What subjects do you feel you were taught badly in school?

[Notthesameasitwas]

I had a reasonably well-rounded education for its time (1970s) but I feel I really missed out on learning about and enjoying history. I remember copying from the board every lesson all through secondary school and not understanding a word of it. There was no explanation from the teacher and most of it was political history with no attempt to make it relevant or interesting. In the school I used to work in, the history curriculum and teaching of it was fantastic and always engaged the pupils.

Anyway I was thinking of this today when I had to google something which I probably should have known but there are big gaps in my knowledge compared to other subjects. Does anyone else feel the same about some aspects of their education?

PE. Was put off exercise for 20 years as a result. Turns out I am in fact averagely ok at sport and fitness. I feel quite angry about the public health failure of old-school PE teachers!

Music. I literally don't remember learning or doing anything at all in any music classes at secondary school. Obviously not everyone can play an instrument but they could have tried to teach us music theory or just historical stuff about classical or contemporary music.

I don't feel like I learnt much actual history at secondary, mostly just how to pass the exams. I got full marks in one of my history exams, and later learnt that I said a bunch of stuff that was factually inaccurate.

History. Our gruff teacher used to just sit at the front of the class and talk and talk and talk ...

It was so dull. I'd have much preferred to have slides, books, or objects to write about but then I always get bored silly by people who just drone on.

Maths. I have no memory of ever being taught maths in Primary school as in sitting counting together, being shown practical examples etc. We had SMP workbooks and we did a page a day. If you didn't understand that day's work you could just wander over to a friend and copy their answers. Then you put your book into the in tray and got on with some colouring.

Yes to PE! It was just lazy teaching. I loathed it at school. I thought I hated exercise. I actually love it. I didn’t realise until I was in my 30s.

Music theory; I adored the teacher but never grasped the concepts well and it wasn't until later that I realised there were much, much easier approaches. Calculus was also really badly taught, by a teacher I didn't get on with at all.

The best teachers I had were both teachers I absolutely couldn't stand, for history and for English literature. I went on to study both subjects at uni and did really well because I had received such a terrific background.

I think History is better taught these days than I was taught in the 80s. There is more emphasis on understanding sources, possible bias, cause and effect etc.

Ditto Art. We weren't really shown how to improve. We could either do what they said, or not. My DD was taught and learned skills.

History and PE!
My dad is an amateur historian (has written books etc) so I knew it was possible to make it interesting and relevant and not just copying from the board.
I am hopeless at team sports but there is no need to humiliate any child. Even at the time I knew they'd never have got away with laughing at a child who made a mistake in maths or English.

Not sure if it was bad teaching or just me not being interested, but also history. I found a year 9 history exercise book with a 4 page 'essay' about Franz Ferdinand. No memory of him or learning about him at all, not even when the band of the same name became a thing a few years later.

Oh and the corn laws is about all I do remember learning about in his. I remember not really being sure which war Hitler was involved in (yes, embarrassed about this now).

In my experience, I realised that if my parents hadn't provided me with education at home, I could have easily left school without a proper understanding of what an adjective is. Many of my teachers seemed unconcerned as they would simply switch on the projector and the students would freely come and go without any consequences.

DT - we used to do CDT which could have been very useful indeed, and some was (can change a plug and understand fuses) but when it came to using the saws we never got to make anything remotely useful. We had to wire an LED into a wooden construction of our choosing. We had one small red LED so of course everyone did a clown. I did a car with a break light. What possible use could we make of these items? We also learnt dovetailing but instead of making a useful box we did a corner. I've often thought how lucky I was to feel able to use large machinery but in reality I didn't know anyone who had a jigsaw and we really were not encouraged to even consider a job in carpentry (all girls school) but I now wish we had, seeing the reality of how creative you can be and the need for it at the moment.

French! I learnt much more from 6 months of duolingo than I did in about 6 years at school

*I completed my high school education during the early 2000's in Norfolk, England.

@Springcleaninginsummer I have an almost identical memory to this in Primary in Kent. Must have been common practice at the time!

I took GCSE history and learnt a lot about source work - but it's post school I've fitted together a time line of UK and world history from TV, Radio, books, youtube and podcasts and OU courses.

HE/cooking - just that they never gave ingredients in a consistent way - sometimes it was a sheet sometime quietly put on board at end of busy rushed lesson - I have dyslexia and number of time I just missed and forgot about it till night before - so hated the entire anxiety inducing subject.

Music, Art and drama - they never seem to teach anything or have a plan - it was all jump in and start something and if you don't know technique or information before hand tough shit - you may be pointed out as what not to do and that's all input you'll get. Then next week it will be completely different but still no information conveyed . Dropped them all for GCSE but few I knew who took them said it improved but most had talent and lessons/groups experiences outside school.

Funnily enough PE was similar - no rules or techniques taught change jump into game - and get shouted at and made an example when don't know rules or techniques. Only learnt netball rules and did that at primary school.

Yes, when I started teaching in the early 90s they were just phasing it out. It was really nostalgic finding a pile of the big blue ones we had in top juniors.

Oh yes I seem to remember geography involved a lot of colouring in of maps! Fortunately the subject wasn’t entirely classroom based as we also went on a field trip for a week to Dorset and then had to do a project on it. I loved that!

When I read the question I thought “History”.

As an adult I love it. But had the most boring teacher and I’m almost envious of how much my DD picks up from the subject. She absolutely loves it and we have great debates.

Maths.

I hated it but then had to redo my GCSE maths as an adult (to go into nursing) and they had a much better way of teaching and of making sure that we understood and retained the information.
Who knew that maths could be fun?!

Computer studies, spent 3 years learning how to programme a "go to" loop in basic. Don't think teacher had a clue.

Maths. Our maths teacher had no teaching skills whatsoever and didn’t care whether anyone was listening or not. Most people weren’t because they didn’t understand him as he had no skills in communicating his subject.
And geography, because the teacher was equally useless and sat at the front eating snacks whilst we copied off the board with no discussion, every single lesson. Teachers of other subjects were often great, but these were useless.

English and Art were the only subject I managed to excel in, despite the awful boring art lessons and misersble perpetually angry teachers. Art was taught in such a rigid, strict and uninspiring manner and they cared more about how straight we sat or the length of our skirts than anything else. Looking back a lot of our teachers were either too relaxed and permitted us to simply copy from a book or like Miss Trunchball and instead of actively learning you were on edge worried about not breathing too loud.

Physics - none of the analogies made any sense to me and assumed a level of knowledge I didn't have. I now have a physics grad in my life and they still use the "imagine a kettle is boiling for an hour" situation which is such bollocks - how and why would a kettle boil for an hour?! I'm confused before they've started explaining.

History. I can only remember being taught WW2 (several times), the Tudors (ditto) and the Romans. All out of order.

My DC are in French schools and from Primary school they are taught an overview of the large periods of history (starting with prehistoric times and including the major dates and events that marked each change of period) and then tackle the periods in more detail. Each year they progress through history, but always with a reminder of where that period stands in general. And in secondary school they start again at the beginning.

They've only got up to year 8 so far so I haven't seen everything they will do but I am impressed.

French - up until GCSE. Was rubbish. My teacher didn't even have A level in French. (Fortunately my A level teacher was fantastic).

In contrast, my history teachers in the 1980s were fantastic and I absolutely loved the subject. I think it can be very difficult to decide which parts of history to teach however, I think we all feel we have gaps in our historical knowledge as there is so much to know and learn that can be relevant.