What was the most pointless subject you studied at school?

I was rubbish at art, woodwork and metal work. My art teacher gave up on me and when he asked if I could try a little bit he asked me to do a self portrait, my effort made me look like a Francis Bacon when he was on opium, not a good look.

Religion

Latin...painful going

Chemistry....An eccentric mad old boy with his test tube kits

Art...two hour lesson on friday washing brushes !

I was excused from R.E. woundedknee, I had to stand up in front of the class and explain why I didn't believe in God. The teacher kicked me out of the class as he said I was a disruptive influence on everyone else.

^

The only thing I remember from school is having to regularly write out 100 times, perpetual perversity provokes a perfectly peaceful prefect to perpetrate particularly painful punishments. Oh, and a bit about the French Revolution.

I had double chemistry every Friday afternoon, I never used to go and went to the gym instead. That was back in the day when nobody really cared if you turned up or not, things are a bit different these days I think. On Derby day when it was held on the Wednesday my head of year always knew where I was and never asked for an absent note from Mum or Dad. My maths teacher used to run a book at Wimbledon dog track on the cheapside, I used to buy him a whiskey or three, Mr Llewelyn. I was a maths wizard!

Hated school full stop, looking back now think 90% of the lessons were totally pointless, teachers in my day were appalling, chemistry, re, woodwork, never ever played instruments in music, just sat there listening to tapes and stupid records, absolutely awful, pe teachers were a ****g joke, one doubled up as an english teacher, he was useless at both. those handwriting classes, don't they call it calligraphy or something like that. could go on and on.
Only thing i enjoyed was drama, appeared in quite a few school productions also at 6th form college, should have followed on with it, but lost interest, its funny, because my drama teacher at school, for some reason didn't like me, she gave me a terrible grading in my exam and i've absolutely no reason why as my work was good, i bumped into her about 6 years or so after leaving on a works do at some upmarket public house, she recognised me and came over to talk to me, but i totally blanked her and just walked away
Felt good at the time....

I did a bit of drama too. Was in a production with Bruce Bould who appeared in Reggie Perrin with Leonard Rossiter (he played the guy who kept saying "super")

Music .....spitting in a recorder was no career break
Woodwork ....I could have captained England at splitting the grain
Art ......I still draw like a four year old

r e was a waste at high school, ....homework was marked by a guy with ocd,

2 marks for date, 2 for putting name , and 2 for underlining title etc
he used to be awful to less able kids in the class so....

challenge was to write a full page and score zero marks

work was returned in order of mark, highest first, could you be last?

talk about pointless!!

finally managed it by writing in green and not touching the lines with
any of the letters


english lit, shakesphere and co was my most boring lesson, with teacher
acting all the parts and really enjoying it. hey ho, panic at exam time but
luckily i managed a pass

I absolutely loved my school days TINotaTON, playing rugby, cricket, hockey and athletics every year, happiest days of my life. Loads of chicas from James Alleynes Girl school and Alleynes in Dulwich Village, the best days ever.

Slippy - Gerald Cottrell? Didn’t he train Acclamation? Well you did say he was maverick.........

Slippy bragging about his Tom Brown Schooldays again ................

Cottrell trained the wonderful Young Inca me thinks ......grey sprinter who used to walk into the stalls on his own.

science & physics; i hated every second & could regularly be found practising my topspin forehand at table tennis

Jun 17, 2019 -- 8:40PM, sixtwosix wrote:

Music .....spitting in a recorder was no career breakWoodwork ....I could have captained England at splitting the grainArt ......I still draw like a four year old

626, another one of my failings, I could not sing a note. My psycho music teacher was an ex R.A.F. officer and an utter sadist. He lifted me up up by the hairs on my temple when I was out of tune. I said to him if you ever do that again my Dad will properly sort you out, he never did it again. My Dad was a 6'2'' 17 stone proud Irishman and he knew him from the rugby dinners we used to have and he never laid a finger on me again.

Sadly i didn't Slippy and i've absolutely no regrets about it at all, it was the pits, thankfully got into and ended up doing what i still love today, my gym work. still amazed today how some of those aresoles qualified as teachers, horrific

If we are bragging about our dads Slippy , my dad ran against Olympic 100 metres Bronze medallist Emmanuel McDonald Bailey .......don't think he won mind.

Jun 17, 2019 -- 8:43PM, sixtwosix wrote:

Slippy bragging about his Tom Brown Schooldays again ................

