Things We Learned in School that are Now Useless
Remember in school when we had to write in cursive, make something out of a shoebox, or even how to climb a rope?
I play the trumpet in middle school and I love it more than anything else I do at school I used too hate music class in elementary bc you don't learn anything off it. only on how to sing I didn't even know the music alphabet until I got to band and started playing my trumpet.
My sister played the flute, and she hated it. She wanted the saxophone. We both played guitar once. I want to play again.
The recorder is useless, though. If you want to scare something, just blow and put your hands on the holes and move them around. Also, blowing loudly works like a charm.
Who does this in real life? This one is fun but doesn't really matter at all. Do you really think I would plan on intentionally dropping an egg and thinking it won't break? No, I wouldn't.
This one's actually important because it's the context that matters: to wear a helmet. But seeing this at #3, I'm no longer surprised why teens still cycle without a helmet and break their lives.
Most useless subject ever. How will you do this? That is also a waste of eggs and it is very gross. Someone will have to clean it up.
Gladly we hadn't had to memorize and could just use the printed table for tests. Chemists can use one too, but they have to somewhat know it by heart because they need the elements a lot and it takes some time to look everything up every few seconds.
In practice, you'll always have a periodic table to reference, and important values you'll memorize naturally through practice. The only people who benefit from memorizing the table of elements are teachers who want to make tests.
Biology, chemistry, and history involve memorization (of course, history is much more than that, and chemistry and biology do require some understanding), while physics and math are about understanding.
I usually use just 3.14 for finding the area of circles, so yeah, I kind of agree. Memorization gets you nowhere in math, and 25 digits are really not that impressive either.
Why would we need to know this? When are we going to go to a shop and wonder what the first 25 digits of pi are? We have Google and the internet for that.
Impractical, but an alright way to impress people. Although I don't know if people have to memorize more than a few digits.
Writing in cursive also means you can easily read things written in cursive. If you're studying history, then it becomes useful when reading old documents or letters becomes a necessity. I personally find it an advantage for writing signatures and such.
While it is still important in other countries where there is less technology, I can understand why people find it useless if they do not put it into use. Most forget that writing in cursive improves motor skills - which in this case isn't "useless".
I checked my school's card catalog, and it only had books from ancient times to the 1990s. We literally just got new books!
Does anyone even read books anymore?
I never had to do this, but my cousin did.
Trust me, when you get into college or at the very least, a college-level class in high school or a community college program, you're GOING to want to memorize this for tests even if you've long forgotten it prior to taking the classes. I know this because I took a math class for my Career and College Promise Program, and we had to do an entire lesson on it and practice at home online to memorize the formulas.
We have calculators. We don't need this. Math excluding basic math is useless considering that when your math teacher says you will use an equation in the future, you won't.
Oh my god, this sucked. I almost failed geometry. Geometry is what caused my depression because I was grounded for 4 months for failing.
Why are we learning about geometry when it is so useless? Two things: number 1, this does not apply to real life, and number 2, nobody cares about geometry.
But that can be useful in some situations, because in a lot of movies, characters go into action and climb on a rope. If they fail, they fall to their deaths. Imagine having that same experience, because it is not easy to survive in a movie.
Gym is literally the most useless class for me and others too. All I do in gym is try not to be killed with flying basketballs by stupid boys. I got hit in the leg and my arm this school year, and nobody gave a crap either.
Sports class... I hated it and always failed. But it actually is useful to know how to climb in case you are in danger and have to flee from somewhere quickly.
They teach you how to spell things on a calculator and then don't even let you use the calculator. Like, WHAT. THE. HECK.
Is this even related to education?
I have seen that in so many American high school movies and series. Can somebody explain this to me? Why is this taught in American schools, what subjects does it belong to, and how did it become a thing?
I won 1st place for this thing, and I was so confused. It was some foamy liquid and a huge... Okay, just stop teaching this!
Teach us how to dodge a volcano instead. Don't give us a worksheet, though.
We can learn it ourselves. School is for preparing you to get a good job.
This is algebra, whether you believe me or not. It doesn't apply to real life, and in algebra, they put letters in math. That makes no sense at all.
I personally think that math is important, not just because I study it and it's used a lot in science, but because it develops people's critical thinking skills.
In 4th grade, I had to understand Sonnet 116 or something, and it was all about romance!
If you really need to know them, you'd have gone and learned them for yourself. What good does it do me, especially when we have the Internet at our fingertips, to know that the capital of Montana is Helena? We invented Google for a reason, so let's be reasonable and actually go use it for once.
This should be common knowledge in times of wide global communications (I mean, we have at least three nationalities alone commenting on this list). And although I am horrible in geography, this is by far the most useful item on this list.
Why do we learn this when we have calculators?
There are calculators on phones!
This is normal, basic biology. It is helpful to have a bit more knowledge about what makes up life.
Do we really need to be able to read a clock with hands when we can learn from a normal clock that says the time in standard form?
Out of cell phones, alarm clocks, and all that other stuff, would someone really buy a clock instead?
I know how, also what if the power goes out? Clocks are not power automated.
We already have to deal with algebra, why replace our numbers with letters!
Excuse me? But I made a word quiz for the grade where we start learning Roman numerals.
It's not like I'm going to travel to Rome or anything.
When I first heard about this I was grossed out. Now I still think it's pointless unless you're training to be some sort of scientist or surgeon. Let's be real, most people aren't going to be those.
I dissected a chicken wing in 4th grade. We learned which vein or muscle to move if you want to make the wing flap, and all the other girls freaked out! It was hilarious!
In science class, I dissected a chicken wing. And in the next month, I dissected a frog. This is one of the most disgusting things I had to do in science. Also, that is considered animal abuse.
We didn't learn anything about our constitution. But it would have been a great thing to base political debates on, especially because such papers constantly need to be reworked to fit our modern society.
Points for the US school system.
Dumb nationalism. The constitution is meant to be a living document, not a dogma kids have to recite.
Worse for you if you hate presenting.
This might be useful for repairing small tears in clothing by yourself. Other than that, it's not very useful for most people.
You can either teach yourself or have your mother, grandmother, or any other female relative teach you. We aren't going to have the teacher show you.
Fun, but really kids should be learning more abstract things in school, I feel. They will learn things like sewing by themselves anyway.
Sure, we don't need to know that, but I think it was pretty fun.
I don't care about history. Why do I care what some idiot did 200 years ago? It's not my problem anymore. Columbus went to North America and thought it was Asia? Great. Why do I care? Washington was the first president? Okay, fine. Sure. Amazing. Whatever.
All I really care about is the current president. History is a complete waste of time. If you become a historian, it's your job to relearn that history. So why do the rest of us need to know that so-and-so fought a pointless war on January 15 of a certain year?
I'm not going to be a president. I'm going to write comics! You don't need to know what some idiot guy did 200 years ago when you're writing comics!