Top 10 Most Pointless School Subjects
I am rather athletic now, but when I was a kid I had late puberty, the kid that started growing a beard at the age of 13 was 2 heads taller than me, I had the posture of an elementary school kid at early high school. Needless to say I am at least one head taller than the early puberty kid, but he was stronger than me back then. I gave myself a promise to never wear sport clothing for the rest of my life when school was finally over. At the age of 25 I started cycling and some basic weight lifting, now I am athletic, but I sure spend at least 5~7 years after school refusing to do any physical activity because of PE at school. If they are supposed to teach you anything is how to avoid it. This is what I learned, how to be bad at sports so I won't be picked, even the teachers eventually left me sit on the bench for the whole course.
The only PE we should have are solo things or pair things, like hitting the badminton or rackets, or solo things like running. Anything that requires team ...more
Something I've noticed about gym teachers is that they're either super fit and have visible muscles (even females), or they're super fat and have a very obvious belly bulge. There's no in between, your gym teacher is one of the 2 polar opposites.
Anyways, I'd rather be drawing or listening to music instead of wasting my energy on some random pointless exercise or wearing uncomfortably loose clothing and dying to be able to put my tight regular clothing back on at the end of class. And don't get me started on how I'm forced to uncover my left eye because I have to pin my hair up (including my side swept bangs) for this stupid class. Now I have to see my problems with both eyes instead of hiding myself behind my own hair and being in my own world.
I do say PE is my least favorite subject, like I don't give any damn about throwing a ball into a hoop and crap, but what I think is the worst part about this subject is... the classmates, not the teacher but the classmates, well not all of them just the athletes, aka the jocks, the ones when it is like ultimate frisbee and they go to the end of the earth just to win, like why? you aren't getting graded on this, the only time you are getting graded in PE is during those tests like the pacer. Also how is this gonna help me in my adulthood?
Having to do PE at school made me hate sport. I couldn't give a damn about getting a ball in a hoop/net/whatever and would have much preferred to be in the library for all those lost hours. I used to make sure I was out in rounders at the earliest opportunity, so that I could sit in the sun and relax. I used to "accidentally" drop the ball or pass the ball to the other team in netball so I would never be chosen for the team. Only thing PE ever taught me was to keep away from doing PE.
Another awkward thing to do that requires being social. Whatever is not a personal thing and requires a team or a group of people shouldn't be mandatory at school.
Dance is pointless, There is no reason to fail a kid because he doesn't like to dance or can't dance. You would not go to a job interview and be asked to dance so you can get the job. Completely pointless unless you're going to be Michael Jackson, then is better to take dancing lessons than dancing in school.
Why is this even a class? Literally the only class (asides from maybe Aspects of chemistry) where you can genuinely use the old "when will I ever use this in real life" argument. This class is stupid to say the least.
Dance class is literally useless. The only dance you need to know is the fancy dance you do with your wife after you're married if you are married, and you don't need a pissed PE teacher teaching a bunch of angsty kids how to do the cupid shuffle when they could be learning how to do taxes.
This is the reason I skipped class for the first time (well sorta)
I rest my case
This is literally one of the most garbage things to teach, It is like making kids memorize Tolkien because someone regards it a religion. It is an absolute waste of time and bran cells. We are literally making kids fail at school because they didn't learn someone's imaginary friends.
Religion is the most useless and boring class. As a religious believer. This class is pointless. They should teach us useful things about religion and how to increase our faith and worship God. They could save so many people from entering hell. And plus some people don't even believe in God. So if you force an aithiest to study about God even though they don't believe, then they will just hate religion even more. They should probably teach believers how to guide aithiests to believe in God. And they shouldn't give us exams and tests about it because religion and afterlife shouldn't be studied in a place where it's about to get a job.
Personally, I think religion is the dumbest class. First off you have to do double the work of another class and have tests that are worth 50% of your grade. Second, off they teach you the same stuff over and over again. And what if you don't follow God does that mean you are obligated to do so? And right essays and huge projects about him. Lastly, if you are in a religious school (like me) you have to do work that most other public schools don't have to and they make it so much of your grade to push religion to people, and if you are not good at it (like me lol) it makes your GPA skyrocket down even though you might have A's in every other class.
