what is the most useless school subject

[Wacomydikid]

The question is in the title. In my opinion it is drama and at my school we are forced to take it until we are in secondary 3. So that mean I still have two year before I don't have drama anymore.

[Toad]

I heard there is a religious education class in the UK...nuff said.

[Citizen X]

If you're in a private religious school, that has got to be any faith based subject.

I know it because I was in one

[Adaire]

I actually liked drama. It taught to me how to speak in front of people and to project confidence. The stupidest class I've ever taken was definitely Health.

[Toad]

I enjoyed my health class. It encompassed physical and emotional helath. Plus there was this fucking super hot chick who sat across the room from me and she ALWAYS wore a skirt...hehe I enjoyed the show more than the class itself.

[walfin]

I'm jealous. How come you all had useless subjects in school? I took 9 subjects and all of them were useful in a sense. If I had more useless subjects I could've skipped more classes.

[Ermine]

I don't think there's any one most useless class. As for most useless classes, definitely health (nothing but stating the obvious and telling you how to have a "healthy social life"), IT Essentials (come on, who doesn't know how to use Microsoft Office?), and the general vocational requirements (stuff like wood shop, welding, electronics, etc). Fine by me if you're actually interested in those classes, but just about any given class you can take in school leads to a career of some sort, so the vocational requirement is a bit arbitrary.

[drumir93]

Originally Posted by Ermine

I don't think there's any one most useless class. As for most useless classes, definitely health (nothing but stating the obvious and telling you how to have a "healthy social life

I have to say I disagree about Health.
Now for my Health term in High school I had one of the worst educated teachers imaginable, so I know how health should not be taught. But some of that subject matter is quite important if you ask me. Children should know what calories are, and why exercise is good, and why fast-food is bad, and so on.

As for the others, I agree. Also, Speech class. Holey flaming balls of crap do I hate speech. :(

[Huh!?!]

Oh to have had your useless school subjects!

I'm quite old so we didn't even have any IT classes when I was at school *sigh*

I went to an all girls grammar school in the UK in the early 80's. In terms of the most useless, it's a toss up between
Scripture - as Religious Education was called at my school, or
Domestic Science - which was basically a crap cookery class for half the school year and learning how to use a sewing machine for the other half.
Happy days.

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I'm quite old so we didn't even have any IT classes when I was at school *sigh*

I remember having to learn Basic (happily forgotten) on some old Apple computers. That's back in the day when floppy disks really were floppy. I think they held a whole kb of data....

[saffyangelis]

My ICT classes are kinda useless, we do stuff like using microsoft publisher to make an 'interactive presentation for a doctors surgery' (Which I can do in my sleep, and I can't use a computer without breaking it) then write about how we did it, and have all design stuff and so on for coursework, which has ended up as an inch-high stack of paper in a folder for coursework, and I get to do it all again next year.. =/ (I got an A on it though =)) And for homework, we get worksheet after worksheet on the data protection act, and software and hardware and so on. It's kinda useless, but we get to listen to music and stuff, so it's not too bad.

Some other likely ones are Geography, which I never really liked. We'd sit there and get told about the different cloud types, and how arches and stuff in cliffs are formed, and rock erosion with waterfalls and stuff, and then we'd have to colour in maps, or remember the names and locations of all the national parks in England and stuff. I didn't like Geography so much, but I've dropped it now, so I'm not doing it for GCSE, luckily.

And Food tech, (another one I dropped) which is like cooking, but you don't just get to cook. Instead, we'd have to sit there for one or two hours a week, (and we'd get to cook for an hour every other week) listening to the (most likely anorexic) teacher talk about nutrients and food manufacturing and recipe plans and so on, and then she'd go on a rant at me about how unhealthy vegetarianism was. I didn't like her much...

But I quite like RS (Religious Studies as my school calls it) because what we turn it into is just everyone all talking about whatever the thing is that we're learning about (Seriously, getting my year to talk about euthanasia instead of just bitching about each other? Definitely a good lesson =D) but I have a really good teacher for it though, ISFX I think, and she lets us all argue about stuff, or we end up just messing around and watching films that are loosely related to the conversation.

[Seducer of the Homeless]

RE (Religious Education) is a great pile of Indoctrinative Pious Wank, do excuse me for the petulance

i think the tags of this thread 'school useless' is a brilliant way to describe education

as a man wittier than myself once said

"teach a child to read, the rest is just brainwashing"

[Inappropriate Behavior]

"teach a child to read, the rest is just brainwashing"

Good quote!

