The most pointless school subjects

[LauraSol]

Are there any school subjects you think are/were pointless? Is there anything you wish you'd been taught instead? I'm conducting research, thanks very much!

Most pointless lesson definitely PE.

And logarithms.

Most useful for me history, as I found it interesting as a way of understanding the world. Also our history teacher taught me how to take notes well, so that was a really useful skill.

I agree with IT, especially back in the day.

I loved PE

Where do i start with this one! Irish born, raised and schooled. Pointless was sex education in secondary as it was taught by a NUN and basically jyst told its to reproduce after you marry. Thats it!

Useless and pointless was Religion. We dis it from primary all the way through secondary and unless you wanted to be a nun (all girls school) then not only was it catholic brainwashing but utterly a pointless waste of 40 minutes in a day. Im atheist and my kids go to a school that dies not teach religion and the sacraments are optional.

Another one for me and clearly indigenous to Irish schools was the Irish language. My parents cant speak it so couldnt help with homework, despite studying the language in school for 13 years i speak pidgeon Irish myself so cant help my own kids and even if they did speak fluently they could only talk to each other cos nobody else we know speaks it!

Like manners and morals that you teach at home, so too should you be able and willing to teach your chosen religion to them sndin the case of Irish it should be an opt put subject.

French is pointless? Not if you want to be a translator

So just make it an option for those who are interested. Why make everyone take it, and for 2/3 years (if not 5 in the days of a compulsory MFL GCSE!).

Same with algebra/trig/pythagoras etc - again, fine for those able and wanting to take a career involving advanced maths - but a massive turn off for those struggling with basic numeracy.

We need all these options, but the problem is when things become compulsory. What percentage of people actually use/need French in adult life, what percentage need algebra/trig/logarithms? We really shouldn't be teaching these generally harder subjects to 100% of kids when maybe only 5-10% will go on to actually need/use them.

Then people wonder why so many kids aren't engaged with their education. The reason is staring you in the face. Kids just don't see the relevance and some of it is beyond them. We either need to stop teaching the more "niche" stuff as mainstream or we need to start giving clearer reasoning why they should be taught, so the kids actually understand the purpose and may then show more interest.

Also our history teacher taught me how to take notes well, so that was a really useful skill.

But that's not the subject - that was just being lucky enough to get a good teacher - they could have taught you good note taking in whatever subject they taught!

Oh and art in secondary. Im not arty, im not creative and i have never in allmy adult needed nor wanted to cut faces and shapes into a bit of lino!!!

Oh one pointless thing British kids learn in school is history. Sorry to say but the huge lack of knowledge surrounding the invasion of England into Ireland thus causing genocide is never taught there hence the huge ignorance as to how brexshit will affect Ireland and Northern Ireland.

I shall stand down from my soap box now. As you were.

Err French is an option?
So are we supposed to decide at year 7 what kids want to be? Ridiculous,

I’ve not got time to respond to any more stupid comments as I have an English class at ten. Do continue to bash all that yes here and schools do though.
I worked a 60 hour week last week; helping students settle in and dealing with some of their dramas from home. Good to know people value our work.

Religious Education. I went to a Catholic grammar school and GCSE RE was literally the teacher dictating notes for us to copy down and taking turns to read bits of the bible. For two years. There was nothing whatsoever about other religions, ethics, anything like that. It was a complete waste of time and none of learned anything whatsoever other than how to develop cramp in your hand from endless writing. Someone above said "only pointless people don't get the point" but I really struggle to see the point of this.

Home Economics when I was at school in the 1990s included sewing. We learned to follow a pattern to make a bean bag and then a simple garment (mine was a skirt). I'm not great at sewing but have used the sewing skills I learned in 1991 over the years to take up a hem, mend a ripped seam, put darts in a waistband etc etc. Very basic machine sewing is an incredibly useful life skill.

I find the "I didn't use this content so it was pointless" arguments to be quite tragic to be honest. The point of being in school is to be exposed to a range of subjects and not everyone will want to specialise the same way at GCSE/A level so it's important to offer a broad foundation.

I was useless at DT, but it wasn't a pointless subject because I could have found an interest there that I wouldn't have had because I'd have opted out of it given half the chance. Equally preferences change through school so narrowing early isn't good.

No doubt people will do the usual thing of "we should be taught basic life skills in school and not all this academic content because I happen to have not used it".

What a thoroughly depressing thread.

Shouldn’t you learn a load of that practical stuff at home?

I think you have a somewhat rose tinted view of what goes on in a large number of homes.

My son's school have a fantastic "tech" room which has CAD/CAM computers, 3d printers, laser printers, etc. They proudly show it off on open days. But in reality, 5 years after starting school, my son has never been in it, and barely ever sees anyone else in it.

That has been exactly the case at our teenager’s school. (Wonder if it’s the same one?)

I’m fascinated by stucknoue and any others who found English Lit a waste of time - but who somehow gained enough understanding and empathy, via fiction, to be able to engage in an Internet forum.