Religious studies aren't making you be part of a religion ( at least not at my school) they are about learning the beliefs of various cultures around the world. However, while interesting, I do agree that it is quite unimportant, luckily it's an elective rather than something everyone must do. This is coming from a Buddhist (because apparently this argument matters depending on your beliefs)
English literature is the epitome of pointless. It has zero value in being studied, and serves no purpose in the real world. Math is used to make everything from computers to bridges, history is important to learn to prevent past events from repeating, and science is important because it relates to things sounding us everyday, and has led to so many invaluable discoveries, such as the cures for diseases. And of course, regular English is massively important for obvious reasons. You may not necessarily use all the subjects I listed above, but this does not change the fact that they are still so important in our world, and a lot more problems would exist today if we stopped studying them. But let me ask you this: What would happen if people stopped studying old English? Let me give you the obvious answer: Absolutely NOTHING. Nothing would change, because it does not affect our world in the slightest bit. What is the actual point of reading this stuff? There is no point, yet high school ...more
I hate it so much. Like the grammar and writing part of English are actually useful. But when will I ever use things like Shakespheare, analyze a book, or know the significance of things like a pear tree unless I want to become a writer or English teacher? I am writing this comment when I have an English test tomorrow on a book and I barely studied.
English Literature is the very definition of a useless subject. We need to learn proper grammar, punctuation and spelling, not what the red door symbolises or what the dead shark represents in a stupid book with absolutely no grammar. People say the English language is dying out because of technology, but why don't we learn how modern english works before studying Shakespeare and his amazing use of OLD ENGLISH? This subject isn't even useful in any way. When you end up in the workplace, a vast knowledge of words and professional use of language is necessary, not the amount of bs you can pull from the top of your head. If you thought my grammar was terrible, wait until you see other people in my school.
I've already commented on this in a similar section (see ELA); Perhaps schools could offer specific types of literature: Modern realistic fiction, Victorian Literature, etc... Not such a bad idea. Just so you know, though, English Literature is the convergence of all other major world languages and noted playwrights and scholars developed syntactic and semantic rules still relevant to written grammar today. That's why it's studied in-depth, more especially in the United States. It ties back to the history of the Norman invasion, without which you wouldn't be writing in English, but in French.
The use behind algebra is to get us to think. I believe they should introduce these topics in school but let the children decide if they want to move on. Most would disagree by saying that we would lose most peoples interest in math by doing that because nobody would want to move on with math, but that's basically saying you have no faith in the children. I feel as if they are turned away because they are FORCED to learn the topic.
A place to learn mathematics and arethimitic meant for civil engineers and air plane control towers, the only math you need is money, percentage, negatives, basic math and how to read pounds ounces tons and metric system other than that your fine. No one uses square roots or graphing to find out how much a burger costs, and your bosses don't ask for work most of the time, if the world revolved around algebraic expressions nothing will be done!
Algebra is pointless because the vast majority of people in life never use algebra, less than 20% of Americans use algebra at work whether basic or complex and studies have shown that mathematical performance of students gets worse when they start algebra.
Besides if there is a need for algebra then just use a computer. There are many apps for computers and smartphones where you can calculate algebra rather than waste hours of your precious life performing pointless algebra.
Time spent studying this could have been way more beneficial in some of the other actually useful maths topics. Instead of figuring out simultaneous equations. Why couldn't we learn useful life skills like working out taxes.
I don't have a sense for it, it seems stupid and we're never gonna use it except we become Grammy winning musicians, like 1%. Other end up broke.
Have to vote for this one. Don't have Religous Education here (I don't go to a catholic school) so I had to pick this one (I'm sure RE would be my pick if I had to learn it). Music class is pointless beyond pointless. In highschool I have to take an art to get my art credit, so I took visual arts Grade 9 for an easy one (Didn't have room on my timetable for Grade 9 art in grade 9 or 10 as only 2 and 3 electives were available and I took the courses I like)
I think this class is absolutely useless in every way possible for me because I already know how to play music way better than my teacher. In addition, my teacher does not know what she is talking about. Furthermore, she gave the whole class a 100 point test with an open ended question. How unfair.