[Seducer of the Homeless]

another one i like

"we spend 16 months teaching a child to Talk and Walk, then the next 16 years telling them to Shut Up and Sit Down"

[echoplex]

idk, "homeroom" always seemed useless in high school. It always seemed like time that could've been used for more sleep.

Anyway, my schools were always stupid, with half of the classes basically being socializing class with a person there to send people to detention or yell at people for some reason. I can't believe it was all mandatory.

[Nocturna]

Great quotes, Seducer!

[Tyria]

I would say a useless school subject would be one that you don't get anything out of and don't use in your day to day life. For me, that was art.

I do enjoy art on my own time now, so even if you hate it now doesn't mean that it will stay that way.

[didyouknow]

Ancient History... I hate that its so damn fascinating. D:

I actually like my Religion class, my friends and I enjoy targeting the teacher (as the epitome of ignorance) for debates. That, and we're doing the meaning of life at the moment which means I get to crank out all my philosophy quotes (and Hitchhikers :P).

[MindsEye]

FRENCH CLASS in the middle of the USA at a time when SPANISH is becoming dominant.

(Amen to the Health class nonsense - really? fruits and vegetables are good for you?)

Chemistry was useless in the real world and its issues. So was Calculus. Read world application, please! Not for me, anyways.

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

ENGLISH, I know how to read, I know how to write, why did I have to take these damn classes every single year of school! I think that's why people are so dumb, they expect that if one were to go without an english class for a year they would forget their own native language?!?!

[nickgray]

Every subject in school is useless (more or less) because of their way of "teaching". Instead of an enthusiastic approach, describing the big picture first and then concentrating on the details, the school system relies on memorization and it's your ability to score well on tests that counts. That's where schools succeed the most - at killing your curiosity and desire to learn.

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

school is like prison for kids. oh and they spend less money on them than actual prisons.

[MindsEye]

nickgray sounds right - the way they teach is practically useless (up until college). Once you get into a good liberal arts college and your mind is exploded with post-modern theory and issues relating to gender, class, race, and sexual orientation are probed and critiqued, you really have no idea. no idea. i feel they did a bad job educating me, they do not want you to "question" the material. so, it's all a drag.

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

they definitely do a HORRIBLE job at preparing students for the real world in public schools. Fuck all the censorship and sheltering they do, it just hurts us all in the long run.

[Spaekle]

Gym.

I'm sure ready to spend another semester putting up with a sexist coach who makes us all participate in various inane team sports!

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

don't you love how most of the gym teachers are fat?

[Cogwulf]

Citizenship as it was called in my school. It was half an hour a week where we got taught things like health issues and crime and things like key skills to write on resumes. I think the most useful thing I learnt there was all the names there are for marijuana.

When I was in school, I hated sports of any kind, but then after I left, I discovered that I'm actually good at sport. The problem is that we'd would only ever play a very narrow range of team sports when there's such a wide range of different sports available

[nickgray]

Originally Posted by Invoke Ninja's True Power

don't you love how most of the gym teachers are fat?

Never saw a fat one I had 3 sports teachers in high school, 2 were pretty athletic and the last one was, uhhh... insane (quite literally). I really hated the sports classes because all of our teachers just loved to make up absolutely ridiculous "exercises" that involved a good deal of social interaction. Really, if everybody would've quietly ran for 10-15 mins, then quiet pull-ups, push-ups, then something else. But quietly. I'd love sports. And by writing this post I just realized the reason I hate sports - school.

[Spaekle]

Hahahaha, I had an incredibly fat gym teacher in middle school who sounded like she'd been smoking her entire life. She criticized us for not being in shape, of course.

I actually don't have a problem with the running, the push-ups, and those things; if that was all there was to gym, I could deal with it. The social interaction involved makes it horrible, especially since I see no need to bust my ass to retrieve a ball just to make the kids who actually care for some reason happy.

I was really hoping I'd get the coach I had last time I had to take gym; he'd make me wear the clothes and walk for 5 minutes with the rest of the class, then I could go sit on the bleachers and draw with my iPod on for the rest of the period. It was actually pretty fun.

[Mondorius]

You know, looking back, elementary and highschool is complete bull. I mean, pretty much all the content taught is what a bunch of people in their fifties think children should know at X age.

And the result? All I can come up with, from what I remember from my time at school, is "what the hell?!"

Seriously, as was said previously, they really should teach us to read, cause the rest really is so much bull.

