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I found almost every class I took to be "useless", particularly English, Algebra 2, Chemistry as well as health and Intro to Film.
English- I actually like reading books, but I dislike it when I'm told to read a certain book and have to do a report on it. I also disliked writing in the Jane Schaffer method.
Algebra 2- I DESPISED this class. It just seemed pointless to me. I could see it being relevant for some people- if you were going to become a scientist, an engineer, a "mathetician" or something of that sort. But for the majority of people, it just doesn't seem relevant. No one I know say they've used this stuff during their lifetime. Why do we need to know where x or y equals on the line or figure out odd looking equations? This class was just far too confusing and complicated for me.
Chemistry- didn't/don't care to know about the periodic table, how old a rock is or figure out algebraic like problems.
Health- the first half of the class was sex education stuff. It was pretty much stuff I knew already. The second half was consisted of PE. All we did was run 4 laps every Tuesdays and Thursdays, then sat around in the gym afterwards. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we also just sat around the gym and talked to our friends.
Intro to Film- mostly watched and learned about different films and their genre types. My teacher was kind of snobby though.
The only class I found relevant and liked was Finance math. You learned a little bit about how to pay your bills, use credit cards, pay your mortgage, buy a car, build up your savings, etc. This class really changed my views about money and I find myself going back at my old notes to read over some stuff. Very useful and helpful! I also had a teacher who really knew what he was talking about.
Driver's Ed was another class I liked and found useful. It was fun when we got to drive around my town!
Most useless class: Civics. Not because it was a bad subject, but because it was a monumentally bad teacher. As I recall, he spent most of the school year sitting on a desk in the front row and telling us how he used to get drunk and throw up in college. Not a good teacher. nope nada
The most useful class for me was speech. It gave me the opportunity to get up in front of the class and also during competitions and talk. Because of this, I believe I have no fear or anxiety about getting up in front of the class. *and* I memorized some really awesome poems that have stuck with me throughout my life and given me much pleasure.
One other very useful class I took my senior year was a vocational class where we ran a "pretend" business. There were different departments such as a billing, shipping and receiving, advertising, etc. and we all went through the actual motions that we would if we were running a real business. It was really interesting and gave me a good understanding how running a business works. I really liked it.
Most heavily utilized continually in daily life, through college and post-college:
-all writing-heavy classes
-public speaking (state mandated for one semester for all sophomores and fits language arts requirement)
-consumer economics (basic personal finance 101, essentially)
I didn't take any that were useless, but the above were by far the ones with the most relevant practical application post-schooling.
Now that I've gotten older, I realize that whether or not I liked a class doesn't always correlate with its usefulness.
Useless (for me): calculus, chemistry, physics, biology. It was probably due to how it was taught at my school, because none of them prepared me for taking it in college (which I managed to do successfully in spite of that).
Useful: Home Economics was by far the most useful high school class I ever took. Every time I need to sew a button or make a pancake I can "hear" my teacher's voice explaining how to do it.
My English classes also proved to be useful, because they helped me develop strong writing skills. I would have never made it through graduate school and gotten the publications I need for tenure without being a somewhat decent writer. I learned nothing new in my college English courses.
The things I learned in 4 years of Spanish classes come in handy from time to time.
Interestingly, the things I learned in PE also come in handy every time I want to lift weights correctly or teach my daughter about sports.
Useful - surprisingly, it was my keyboarding/typewriting class. I'm shocked by how many smart, intelligent people I work with who can only type using their 2 index fingers
Useless - health, the subject matter was all common sense.
Useless-shop class because the instructor spent too much time telling stories. Another useless was computer science. The software language used then is dead.
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Useful- several were useful. They include typing (mid 1980s) and home economics. Home Ec. got me some extra cash in the Navy. I charged $20 per patch on the day of uniform inspection. Have sewn many buttons. I'm amazed that some people can't even boil eggs correctly.
My English classes also proved to be useful, because they helped me develop strong writing skills. I would have never made it through graduate school and gotten the publications I need for tenure without being a somewhat decent writer. I learned nothing new in my college English courses.
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.
funny how many of you have listed home ec (family and consumer science in the 21st century) as one of the more useful classes. my mom taught home ec at the high school and middle school level for 20 years (running gag around our house that she taught kids how to do laundry). we (my sister, dad and I) only teased her due to the fact that shouldn't a parent (mother, not to be gender biased) be teaching you these things. I did NOT take home ec in either MS or HS (learned everything from the master at home haha anyways) and turned out fine.
PE i actually did not take b/c the year i was suppose to take it my dad an AP at the time created a policy whereby a kid could do an "activity log" over the summer and count that as his or her PE credit. I never bowled or played so much golf in one summer haha. His reason? - the PE program at the time was nothing more than a.) play basketball or b.) sit in the bleachers and watch.
Health - LOVED the teacher (he was a former Olympian distance runner from Canada, great guy) - boring subject.
i probably should've prefaced this by saying i actually enjoyed school so it's hard to say what was useless to me.
professionally since i'm a high school history teacher now you could argue all of my social studies courses were somewhat relevant haha.
There are certainly classes I did NOT need looking back but took them anyways.
courses i wish i would've taken looking back was the Sports Medicine class that our athletic trainer taught.
I also did not take typing or keyboarding in high school. not sure why.
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