What Is the Most Worthless Class You Ever Took in High School?
- Thread starter JasonP
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MemberLatin, when I was a junior. A dead language. I did it to make my mom happy. Plus the teacher was horrible.
Ricardo1991
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Biology. Nothing in it I didn't already know. Kept a paperback book hidden behind the textbook and read that in class instead of participating.
You didn't ask, but the best class I took in high school was English. The teacher encouraged us to think about what we read, what we write, and how we communicate verbally. He also suggested thought-provoking books to read that were above high school level, treating us as the adults we were to become instead of mere teenagers as everyone else saw us.
You didn't ask, but the best class I took in high school was English. The teacher encouraged us to think about what we read, what we write, and how we communicate verbally. He also suggested thought-provoking books to read that were above high school level, treating us as the adults we were to become instead of mere teenagers as everyone else saw us.
- Feb 17, 2017
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- February, 2017
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- Acoustic Trauma
I also use "Math" all day every day. Algebra on the other hand........................
- May 3, 2017
- 146
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- 09/2015
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- Who am I kidding, its got to be noise :/
Hmm, I found most of them useful, although I wish they took a few minutes in health class to tell us about the dangers of noise etc. It could have changed quite a few lives. Although I feel this is a societal problem, and it bothers me that a lot of people think louder is better. Oh well :/
- Feb 17, 2017
- 10,400
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- February, 2017
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- Acoustic Trauma
I'm surprised to see math mentioned so much. It's one of the most important subjects in my opinion. I took a lot of math classes in college, but I have forgotten a lot of the more advanced math and now it's starting to hurt me.
- Feb 17, 2017
- 10,400
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- February, 2017
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I know the exact point at which I could no longer follow my math professors. I can't get my mind around "measure theory." Vector integral calculus? Bing it on! But measure theory is something else entirely.
To me, the usefulness of a class doesn't depend on the subject. Most classes are there, or should be there, to teach general skills like critical thinking, logical reasoning, self-expression, initiative, pro-activeness, responsibility, learning how to learn/research etc. These skills cannot be taught in isolation, they need to be applied to some subject, but it's these skills that prove to be useful rather than the "mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" fact-type knowledge or an applied skill. With these general skills, you can (start to) solve any problem, which should be more and more useful in the current job market as well.
Any useless classes I could name would be useless because of a bad curriculum or bad teachers, not because of the subject. My main complaint with education is that it teaches conformity rather than developing individuals, and obedience rather than initiative. For example, all schools I went to had lots of assignments with hardly any educational value, but if you didn't do them, you'll have to retake the course until you're obedient enough.
I'm a computing science student at university now, and what I see around me is that the students who do well (high test scores, getting teaching assistant positions) are the most obedient students, and sadly not the students with the best academic skills.
Any useless classes I could name would be useless because of a bad curriculum or bad teachers, not because of the subject. My main complaint with education is that it teaches conformity rather than developing individuals, and obedience rather than initiative. For example, all schools I went to had lots of assignments with hardly any educational value, but if you didn't do them, you'll have to retake the course until you're obedient enough.
I'm a computing science student at university now, and what I see around me is that the students who do well (high test scores, getting teaching assistant positions) are the most obedient students, and sadly not the students with the best academic skills.
- Feb 17, 2017
- 10,400
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- February, 2017
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- Acoustic Trauma
Doesn't the above provide great preparation for the time one starts working for a living? In fact, in certain light, this "obedience" (= ability to force oneself to do something that one has no interest in doing) is the most important thing one Can learn at school (and that includes graduate school).
I disagree. There's great value in learning to do some unpleasant work now to receive a larger reward in the future, like writing a book, restoring an old car, learning how to program, etc. I'm very much in favor of teaching that. But learning to ignore your own interests to follow someone else's orders is not a positive skill and should be avoided as much as possible. Both in education as in occupation. It'll lead to unfulfilled people who are alienated from themselves.
There are unfortunate cases in which someone has to do work they're not interested in in order to survive. At least they're getting a salary, but chances are that they're not motivated, not happy, less productive, have little initiative, etc. People generally are happier and produce better work if they're working on something they're (at least somewhat) passionate about too.
To make it a little less abstract, here are some extreme cases: I've gotten classes where some assignments basically consisted of looking something up in a list and copy-pasting that into a form. Or classes with mandatory attendance, regardless if you needed the class or not. Or simple math homework assignments that had to be handed in according to very strict formatting rules. Hardly any thinking required or learning done, but all very time consuming and labor intensive.
- Feb 17, 2017
- 10,400
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- February, 2017
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- Acoustic Trauma
??? Your interest is in achieving your goal. In this case, the goal is to graduate. So when you do what it takes to graduate, you are NOT ignoring your own interests. Whoever is not following orders (in this case) is acting against their own interests by focusing on the costs and benefits in the short term instead of focusing on the costs and benefits in the longer term. Note, that most of us will be employees (and not business owners). So the skill of following orders (to get to the goal of being paid and promoted) even when this is the last thing one wants to do (in the short term), is the most important skill one can have. Now that I think of it, business owners are no different. They need to satisfy customers and do things to stay competitive. They might be the ones coming up with what needs to be done (orders), but the skill of doing the things that need to be done even when one has much more interesting/enjoyable things to do is a key skill (and possibly the only useful thing one can learn at school).
- Feb 17, 2017
- 10,400
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- February, 2017
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- Acoustic Trauma
A homeless bum (assuming that person is not mentally ill) had always done what they felt like. Homeless bums don't look like the most fulfilled people to me.
I can't think of any occupation (besides possibly a "male porn star") where one can stay passionate about one's job for longer than, say, a year. It is a job because they need to pay you to do it. People's careers last 30-50 years. Believe me, no matter how interesting a job it is (although few jobs are interesting), when you start doing it professionally (i.e., what you do has to be perfect every day throughout your career) very soon it loses its appeal. I am sure that eventually even male porn stars would start despising going to work. The idea of passionate employees seems to be a bizarre fantasy. It is similar to "an enthusiastic cancer patient". One would rather not have cancer, and one would rather not work.
This is great preparation for the time when you will be working for a living. The "fun" assignments were NOT preparing you for what is to come once you become an employee or employer.
Anima
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- Mar 22, 2016
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Franco was ruling Spain when I was in high school, long, long time ago. You just can't imagine what that was. Religion (creationism) and political indoctrination (fascism) were brainwashing classes and absolutely worthless from an academic point of view. Latin grammar was by far more enjoyable and useful.
victoria9273
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- Aug 24, 2017
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- Hyperacusis since 2014
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This thread is delightful! The worst class I've ever had was music. Can't teach anything about music genres or theory. I think that way is rather better because otherwise, all the good music would have been spoiled on me by this class.
calculus, algebra, finite, physics (although at least this was interesting) chemistry --- i needed these for secondary ed. but i can't say any of these skills are explicitly useful to me in my life now.
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