In all reality, there is no point in this class at all. Learning to read music is now irrelevant because now everybody plays music by ear. If you know you want to be a musician, then this Music class is somewhat important. But other than that, who the hell cares about reading music!
I love watching beautiful things but definitely not making artworks with my poor painting and my hand-making skills. This subject is supposed to be how to draw properly, not stressing students who don't know any art knowledge with difficult artworks, and at the end gives them bad grades due to their bad-looking artworks. I do not get why art teachers judge people by their artworks and call students "hard-working" just because they draw better.
Overall, people who want to learn arts can simply just join supplementary classes or watch Youtube videos. Making hard art homework is not what we the untalented hope to get from art lessons.
You know who failed art and became a megalomaniac antisemitist, Adolf Hitler.
You know who couldn't sell any art and ended up killing himself? Vincent Van Gogh.
I hate art. My art teacher is stupid and I hope something bad happens to her. Art is bad because why would I want to draw for a living? Most artists do drugs.
Art is pretty pointless, if someone liked art they would do it outside of school. Not as useful as other subjects on this list, both below and above art. Spanish is on this list even though it is the second most widely spoken language in the world. RE is pretty crap but it helps to understand people's religions. PE has been said to reduce obesity in children ("apparently"). Science definitely helps also.
Critical thinking is a skill, not a class. Social change is the result of ideology and personal beliefs about systems that need to be tweaked for specific purposes in human interaction and is tied more closely to history.
As to whether there is a course someone slapped a name on to pump up self-importance: it's done all the time. Most "strange" courses are the result of dissertation students or professors obtaining grants, however. I'm guessing this course probably has to do with examining multiple solutions to current social crisis.
This is a topic for a-levels (college), it's so worthless that many university courses don't even accept it. It's pretty hilarious.
Never had this as a class since these skills can be taught in other subjects.
The hell?! This is a class?! The world is damaged...
Honestly to me, this is the most useless subject and I feel like it just should be something you learn in college or when you know what job you want. There are so many jobs out there and very few involve the education of history. To me this subject is somewhat important but, I just don't get why we have to memorize everything, if I had a job that had history education needed, couldn't I just learn what I needed to learn that was in the job. I feel like this should be an elective. My opinion may be like this because of my teacher, (she gave us a 6-page review packet that was due in 2 days) but even my other History teacher was the same way so I don't know anymore.
I'm extremely good at history, and it is my favorite subject so this will obviously be biased. I want to politely counter some peoples arguments seeing it as unnecessary, and say just this. The reason history is important is because it shows how the following developed: religion, civilization, culture, society. History shows us how the world used to work, and how it applies to the modern day. They say that those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it, and we have seen this several times in the past. It can be important to learn history to shape the way people think, otherwise we can travel down the wrong path again, and again, and again. For example the crimes, killings, and atrocities that the Japanese and Germans committed during WW2 were some of the worlds greatest atrocities with the death toll in the tens of millions. If people don't learn about this, people could be influenced by a "New Hitler" that can rise to power, and change everything we know, and not knowing what ...more
History encompasses a much broader area of study including Language, Sociology, psychology, culture, religion,geography, exploration, literature,etc... because it is an ongoing record backed by specialized scientists: archaeologists, geologists, linguists, sociologist, psychologists, etc... who track patterns and trends and discover sources and methods used by various people and what defined or expanded their boundaries to cultivate culture or dis-ban it. Not only is it fascinating, it also possesses more practical applications than most may expect: GPS anyone? Without the intersection of science and history (including geographers and early explorers who developed tools of innovation and navigation), you may not be holding a Smartphone in your hand.
History allows us to learn from the large scale mistakes that many have made throughout in the past. By not learning history, we can develop views that are wrong and views that are not in any way based on facts or truth, but rather the hate for a large group of people, whether it is religion, race or gender. By learning about the past our views become valid, because we have based them on facts.