I do have a suggestion to replace the several years hole that removing everything besides language would leave. Maths, although basic, will pretty much help everyone. Everything else should be activites and theory that will help us discover ourselves, think for ourselves and teach us about the world that we'll be part of.

Big problem with current programs: a lot of it doesn't interest a lot of children and another big part of it is just brainwashing.

I'm not even gonna get started about HOW things should be taught and how teachers should be...

[Anthile]

Hm, I remember two PE teachers in particular. The first one was from Russia and he was... Russian. What followed was... in Soviet Russia, PE absolves YOU!

The second one was more laid back. We discussed often the the physics and background of sports, like why most girls cannot throw balls (they use the wrong foot at first) and such.
Me, being a sports nut, gave always 100% during the lessons that I rarely went out without bleeding and lots of new bruises. I even broke the arm of one of my peers ...accidentally.
He was so impressed that he even named his next son after me. True story.

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

school that is pre-high school is pretty much just a babysitting service so parents can work and know where their kids are. Like I said before, a glorified mental prison for kids, if you can't conform to the standards you either get in a lot of trouble or they place you in the special ed program. Its all so parents don't have to actually take responsibility for their children anymore.

[nickgray]

Originally Posted by Invoke Ninja's True Power

a glorified mental prison for kids

Indeed. The only thing you can get there is social experience. And if you're introverted, smart, curious and asking-questions type - then god help you to leave this place sane

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I had a bit of help from god and I am still insane

[aklyatne]

I'm going into my junior year of HS this year, and so far, I'd have to say that forced PE is ridiculously useless. Everything they teach you is all common sense. Health/driver's ed was useful, but only took up about 1/4 of the year. The rest was becoming terribly sweaty right before lunch.
Next most useless class: Study hall.
Study hall consisted entirely of sitting in the semi-dark auditorium with no talking so people could 'study' (have a book in their lap and talk quietly.) I just ended up bringing my computer and playing CoD4 for the last third of the year, so it wasn't a complete waste of time

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

study hall was my favorite class in high school.....music time or naptime

[RubberDucky451]

Originally Posted by Mondorius

You know, looking back, elementary and highschool is complete bull. I mean, pretty much all the content taught is what a bunch of people in their fifties think children should know at X age.

And the result? All I can come up with, from what I remember from my time at school, is "what the hell?!"

Seriously, as was said previously, they really should teach us to read, cause the rest really is so much bull.

I do have a suggestion to replace the several years hole that removing everything besides language would leave. Maths, although basic, will pretty much help everyone. Everything else should be activites and theory that will help us discover ourselves, think for ourselves and teach us about the world that we'll be part of.

Big problem with current programs: a lot of it doesn't interest a lot of children and another big part of it is just brainwashing.

I'm not even gonna get started about HOW things should be taught and how teachers should be...

I think children should be taught on a more specialized basis. This method is obviously more difficult but I believe it would be worth the effort.

[aklyatne]

Originally Posted by Invoke Ninja's True Power

study hall was my favorite class in high school.....music time or naptime

Yes, but BOTH of those were forbidden. They interrupted studying, apparently?

If you listened to music, they'd take your IPod/similar. Sleeping, they'd yell at you. Not fun.

Having a computer and alt+tabbing whenever one of the wardens walked by, though, worked

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

Originally Posted by aklyatne

Yes, but BOTH of those were forbidden. They interrupted studying, apparently?

If you listened to music, they'd take your IPod/similar. Sleeping, they'd yell at you. Not fun.

Having a computer and alt+tabbing whenever one of the wardens walked by, though, worked

sounds like schools are getting more and more nazi-ish every year that goes by,
maybe it just depends on the school and how much of a douche said teacher feels like being. That's ridiculous though, in my school the only thing they cared about was as long as you stayed in the room, unless you got a pass to go to the computer room/library which I did about 33% of the time, and not be noisy/disruptive. I suppose there were different teachers that did study hall and some of them suck more than others, guess I got lucky.

[aklyatne]

Originally Posted by Invoke Ninja's True Power

the only thing they cared about was as long as you stayed in the room.

Well, that's the exact opposite of how the school-wide system was for me. They didn't actually notice or care when you left the room. I just left and hung out in the drama room for most of the year. Luckily, this year, I've signed up for an 'AP initiatives' program (read: we feel sorry for the smart kids, so let's give them a break from the stupid ones) This year I'll have a combination of AP US History and AP Psychology, with study hall in the same room. After a brief 'interview', I've found out that the teachers are laid back xNTP's
Computer games ho!

