Other Most Useless skill they taught you in school?

[Sylvio]

bro try trig derivatives lmao

 

[spicymcyiken]

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Literally what the hell do I need this for?

 

[BakaTheIdiot]

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Literally what the hell do I need this for?

*shrugs* I learned how to count to a billion in German on my second week, but why would I possibly need to count that high?

 

[spicymcyiken]

*shrugs* I learned how to count to a billion in German on my second week, but why would I possibly need to count that high?

well im sure counting in german is worth somethin, even if its not that high

 

[Jaeger010]

Algebra. Show me one Non-scientific career that you don't have to spend at least 3 years in university for and I'll retract this.

 

[Leon The Needled Riolu]

You need to know about Multiplication and with it how to add?
I have NEVER used the skill.

 

[poison goth]

learning

 

[PandorasBox101]

Learning how to find the "hidden meaning" behind someone's book when there obviously wasn't one, for example if you're reading a kid's book about how apples are good for you. there isn't some hidden reason for it, it's stated pretty clearly, and I don't want to go through all this extra work just to get to some conclusion like, "The boy eating an apple symbolized he was coming to terms with his fear of growing up and losing his family."

 

[Lost...]

Algebra 1. The entire unit. WHEN ARE WE EVEN GONNA NEED AN EXPONENTIAL FUNCTION IN FACTORED FORM?! there was no point to it and our teacher flat out told us we would never use it, and the only reason she taught it was becaue it was the law.

Also, my geometry teacher taught me how to hack a bit and how to win almost any online game ever. Im a gaming master now. Though we got especially good at the original arcade games which all delt with patterns anyway.

 

[Lost...]

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 think part of them teaching PE was to try to get kids to understand the importance of keeping a healthy and fit lifestyle. Especially in America, where there is a huge problem with child obesity, starting kids to understand sports and working out early can really help them.

 

[Jitterbug]

-How to set a formal dinning set.
-How to cross your legs properly
-How to add lace to a skirt that's too short
-How to keep your marriage vows holy
-How to sit at attention at all times
-How to keep a resting yes I am always pleasant and I am always listening to you face

Guess what kind of school I went to for a while.
​

 

[Kirorokat1132]

Cursive.
Math ANYTHING past long division.
MLA format. (It's APA in college, kiddies! )
Sentence diagrams.

 

[Butcher Bird]

I came here to say cursive but Kirokat has it covered!
The most use I've had from it is being able to write beautiful cursive on white boards and having my coworkers be in awe of my penmanship.
I remember when they made us write in cursive on the back of standardized tests that we wouldn't cheat. Yeesh.

 

[Lenny2000]

How to love

 

[Jackstack]

Not what they taught, but how they taught it, typing. Some time in elementary school, I was taught how to type. I remember it being one of the worst experiences in my life. They were strict, and didn't apply the thinking of "It doesn't matter what form you have, only that you're good" I had to type with eight fingers on the 'a' key through semi-colon key. In that position, my fingers weren't fast enough to type. Also, the way I do it now helps with me seeing the keyboard.

 

[entropic]

WARNING: rant incoming.

Genuinely hurts my heart to see the number of folks on here who think mathematics is useless. I honestly don't get it - why do subjects like art, English, the social sciences and so on get the pass whilst mathematics gets crapped on constantly? Y'all happily learn to write poems, but trigonometry's the useless subject? Literally every subject you learn in high school has less applicability than mathematics.
Sure, mathematics is hard. Most mathematics teachers barely know enough about the subject to do it, let alone teach it. Just because you can't do it, however, doesn't mean that it's useless. Conflating "what I find hard" and "useless knowledge" is a fantastic way of making sure that you never develop as a person.

Mathematics is not about memorisation. The very core of the subject is based on inductive logic - pursuing the subject allows you to develop the ability to think with razor sharp accuracy. It fine-tunes your capabilities for abstraction to a point where your ideas transcend your natural condition (we aren't built to think about four/five/n-dimensional objects, but we can do so only because of mathematics). It allows you to see patterns in what might seem like random information, to make deep connections between situations that appear to be completely unrelated and so much more.
These skills are superpowers. No other creature on earth can perform them to a useful standard. You can - anybody who can speak a language has the capability to develop their mathematical skills.
Those who have come before you have used these ideas to completely change the world. Computer science, engineering, science, medicine, finance, psychology, sociology, philosophy, human resources management... every single one of these has been significantly improved by mathematical thinking. It takes immense arrogance or ignorance to call mathematics useless.

I suppose I'm being a little too hard on you lot - the stuff you're taught all the way up to high-school really doesn't do a good job of demonstrating the inherent beauty of mathematics - or, in fact, what mathematics is. Stick with it, though - not only does mathematics make you a more useful person, it makes the world a much richer place to be in.
...end of rant.

tl;dr: stop disrespecting mathematics, it hurts my feelings. Also, obligatory 'feel free to get in touch' if you're even a little interested in mathematics and associated subjects.

 

[Ruinel]

How to worry about E V E R Y T H I N G at once

 

[Corrosion]

To this day I still wonder what the point of teaching us how to play a recorder was.

 

[GiggleMug]

I'm going to say learning how to groom a horse. Now I'm not saying it's a useless skill, it's just one that I don't need to know nor one that I will ever use again,so it's useless for me.

 

[Mr NoNoNuggets]

Algebra. Show me one Non-scientific career that you don't have to spend at least 3 years in university for and I'll retract this.

Any place that orders inventory.

I have 5 cases of lettuce. We go through 2 a day. If I am ordering the truck, and this lettuce needs to last me 5 days, how many more cases do I need to order?

X÷2=5

X= 10 =total cases of lettuce needed

I will need to order 5 more cases.

I apologise

 

[Ambiloquous]

How to make a bottle rocket shoot a wooden block with a tiny parachute into the sky? It was fun though. I made the best parachute and I was the only one who caught my block. And this was for tech.

 

[Demonic cupcake]

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?

Actually fun fact i have to write in cursive. I have dysgraphia and my actual handwriting is so bad i had to go to an occupational therapist (adhd stuff) and they taught me cursive. I also learned i have a eye diversion (i think thats what its called) and thats my i cant cross my eyes. I honestly kinda wish i had learned to write better.

Useless stuff though...
Hmmm
Well they did try to spend one week of social studies trying to explain credit cards, debit cards, and checks and how to spend money. I learned nothing!
My 8th grade english teacher (MANY terrible memories attributed to her) INSISTED that we write in pen because in high school YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO USE PEN. So one im in high school and ive used a pen like once. Because i didnt have a pencil.
*realization*
Analyzing poetry. So dumb on so many levels.

 

[peritwinkle]

Most subjects are there to serve as a base for your future career/university studies. Even if you’re not interested in certain classes, they build a foundation of knowledge that sometimes proves to be useful in life, so you guys should take a break from underestimating the power of calculus and the importance of the blood transfusion rule.

But really, what I found completely useless was literature. At this point in time you can’t even say it forces kids to read, because they’ll most likely either skim through the dialogue parts or read a summary. Yet the fact that they teach you how to ‘interpret’ certain poems/pieces of writing is ridiculous. Not everyone has the same opinion.

 

[Lord_Toast_Reborn]

Honestly. Kid saying math is useless are wrong but not completely. What are surds used for?

 

[Shotagonist]

I learned in school how to hand-craft circuits. Probably was nice 50 years ago when we weren't printing microchips by the millions in automated factories.