All dead languages are useless and the worst part is the way they teach them. You finish school and you can't even speak in those languages fluently, that is a big failure.
Both Latin and Greek are precursors to most world/modern languages including what are known as the Romance Languages: Spanish, French, Italian. In addition, English possesses many borrowed words and phrases from these languages. Above all, Latin and Greek are universal in both the medical and legal fields worldwide and connect such individuals as scientists globally which is important in the advancement of medicine.
In this day and age, it probably should be elective, though. That being said, you have probably been exposed to it already in English, history, and your science courses more especially including Biology. Nothing is useless; the question is whether or not your place a value on it.
Teachers and parents say that Latin it will help with my vocabulary, but it really hasn't. I've never looked at a word and said 'ooh that word's root is from the Latin word...'. Also, they say it helps with other languages. However its never helped me in French or Spanish. Parents also say it helps with maths and science. in maths it is standard to learn about kilos etc. and Latin has never helped me in maths, same goes for Science. Latin is a dead language and no one speaks it. Hindustani /Urdu is more useful than Latin even though I'm never going to go to India or Pakistan.
Modern languages like French, German and Spanish SHOULD be taught in schools. At least they are actually spoken in the world and are used in many good businesses, but Latin? It's a dead language! Nobody speaks it anymore! So WHY THE HELL would you actually teach it?! All classical languages should be scrapped from the education system and replaced with French German or Spanish. Latin is useless in every sense of the word!
French for me by far is the most useless subject. I'm a freshman and I don't need French to become a Neuroscientist! My French teacher even talks to us in French and we have no idea what she talking about. She made us write a paragraph in French in a test and my classmates left that out. The test paper was out of an 80 but on my grade card it was out of a 100. I used to do so well in French last year with my old French teacher. ( My main class has two French groups since a lot of classmates and my other class chose French. My main class has 24 students and other class has 25 students. )
This is not pointless. If you're bilingual it opens up many career opportunities, because you get to work with clients who speak French, or other languages. English isn't so important, not everyone lives in America. Maybe geography isn't pointless. Y'all should learn it more.
Although it's good to be bilingual, the way French is taught in schools is ridiculous! Teachers only teach the grammar rules! Grammar rules won't help me understand, read, speak, and will barely help me write.
It's important to be able to speak a language other than English, whether it's French or another language. Learn outside the square!
This subject CAN be useful... Not when you have a teacher who thinks of pointless activities... And doesn't teach you how to make a CV or how to get employed or better yet how to be confident at an interview
I have no idea what this is but sounds like there are too many subjects in one.
We can just learn it from people around us instead of learning it from school.
Just like Algebra and trigonometry
Basic math is good, like adding, subtracting, dividing, doing percentages etc. Some medium math could also be rather useful or at least it could teach you how to think a little bit. But higher math at school is an absolute waste of time. Logarithms, exponential, limits, imaginary numbers, integrals are also pretty useless. I do not care if your computers runs it in its core. You do not need to know about it, much like you do not need to know how many bones you have in your body because you are not a doctor.
Mathematics is by far the most useful thing in the universe! Without mathematics, the universe will cease to exist! And many people are asking what job required advanced mathematics? Well every good paying job. Every STEM job requires it. Even if you are going to work in McDonald's in the rest of our life you need math for some basic finance. People say I am biased since I could do AP Calculus in 3rd grade and university mathematics in 4th grade but that is so untrue! I love mathematics and I believe everybody should.
Math that we learn in elementary school and maybe middle school is good (things like percentages, being able to handle money, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, etc... basically anything you can apply to your real life). Algebra and trigonometry are examples of useless math. I don't think I'll ever need to know what x equals, what the hypotenuse of a certain triangle is, or how to graph linear equations.
Math is useful up to a certain point when doing things like PEMDAS, sales tax, fractions, decimals, percentages, managing money and telling time. But once you get to a certain point where you have to learn things like trigonometry, quadratic formula, unit circle, logarithms, radicals etc., it just becomes useless and aids. You won't need most of that stuff until you want to pursue a certain career.
I do not have this class, but I am so glad that I do not. Just imagine, that one woman from that triggered feminist meme as your teacher screaming at you because you said that there are 2 genders.