[Mr.W]

My entire compulsory education career was centered around the state mandated tests we'd all have to take at the end of each year. Teachers taught the test, not the material, making all of the classes fairly useless. That's probably why I did so poorly in high school: I never really gave a damn and nobody gave me a reason to. There were a few great teachers here and there, but even they had to succumb to the responsibilities of their job and cater to the tests. My final year was probably the most pleasant because our junior year was the last time we'd ever have to see those tests.

If I had to pick one, P.E. for sure. I find physical fitness to be important and all, but P.E. did not really teach anybody to enjoy fitness. If anything, it probably made some people hate it. It was more like a forced recess where you didn't get to pick what you wanted to play and you were judged on your enthusiasm. The only times I enjoyed it were when we played soccer which was once in a blue moon. Otherwise, I can exercise in my own free time, how I want to, thanks.

[bdubs]

I would agree that gym class was bad. We played basketball for three years straight and I still do not feel I understand what constitutes a foul. 13 years of religion class culminating in a systematic theology class my junior year left a bad taste in my mouth as well. They best religion class I had attended was in my senior year of highschool. It consisted of a semester of psychology followed by a semester of "world religions", where my class learned the basics about religions other than the one we had been taught for the last 12 years. What ticks me off is that those responsible for the required curriculum of my school system are phasing that class out. They want to remove a remotely interesting class and replace it with more review of the same crap I had learned since kindergarden.:(

[Death]

Since I'm not from UK or US,this might not be familiar with you guys.The most hated subject is of course Moral Ed,yes they taught moral as an subject in here,because if they don't,it's going to be the end of the world.

How you suppose they teach kids some moral,by making them memorize 'politically correct' definition of 30 or more definition,literally.They even give 2 sided paper with small font asking us to memorize this bs at start of the semester which start from faith in god,family value etc. etc.

Wikipedia explains this subject very well than me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendidikan_Moral

In P.E,the teacher just let the student do whatever we want but after running few laps or some aerobic exercise as warm-up,and usually I play badminton.

[So Long So Long]

Originally Posted by Ermine

I don't think there's any one most useless class. As for most useless classes, definitely health (nothing but stating the obvious and telling you how to have a "healthy social life"), IT Essentials (come on, who doesn't know how to use Microsoft Office?), and the general vocational requirements (stuff like wood shop, welding, electronics, etc). Fine by me if you're actually interested in those classes, but just about any given class you can take in school leads to a career of some sort, so the vocational requirement is a bit arbitrary.

You'd be surprised.

I'm in a Computer Applications class this year and they are very idiotic when it comes to computers, especially Microsoft Word which is what we are usually using. At the current moment we're working on keyboarding and while I'm sitting there typing seventy-two words per minute they can barely get up to thirteen or fifteen words per minute and they don't even know how to shut a computer off or anything... It's very odd for me to watch, especially when I just want to tell them what to do.

Originally Posted by Seducer of the Homeless

RE (Religious Education) is a great pile of Indoctrinative Pious Wank, do excuse me for the petulance

i think the tags of this thread 'school useless' is a brilliant way to describe education

as a man wittier than myself once said

"teach a child to read, the rest is just brainwashing"

I like that quote.

- - -

I think the most useless class is Gym. I mean, yeah physical activity is great and everything, but getting sweaty and then having to go to class for the rest of the day and deal with it isn't exactly something desired by most people.

[sniktawekim]

i think it all depends on the teacher......

[Kidege]

^ sometimes it depends on the syllabus, which may not even be made by the teacher.

I had to take Leadership and Quality Culture in college. In the 1st we memorized a Stephen Covey book. In the second, we watched 80s interviews with CEOs.

[anyaa]

Dude..
I agree ... drama is the most useless subject at school...
To top it..I was made to sing when I was in 7th standard in school..:(..with my horrible voice...

[tashi]

Originally Posted by sniktawekim

i think it all depends on the teacher......

Absolutely. The teacher makes or breaks the class. It's hard to think of a use for a class you despise.

That would be gym for me. They make us swim =(

[SEPKA]

What about subject that are bad despite how good you like the teacher? I got Farming class in secondary school.

[tashi]

Originally Posted by SEPKA

What about subject that are bad despite how good you like the teacher? I got Farming class in secondary school.

Wow, farming class?Really? Okay you got a point there...