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?

Also will say music was terrible. My DC have a very young, enthusiastic music teacher who teaches them through music they all actually enjoy. He plays a lot of rock/indie music but also things like Stormzy to get them all on board and lets them bash away on instruments. We just learnt music notes and covered classical music.

Music is one of those subjects where teachers probably can’t win, at least without setting from the start. There’s such a wide range of abilities and knowledge, and unlike something like art it’s hard for mixed ability groups to all get something out of the lesson.

Looking back, my secondary actually had some very good teachers who excelled in what they taught. The history department was great - not a bad teacher in it. Similarly English was very strong, and maths. Though in GCSE years I was in the top set for maths and had a teacher who was great at the subject himself but struggled to explain it if you didn't just get it. I would have preferred to go down a set to get the teacher I had in Year 9 who was an incredible teacher.

Geography was 50:50 in that there were two teachers. One was great and the other was slightly odd. I had her for Years 7-8 and just remember colouring in maps. I had the good teacher in Year 9 and really enjoyed the subject. We had to choose either history or geography to take for GCSE and I chose history purely because I knew I was pretty much guaranteed a good teacher whereas with geography it was a gamble.

DT was probably the worst. I started Year 7 excited to use saws etc but soon learnt that the teacher would do all the practical bits for the girls, and as he could inevitably do it better I just let him. All the girls did. So learnt nothing.

The physics teacher was hopeless. Even the top set kids who were quiet and studious in all other lessons just sat and chatted in his.

The French teacher I had in Year 7 had a nervous breakdown as she let the kids walk all over her and couldn't get them to listen. The French teacher I had from Y8 to Y11 was amazing.

Music. History. Fascinated and obsessed with both as an adult . Bored to death by them at school. On the other hand I did very well in English and French because the teachers were superb.

Commerce. The whole class failed the O'Level. Turns out we were taught the wrong syllabus 🙄 Having said that, what we learned was genuinely useful.

Maths. We had an inspirational teacher n the fourth year (year 10?) and everyone did so well we all went up a group. Sadly that teacher left and our exam year was taken by the HT. When she remembered to turn up. Again, we all failed. Double the shame as we'd all been so fired up. I did pass eventually after a xouple of re-takes (with NO teacher!).

German. In hindsight I shouldn't have taken two languages but was pushed into it by being told I was 'bright' enough but I wasn't.

Our teacher also took some of the French classes and was useless, she'd switch between languages whilst teaching as she was probably close to retirement and her memory obviously wasn't good. On top of that, she had no control over the class and every lesson was a write off with kids doing stupid stuff like pouring glitter in her hair without her knowing and going through her handbag (and someone found a bottle of vodka in there once!)

The whole thing was a complete waste of time as I can't even count to ten in German!

Maths. 5 years with a dreadful teacher and I thought I was completely dense. Then switched to a phenomenal teacher who didn’t just read the book in a droning monotone and it was like a light switching on.

PE - what others have said.

My physics teacher was sooooo dull. A miracle I passed the O level as well all spent lessons yawning.

As a general comment, I think that Eng Lit must have been poorly taught for many as I find that so few people have any love or understanding of poetry or many classics. It’s a real shame.

Art. I was in my forties when I went on an art course and learned about colour theory, perspective, how to draw form and gesture, dimensionality, contour, shadow and light, etc. None of this was taught at school. In fact art wasn’t taught at all. You just got told to draw with no instruction, so if you were naturally good then you did well, and if you weren’t then you failed.

Many lessons weren't great, but PE was far and away the worst. It was a without fail a lesson in abject misery and humiliation. I always spent every PE lesson wishing that I could be just about anywhere else. If I hadn't managed to drop it when doing my O Level options (dating myself there, it was the early 1980s) then I was seriously considering finding a way to bunk off from those particular lessons. And I was rather a goody two shoes.

History was taught in a boring way and it took me years after leaving school to start enjoying it. I love historical novels and documentaries now. Maths I was poor at and just couldn't get to grips with it. Physics - I just couldn't get my head around it. However, at least none of them were PE so that was a plus.

Other subjects weren't too bad.

For the first 2 years of secondary school, we were taught by a fab art teacher who just wanted people to love art in whichever way they could. If you couldn't draw something- fine. Use anything else you can think of to get your ideas on the paper. Then they changed to a teacher who was an artist first and foremost and hated teaching. Very much a 'sit here and draw this' affair

PE. My former PE teacher is now in prison for sexual offences against children. I don't need to expand.

When I was in primary school I was taught about WW2. By a pacifist. Who made it clear he didn't even want to be teaching the subject. The assembly about WW2 was our class singing and acting out the song 'last night I had the strangest dream'- which came well after WW2 anyway. 30 years after I did it, I can still remember I was a 'paper signer'

We had awful English teachers. They were lazy and dull - some of the books chosen felt like torture. We’d write essays and get a mark out of 10 - no feedback, I never knew what was missing or how I could improve. Art was badly taught too, teacher set us something to draw and sit and read for the rest of the class. PE was do whatever you like - mostly we chatted.
This was a Grammar school where if you weren’t naturally talented then tough. It’s completely changed now - has won Sunday Times school of the year. Parents say it’s gone too far the other way now.