Man the lefties are using new improved tactics to indoctrinate little kids nowadays.
Our school doesn't have this class, but as a feminine-presenting demigirl and a lesbian, I have to say that I can see the value of this class.
A topical area of our time and not worth teaching until the hysteria around it settles.
Chemistry could have been fun, like add a mild acid to the a base or something and see the color change. Put some electrodes into a saline solution and connect as battery and see how oxygen and hydrogen are separated. But learning formulas, trying to memorize the periodic table, knowing which substances can attach to others etc is all bonkers. You are not going to need this at all unless you are in the chemistry field.
The formulas, equations who needs to know them! Almost everyone you ask will have a non chemistry related job (unless a chemistry teacher). It doesn't help you in your later life whatsoever whereas Biology helps you learn about your body and how it works which is important quite obviously, and physics helps you understand how the world works and can explain necessary things like gravity etc, but Chemistry helps you know the chemical formulae of Fluorine! Who cares. It is simply giving pupils more stress to learn something which will be completely irrevelent in there future. Get rid of it!
Chemistry is just a very useless subject. It not only leaves you extremely stressed, it is also a subject not used by a huge majority of careers. Other than medicines and vaccines, it is just a subject that causes brain aneurysm.
This one is the most pointless subject. We're demanded to memorize details of all substances in the world. Man, we ain't computers, we're just a human being. Our brain is limited. Tell me why this subject exists. If I'm the minister of education of my country, I'll illegalize this subject. Basically, this subject is useless and only a burden to our brain.
Ummm in my class this is a follow up from reasoning, UK class just saying. So it's like Odd one out oh yes the others have a triangle and this one is a square. The snore of the week and the reason I no longer look forward to friday
This is a skill that can be taught in other classes.
It is called life
I have a BA and an MS and am working on a JD. Think I have figured out how to study at this point in my life. Why am I forced to take and pay for a class that is an utter waste of my time and only serves to add to my work load, which for a JD candidate is already heavy enough. The 4 hours a week of work it adds is disproportionate to the 1 hr of credit I get that isn't even required by the degree.
There is no reason why this class should not not be no. 1 on the list as the biggest waste of time.
They do not work for everyone. Every person's brain works differently. A human is a complicated being. I am able to learn in my own way, you don't learn in the same way as me.
This is also a skill that can be taught in other classes.
Should be part of all classes and not a class on it's own.
What was the point of this class again? Oh yeah, there's no purpose to it. Geography has taught me nothing new. I've only had maps and pointless essays shoved in my face. In addition, I've lost countless hours of sleep typing those damn essays. I think I've only learned to hate--despise even--this absolutely useless and boring class. Thank God this is only a semester-long class at my high school.
Geography so trash, it's more trash than the trash in my house. Our teacher so bad, she talks like robot, she's literally humpty dumpty she so stumpy. I do not like wood houses
Geography is about learning about the earth and what goes on below your feet. I don't care about how people live in Uganda... An actual examination I had to do. Is this going to benefit me?
I want to learn about the formation of volcanoes and how earthquakes occur. That sort of thing is INTERESTING!
I just can't focus in this ridiculous subject, it is idiotic, hideous, and is a waste of your time.
Like what are you going to use your knowledge of weather forecasting for?
Also, like what kind of job are you doing where you need knowledge of different rocks?
Just saying, languages are for the most part elective classes. Besides, English is not "main language" of the world. Chinese, followed by Spanish THEN English are the top three languages spoken worldwide. If anything, Chinese or Spanish is preferable than English. Get your facts straight
Extremely important especially if you live in a border state! Roots in Latin the original language from which every major work has been translated. All language is relevant-- see my other reflections in sub-areas of this list for further explanation!
There are only two languages you should be forced to learn; Your native language and English, since English is the main language of the world wide web.
Forcing another language on a person simply because the country you share borders with speaks it is ridiculous.
Oh my god. This should be number one. I will never understand why colleges require foreign language for 2 years for admission. I know someone who took spanish to get into college and she doesn't remember ANYTHING about her classes.