Not bragging 626, it was just such a wonderful part of my life mate

That's a grand claim to fame for Mr.626 senior

Art (but only because I have no ability), RE (never believed any of it) and PE (totally useless at gymnastics and walked cross country after token two or three minutes of slow jogging.)

Hated Music lessons. History my favourite subject simply because of an enthusiastic History teacher.

RE   NAP

I was rubbish at X country as well Manoleeds, I was a good sprinter though over 100 and 200 metres.

English...read and write without computers.
Maths ....add subtract times divide...cine, cosine, tangent...ever used them?
English lit...Shakespeare, different time and language
History, most of which is debunked
Geography, pointless. Countries change names, currency, religion and produce and who cares about gdp?
Religion....don't start just ban it.
PE...just make the little b@stards do it irrespective of pe kit or not or gender
Biology...since when has knowing about dissecting frogs helped to pay the water bill?
Chemistry...useful if wanting to know how to make a bomb, otherwise pointless.
Physics...goes up comes down...so what?

"History my favourite subject".



..... sorry Aka that made me

.... very apt for a Sevconian

What a depressing read. Meanwhile people in 3rd world countries who for some reason better understand the value of an education would give their right atm to give their kids the educational chances given in the UK.

Statistics.

To his credit, the chap who taught the subject explained that statistics was useless beforehand. We got through the entire statistics course for the Applied Maths A level in a fortnight at the start of term, then spent the rest of the year studying mechanics. This was then the paper for which we were entered at A level, on account of it being much more difficult to pass.

A grammar school in 1977 was a very different world.

Statistics ties in with probabability and should be useful to many people playing the markets on betfair? Older I get the more I love stats!

Statistics and probabilities are two different things, according to Mr Dickinson in 1977.

You calculate the probability of something happening from real information using maths. That's what you do when you calculate odds on here.

Statistics is what you use when you don't have enough information to calculate a mathematical probability. You begin with a conclusion you wish to demonstrate, then select data which confirm that conclusion. Social sciences, climate science and  political science are modern examples of this.

Despite the newspaper adverts, vids, lawyers and prayer meetings from you obsessed feckers our history is intact.

"Statistics and probabilities are two different things, according to Mr Dickinson in 1977."
Is this Bruce, or the guy who does Bargain Hunt?
"You begin with a conclusion you wish to demonstrate, then select data which confirm that conclusion. Social sciences, climate science and  political science are modern examples of this." Miaoww!

Well we'll have to agree to differ, in my experience they are often related.

Metal Work...Fackin pointless.

Jun 17, 2019 -- 10:27PM, twonky wrote:

English...read and write without computers.Maths ....add subtract times divide...cine, cosine, tangent...ever used them?English lit...Shakespeare, different time and languageHistory, most of which is debunkedGeography, pointless. Countries change names, currency, religion and produce and who cares about gdp?Religion....don't start just ban it.PE...just make the little b@stards do it irrespective of pe kit or not or genderBiology...since when has knowing about dissecting frogs helped to pay the water bill?Chemistry...useful if wanting to know how to make a bomb, otherwise pointless.Physics...goes up comes down...so what?

What would you rather have studied at school then? Or do you want to scrap it altogether?

Twonky

Algebra. The end.

Strangely enough mine would be Computer Science.
Anyone else did this in the mid to late 70's ?
Every week we had to do a print off, so to  print off a picture of say Mickey Mouse on a computer sheet you had cards, each card would be ONE dot of Mickey so to get a printed picture back took a pile of cards about two inches thick, problem was each pixel was probably six or seven different digets on the card get one wrong & your picture failed to come out, for a whole  year I sent off a picture  every week & I got just one back, if it was wrong all you got back was the pile of cards
What a friggin complete waste of time, I'm sure when the subject arrived in the 21st century it was a bit more interesting !

never saw a computer at school, had adding machines where you had to crank the handle

teacher pished off, see who could crank handle most times in a minute, 10p
a man winner takes all...



tech drawing teacher was an old bloke, stood there drawing on board, copy
this lads ........end of year report ....a good years work.....every kid got same report!

kiss chase, only liked playing football

When in the real world will I need history, maths or the English language? Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I was hopeless in all subjects .
Maths was a nightmare as the mathematician took great delight in beating me . When he was promoted to headmaster our new prof made maths interesting . He landed some good bets when I passed the maths exam . The crafty old bugger used material from Mathematics For The Million ,Lancelot Hogben . A book worth looking at .
I don't think any of the subjects were useless and have used maths in gardening for example .

i must admit my topspin forehand has come in handy on occasion

Check your messages Baph . Don't tell the vulgum pecus .

luckily da dish washer - aka vulgum pecus troll, doesn't have access to them

nothing there my good man?