What most people are talking abut here is rubbish teaching, not the actual subject. My RE lessons were fabulous, a lot of it was about the bible but I found the differences between the gospels fascinating and we did a huge amount about philosophy and ethics as well.

PE - we had a choice from around 12 to do normal games or do a scheme where we got to do assault courses, canoeing, climbing, sailing, etc...

I learnt about hydraulics in DT from making a crane, in art (which I was not good at) we did quite a lot of art history, language lessons were well taught and we did Spanish and French literature as part of the classes. I always loved Eng lit, really enjoyed Shakespeare and Chaucer and the rest.

A well-taught class, in any subject, is a joy.

I'm still - at 60 - waiting to use the trigonometry and algebra which was forced on me in school. Subjects like those are a waste of time for many kids. I'd love to see kids learning life skills instead - budgeting, doing your tax, home finances.

And I find it depressing how many people think that PE is pointless, when children are more obese and take less exercise than ever.

Re classes in Ireland are less about religions and more about catholic indoctrination. I would love religion removed fully from schools here.

I loved learning Shakespeare at school. I wasn’t exposed to anything like it at home or anywhere else. Prior to eng. Lit classes I scoffed at anyone quoting Shakespeare and thought they were an uppity snob. Couldn’t see the point in all those silly words that were spelled wrong. I hated my Eng. Lit teacher, she was a nasty arsehole, but Christ was she a good teacher of Shakespeare. I was reciting Macbeth in my sleep along with the annotations that I’d written to accompany it. Thought I would be glad to never hear the man’s name ever again after my exam. Nope- love it to this day.

History if we dont learn about our own history really what is the point? My daughter had no clue Ireland was divided as badly as it is most people thought it was like England Scotland and Wales

MrsFezziwig
It's not surprising really. Look at overall attitudes to fitness and exercise in general. Lots of adults think there's no point, people who run or cycle or go to the gym for a hobby are mocked and ridiculed and called selfish.
How many adults claim they haven't got time to be active but have time to watch box sets?

And I find it depressing how many people think that PE is pointless, when children are more obese and take less exercise than ever.

Perhaps there's a correlation. They hate the PE/games in school, so they're less likely to do any exercise elsewhere? There definitely needs to be far less emphasis on team sports and more emphasis on individual exercise, such as treadmills, gym equipment, exercise bikes, etc. I was obese, so hated team sports, but one particular games teacher saw that I got nothing out of it and let me do swimming every term (should have only been one term). I got far more out of that than I'd ever get out of team sports.

The point of being in school is to be exposed to a range of subjects and not everyone will want to specialise the same way at GCSE/A level so it's important to offer a broad foundation.

There's a difference between "exposure" to a subject and being forced to take it for 3/5 years, i.e. a language. Why not just have French as part of a carousel in years 7 and 8 - the kids who take to it or want to do it are exposed, the other kids don't waste too much time on it. Still enough time to take it as a proper subject years 9-11 for GCSE level.

Why is there no exposure to everything else in life, such as book-keeping or law, where far more people will end up working rather than translators?

Schools just aren't moving on as the World around them moves on. Despite all the howls of protest about constant change, it's all just tinkering around - the core never changes.

I was recently talking to the local state head of 6th form (also teaches philosophy and ethics). She was saying how she's recently been to quite a meetings/forums/conferences about an overall of the curriculum as gone are the days of having to remember formulas/dates/minute detail as if you need that info everyone has access to it in 1 second. How the curriculum could/should change to skills on public speaking/debating/problem solving - essentially soft skills

I think kids should be taught a foreign language from reception- I find it really embarrassing how a lot of people across Europe can have a decent of not fluent conversation and yet I can just about discuss my siblings hobbies and what colour hair I have; that's the majority of England's language skills.

Politics aren't on the national curriculum and I think they'd come in more useful than 'science' I learned for four hours a week x 5 years. I feel with obesity and diet related illness children should be taught nutrition in detail. I remember having to analyse two books in year 10 & 11 - why just two books? Wouldn't it be more useful to say read ten books a year with a book report/quiz at the end? Why isn't self learning more encouraged in our schools and I don't mean revision; in America they have science fairs/science projects where students are able to pick their own topics, learn in detail and then present back to their class of their findings learning skills along the way.

And that's not even getting me started on essentially five years of learning a subject crammed into a 2 hour exam at the end.

Because limiting people's pathways at the age of 12 is a silly thing to do.

The problem is that there's very different ideas of what school is for.
Some people are in favour of a broad education and enrichment opportunities. Others are in favour of get the minimum for works and then life skills for anyone who doesn't opt in for academic subjects above the age of 12/13.

The law thing doesn't work because even most law courses at uni don't lead to people being lawyers and often law a level doesn't act as ideal prep for a law degree.

The problem with saying let's limit options from a young age is that those who already have limited cultural capital and limited educational opportunities out of schools and parents who don't value study are the ones who'll end up losing out.

I agree there is too much emphasis on languages, RE etc at the expense of far more likely to be used in work/home life topics.

In my second year of high school I did compulsory
French, Latin, Spanish and Irish. I only got to drop Latin for 3rd year. For GCSE I only did Irish.