Some states don't even require this anymore. And this is not a class per se; it's a skill that's often taught at the primary and elementary levels. That being said, I believe everyone needs to develop a signature at the very least. I realize we live in a tech-based world and not everyone has gorgeous handwriting, but people benefit from this on several levels: learning different strokes that can be used in hobbies like calligraphy or even drafting, pattern recognition (yes, this applies to cursive writing), spatial awareness, and fine motor skills, especially for children with orthopedic problems or receiving occupational therapy.
Theres no point in being able to write like shakespeare. The only thing important about handwriting is it being able to be read.
There are computers now, and they have keyboards. How much do we really need to write? Not much, except when schools make you WRITE essays. Typing is way faster and especially with modern technology being more and more accessible, handwriting is not important.
Not my problem if you can't read my handwriting. I'm better of typing anyways. faster and much more time efficient and I don't lose marks for stupid reasons just because my handwriting isn't up to par.
Just like algebra and math. Some basic trigonometry is ok, but the higher trigonometry is too hard for no reason. Basic math is good, like adding, subtracting, dividing, doing percentages etc. Some medium math could also be rather useful or at least it could teach you how to think a little bit. But higher math at school is an absolute waste of time. Logarithms, exponentials, limits, imaginary numbers, integrals are also pretty useless. I do not care if your computers runs it in its core. You do not need to know about it, much like you do not need to know how many bones you have in your body because you are not a doctor.
I am becoming a lawyer I don't need to know this.
Another useless maths subject that everyone forgets after their exams
Math, so its garbage.
Unless you want to be a journo for a tabloid, a film reviewing feminist or interested in working for the mainstream media or film ind. Or marketing In any way, there is really little point in picking media studies as it doesn't really teach you anything valuable or useful that you couldn't learn in sociology or English class, or by downloading Photoshop and movie editor. Trying to find what the colour blue 'signifies' on a man's shirt on a magazine cover is NOT education. Most of the course was painfully common sense based and I regret choosing it because it isn't a very valuable a level. I wish schools didn't lie to us like this.
What? Why would this ever need to be a class?
I don't know too...
Well very suck
What? Should be part of a Social Anthropology class not a subject on it's own.
Leave as an elective, not necessary for anyone to really learn.
Eh, not bad but not good either.
Why would I care about the states of latin america or just latin america in general POINTLESS
Math, algebra, trigonometry, physics and chemistry can all go to hell, we should have an introduction to them with practical examples. Not try to learn formulas, typos, rules and learn things by heart to show if you are docile enough to memorize useless things.
By far the most useless. A question for the school board, will we EVER and I mean EVER use the information we learn in Biology, Chemistry, or any other mainstream science in normal everyday life? No, we will never use it unless we are in that specific field in the future (and in that case should be either an elective or a college class only). Honestly, Financial Education should be put in place of Science in the High School requirements to graduate. And honestly, half of what modern High Schools teach should be elective ONLY! I rest my case
Relevant, fun, and engaging courses with many sub-disciplines including Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physics, Horticulture, Agriculture, etc... It teaches the function and role of life processes, explores the history and evolution behind them, uses applied (hands-on) experimentation and collaboration, requires that you ask as many questions as possible, formulate hypothesis as well as dissuade them. It's always based on discovery and therefore cyclical and never-ending much like history!
Fascinating and teaches various skills: problem-solving, critical thinking, mathematical computation, creative inquiry, etc... Definitely need these courses! Not only for doctors, more specifically as you advance (yes), but in general populations as well: teachers, chefs, engineers, computer techs, media specialists, farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, inventors, lab techs, etc...
Unless you're a scientist or major in a scientific field, there is really no use at all for this subject. I don't think science truly deepens our understanding of the world. It's great knowing how basic things function, but schools make us memorize complicated parts that don't help us understand science any better.
(it shows us how things work, but not why things are this way/questioning reality.. for example, do the things we interact with exist? Does knowledge really make you smarter? Are the things we believe "right" or "wrong"? )
the questions above are part of what philosophers study- they put their beliefs to the test and really QUESTION EVERYTHING!