RE

Had a born again Christian spinster taking us and spent the entire curriculum learning the books of the Bible (Old and New testament) in order and 'Dot Cotton-alike' quotes of specific chapters and verses. Proper crationist , anti-abortuion, homphobic 'Westboro Baptist Church' stuff!!

She was mad as cheese and the horror lasted only for one year, but then again, I'd have been about 11 and OFSTED would have had something to say about adherence to the curriculum if that stunt was being tried today

Greek, not the stuff they use in Greece, but 2,000 year old Greek.

A great thread topic from Slippy, very much in the spirt of the good old days of chit chat.

At my primary school, some pupils received one year of French lessons prior to moving up to secondary school. I was not one of those pupils.
Upon arrival at secondary school, we were asked to make a choice between studying French or German.

Given that I wasn’t permitted to study French at primary school, I elected to study German.

My wishes were discounted, and I was bundled in to studying French. My annoyance at my wishes being disregarded was to ensure that I failed to participate in the French class and to strive to achieve a mark of zero in each test.

This defiance was very frustrating for my French teacher, who expressed her frustration at a parents evening to my father and mother.

She was particularly frustrated as she was aware that I was a willing participant in all other classes where I was one of the top pupils.
My parents diplomatically responded that I was unlikely to ever require to speak or read French but that they would have a word.

They did have a word; it changed my attitude not a jot.

Quite ironic then, that years later I was to live in France, not once but twice. I was also to marry a French woman.
My second and current wife is Tunisian, being fluent in Arabic, French, and English.

Just goes to show, you never can tell when something you study at school may later come in useful.

Just needs to move to Iran. Would be able to teach exactly the same things without a problem.

*to Hanx

There was an expression about advertising.....half of it is wasted, but we don't know which half...

I'd relate it to secondary education and say 90% is pretty much wasted.

Make a list of all those subjects and courses you think were a complete waste of time for you and make
a list of subjects which you wish you had done.

I'd suggest there are more on the first list, which suggest that we must spend too much time in school.

I think the problem, is we don't really know what to do with young people till they become able to contribute to the world.

And yet, we insist they stay at school or college till 18.

I reckon the school curriculum is too narrow and it needs broadening to include life skills, compound interest, learning Chinese, diet and nutrition, how
to maintain a pushbike, and how much of your £1 4 horse acca steak is lost on the overrounds on 20+ runner handicaps.

Trigger-feckin-nometry – WTF is that all about?

Physics – absolutely hated it and the master and would do anything to avoid those lessons, which constantly got me into trouble.

Chemistry – hated that too – couldn’t wait to give it up.

Loved history, geography and English. Still do.

It helped that the Geog master was the footie coach.

He couldn’t go a full lesson without a quick **** so after 15 minutes he’d say, “There’s something I need to go and check on urgently, boys,” and zip off and have a quick one leaving us to do as we pleased.

When he came back he was so easy to distract on to other more important things with a question like:

“Do you think Spurs will win the double this year, Sir?” (yes, really!) And we’d talk about footie for the rest of the lesson.

I was the only one who could name the managers of Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea (All Scots!)

He was a decent player too for the Masters, right half, but after fifteen minutes he’d be puffing and blowing a la Lukaku ’cos of the ****.

*** ciggie  !

Just out of interest, to those who think school was a wastage of time and there was hardly a useful subject, have you been homeschooling your kids? or do you send them to the same schools that you think are a wastage of time?

english lit for me, just ripping books apart etc, just treat them for what they are.

Geography, maths and English language/literature were my favourite subjects. Geography was my strong suit as I was genuinely interested in the subject and I had 2 great teachers at 'A' level. Mr. Blocksidge (English 'O' level teacher)was a complete and utter headcase who would launch the board rubber at anyone caught chewing gum, talking in class and generally messing around. The thing with him though was that he wore those thick cobbled glasses and his eyesight was not great so if a board rubber was heading in your direction even when it was not meant for you you dived for cover under the desk! 2 desks behind me, I'll never forget his name, Adam Richter had his head split open by the aforementioned Mr. Blocksidge. Imagine that happening today, he would have been done for a.b.h. !