My O-level English teacher had no clue about teaching us how to write and had a knack for picking the dreariest and most hackneyed subjects imaginable for the current affairs discussions. (Fox hunting anyone, for the 900th time?) She also never taught us the skills for writing to time in the exams; in fact my first encounter with a timed English Literature essay was my mock. 😮 Despite later doing a degree in English, I don’t think I have ever felt confident about writing to time.

More fundamentally though, my teaching in science was shaky. I have O-levels in all three sciences, not one of which required a practical paper. For Biology I pretty much memorised the textbook. For Physics the textbook was useless and the teacher no more than workmanlike, so I always felt like I’d missed bits out. Chemistry was a disaster. It was a weird syllabus with environmental issues high on its agenda, which no textbook on earth seemed to cover. I had about six of them, all hopeless, and an exercise book full of notes, and still there was stuff we hadn’t covered. I (wisely) decided not to take science A-levels after hearing how others had struggled, realising I really didn’t have the grounding.

And maths. I could go on for ages about maths. Sum after sum after sum at primary school, different colour workbooks for each type of sum. I got so bored. At secondary I realised I wasn’t that bad at it, thanks to Mrs B who taught things in the right order. Then I tried A-level, and the woman who taught us the Pure paper was Professor Binns with an inaudible voice and an impenetrable foreign accent. Nope, not happening. I scraped through with the barest of passes.

Definitely maths. The teacher I had in years 10 and 11 was useless. He never ever wrote anything on the board,in fact I don't think I can recall him ever getting up from his desk. He'd just sit and dictate questions to the class then give us half an hour to answer them,then read out the answers. No explanation of how the answers were arrived at. Hardly surprising I scraped a D in my O level.

French, I don't think teaching of languages has improved, not the teachers fault, more an issue of the curriculum.

PE - I love sports and exercise now but it took me till my 30s to realise this.

Science - again probably more a curriculum issue but I just felt we didn't learn the important basics.

French & PE

RE (religious education): shivering in a portacabin while tracing maps.

Cookery: taking in a pile of fruit and sugar, only to peel the fruit then add water. Carrying home a container of fruit salad.

WIMP (Wageslips, Insurance, Mortgages and Pensions): oh actually we never took that class.

History.

was ok ish in primary but it was all Ww2 in secondary. Dumped it at GCSE

PE was atrocious. Endless team sports and
humiliation. You don’t task the most academic kids to select teams in other subjects because there is an understanding that it is cruel as inevitably the less academic kids are left until last. I thought I hated exercise.

Cooking/sewing/food tech/design tech were all aimed at such a basic level. As an adult who enjoys creative/crafty stuff I can see now what a wasted opportunity those lessons were. I remember an entire TERM spent decorating a small cotton t shirt with fabric pens. We then sewed the two ‘sides’ together on the machine in five minutes. I don’t know how the teacher got away with it.

Maths. I still don't understand any of it and find it very intimidating.
PE. Took me forty-plus years to take up exercise classes after the bullying from that teacher.
Geography. It was more like a mishmash of geology and social studies.
Cookery. Sewing. Woodwork. Put me off them for life.

My best subjects were English, Art and History, where I did very well. We never covered any periods or events that particularly interested me, and notably the year we did Australian history the teacher ran out of stuff to do and we ended up wasting time wandering around Malvern ( Melbourne suburb) to look at different house styles!

Such a rubbish school. I was so glad when it was pulled down.

I went to an ordinary secondary school in London. On the whole I enjoyed it and it was good. I loved the teachers one and all. Classes were large and they struggled to keep going, so respect. I really wish French language was better taught. They taught English really well, and I was in love with my cool English teacher, so handsome. They always they were going to explain sex education but never did. That was made up by mum though. In my old age I am now learning German and know how long it takes. I am 70 now

I think history is very different now. More emphasis on social history and women's history. Much more interesting.

Maths until GCSE which seems surprising as I did really well and have A-level maths. My school was another fan of SMP cards and books AKA teach yourself maths. We did get whole class teaching in sets for GCSE though which was much better. It’s only now my children are in primary doing a Singapore style maths curriculum that I realised just how badly we were taught.

I am also of the 1980s era when teaching grammar was out of fashion so sometimes I need to Google to understand what my children are being taught!

Depends on the school/teacher.

My son did his GCSE 5 years ago. The 4 modules were crusades, warfare through time, weimar, and Israeli conflict, so all about war with monarchy thrown in (War of Roses, Liz 1, etc). Absolutely zilch about social history.

Same with his English GCSE - poetry was war poems and a lot of the books studied earlier were war themes.

He had a few war obsessed teachers!

Yet 40 years ago, I didn't have any of that. I was never taught the monarchy or wars in history - we did The Industrial Revolution for O level which was really interesting and enjoyable - helped that we had a brilliant teacher!

All but English due to the fact that it mainly involved copying from a text book or from the board. For some lessons the atmosphere was 95% fear and 5 % feeling free to learn including by making mistakes.