzmanz28]

Almost all of them. By the time I went to college I was re-learning the stuff like algebra, critical analysis of literature and writing,

[wyolady]

Best class? Marriage and Family or Typing. Had a Home Ec teacher who was honest about what is was like to be married and have kids. Keep in mind I also took AP Calc in HS, but Marriage and Family was still more relevant and lasting.

Typing...we didn't have computers yet in the early 80's, but I learned touch typing that transitioned me to computer keyboarding. Makes my work so much faster today, compared to coworkers I see who hunt-and-peck.

Worst class? Social Studies. Teacher lecture, endless handouts and them dumped knowledge at test.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by John23

Useless - everything except p.e. (lol). Just kidding.

Useless, definitely 2 years of french, and 2 years of spanish! Forgot every word of both of them.

Where's the innovation? I think its funny, something like Rosetta Stone is popular in the private market for learning a language. But in prison (school), mental prison.....they just slug it out the same old way. Dry textbooks, lecture? Tests and memorizing?

Wouldn't you incorporate audio cd's or visual aids or something to learn a language by now?

We had an audio language lab in the early 60s in my high school for languages.

My granddaughter has access to the Rosetta Stone through her elementary school.