Board rubber missed a kid once and went through the window.

Tried homeschooling the kids, but they played truant - kept going back to school.

Chemistry   a waste of time
R I         a waste of time
Eng Lit     a waste of time
Biology     a waste of time
Music       boring

non of the above have EVER been needed in my 76 years

Get this gents, if you forgot your swimming trunks you were made to swim naked, if you refused you got Saturday morning detention from 09.00 a.m. til midday. It just seems unreal that the teachers did that, I always took the detention.

detraveller * june 18, 2019 11:37 AM BST

"just out of interest, to those who think school was a wastage of time and there was hardly a useful subject, have you been homeschooling your kids? or do you send them to the same schools that you think are a wastage of time?

I cannot speak for the others, as i've never had children, so it is of no consequence to me, but if i had and did, i would hope standards would have improved a million percent from when i attended..

i presume your school days were like mine slippy, late 70's early 80's?? if i was made to do what you have just stated, my dad would have come down to that school and twatted him..

English is the most important subject.

Religious Education
History
Art.
Music.

screaming from beneaththewaves 17 Jun 19 22:53 Joined: 30 Jan 05 | Topic/replies: 11,550 | Blogger: screaming from beneaththewaves's blog
Statistics and probabilities are two different things, according to Mr Dickinson in 1977.

What did he reckon probability of having the 1st 5 in the gold cup??

RME (relgious and moral education)
Art
Music

3 absolute wastes of time

Around 1970 a lot of teachers were WWII veterans with mental problems and some had sadistic tendencies. Used to give you a right good tanking if you misbehaved. One teacher, used to belt the living daylights out of us just for fun. He used to get angry when one grinned and asked him, "Is that your best shot"? I think they did go ott at times with discipline but it has went full circle and teachers nowadays have no control in the classroom.

p.s. I liked all subjects.

I forgot my swimming trunks and got three of the best...The Strap as we called it in Paisley.

no swimming lessons at my school

Around 1970 a lot of teachers were WWII veterans with mental problems and some had sadistic tendencies. Used to give you a right good tanking if you misbehaved. One teacher, used to belt the living daylights out of us just for fun. He used to get angry when one grinned and asked him, "Is that your best shot"? I think they did go ott at times with discipline but it has went full circle and teachers nowadays have no control in the classroom.

p.s. I liked all subjects.



we had a ww2 vet who would always did remembrance assembly, dressed in full kit, he was geography teacher, and an interesting
chap, but suffered lots of pain...war wounds. but he was a kind bloke

nobody ever did anything bad in his classes.....he was exempt from our carry on.

do, not did

GA Dickinson (or "Gad") - the 1970s maths teacher I mentioned above - was exactly that. He would read out the long list of names of boys from Slough Grammar who had lost their lives in the 1939-45 conflict, and every year he would finish in tears. He'd known and taught every one of them from 11 years of age onwards. The fact that he was loved and deeply respected by every pupil who had ever passed through the school can only have made the ordeal more painful still.

He made sure that even as first formers we understood the most crucial aspects of probability ("odds of 3 to 1 represent a 1-in-4 chance, old sausage skins").

He had a magnificent moustache, a clearly painful limp, and a Citroen DS, which he drove like a stuntman. Apart from a few school photos, the only record of the man on the internet appears to be references to a 1937 paper of his on the derivation of pi by calculus. But he deserves more, and I hope anyone who googles him in the future finds this post.

He was everything that's good about humanity.

Music, although it could hardly have been called studying. We had one lesson a week and I don't think that I learned a single thing.

I opted for cookery instead of metal work, (fit teacher and and an hour a week with the girls) ...$hite at egg n chips but do a wicked Victoria sponge,....

I was politely asked if I might like to drop out of French, I was useless at it, hated it, and was so happy that I didn't have to struggle with it. Over life I have managed to learn sufficient French to get by, which is that I can now order two beers and place a win or forecast bet on the tote.

The problem with school is that it is wasted on the young. Remember that there’s no upper age limit for tuition fee loans or grants, so if you have never attended Uni or any similar degree level higher education and are now retired, you may wish to consider going to do a degree in a subject that interests you. Unless you have a large pension you are unlikely to ever have to pay back the fees.