# School Electives You Wish You Took
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 29, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061 "2018-05-29T15:14:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/41 "2018-05-31T17:37:27Z")
Physics for me. I’ve learned a bit over the years but I still stumble when I try to intuit something and get it completely wrong. I wish I had a more comprehensive foundation. Second choice would be some contemporary computer programming language like Python but that wasn’t an option back then.
> [@edwardcoast](#):
>
> You shouldn’t have any regrets, and you didn’t miss a thing. No one knows about cars any more, or has the time to become a grease monkey. I couldn’t tell you how to put oil in the last several cars I’ve owned and I’m proud of that. Waste of brain power fixing your own car. Drop it off, let the pros do it and use your time more productively.
Ironically, I change my own oil because my time is too valuable to me. If I take my time, I spend about 45 minutes from start to the end of clean-up to change my oil. I can do it anytime I have that 45 minutes to kill. If I’m lucky, I might get in and out a quick-change place that quickly but fat chance if I just drop in on the weekend. I’m more likely to stew in the waiting room for two hours. Or, I could use the dealer if I spend 25 minutes to drive there, five minutes checking in, and 25 minutes to head home. Then, a day later and still without my car, I could repeat the whole process in reverse. No thanks. Changing oil is pretty easy for someone with bronze age tools and ten minutes to watch a Youtube video.
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### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/42 "2018-05-31T18:07:45Z")
I did take typing–even as a kid I knew I wanted to be a writer, so I thought it would come in handy (and it so did!)
Two electives I wish I’d taken (though neither was offered at my school, so I have an excuse) were Latin and Shorthand. Both would have been quite useful to my current career (urban fantasy author who doesn’t like to write when other people are around because I hate having them look over my shoulder).
I really regret not taking music of some kind, or drama (or both).
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/43 "2018-05-31T20:11:03Z")
I wish I had taken Japanese instead of Spanish as my foreign language in college. I went in thinking Spanish would be an easy A, but it ended up being more difficult than I thought and I got a C, retook the class, and got a C the second time. My only other C in college was in English. I think I have a mental block when it comes to doing well in language classes, even in my native languages.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/44 "2018-05-31T21:28:48Z")
Instead of two years of Latin and two of French, I wish I had taken four years of French. Who knew I would end up in Montreal? But the thing I really regret was not being allowed to take AP math. In 1953-54, it was being offered on an experimental basis and I was not in top 10% of the class who were permitted to take it. Oh well, probably didn’t matter. I got there eventually.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/45 "2018-05-31T22:17:40Z")
I’m generally happy with my choice of electives. Of course, some schools offered programs not available at mine. In general, most courses were relevant and taught well. Having taken additional language studies, French could have emphasized much more practical conversation — and less grammar, rarely used verb tenses and watching TV shows of marginal utility.
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### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2018, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/46 "2018-06-01T09:21:09Z")
> [@Infovore](#):
>
> Two electives I wish I’d taken (though neither was offered at my school, so I have an excuse) were Latin and Shorthand.
You could always go the [self-study](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Latin-Beginner-Intermediate-Course/dp/1444195840/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) [route](http://gregg.angelfishy.net/abannive.shtml).
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### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/47 "2018-06-01T13:57:01Z")
> [@Olentzero](#):
>
> You could always go the [self-study](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Latin-Beginner-Intermediate-Course/dp/1444195840/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) [route](http://gregg.angelfishy.net/abannive.shtml).
I’ve considered that, but I don’t really have the discipline for it. I need a class with somebody holding me accountable or I tend to lose interest when it starts getting harder.
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### Author:  [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/48 "2018-06-01T15:27:43Z")
In my 3 years of High School (that is how they did it when dirt was young), each year I signed up for Navigation.
Each year I was informed that there was not enough students.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-electives-you-wish-you-took/815061/49 "2018-06-01T21:32:52Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#):
>
> Typing was the most beneficial class I ever took in HS.
Same. 30 years ago I’d never heard the term “word processing” and I couldn’t have imagined that I’d go on to type for a living, but I did – first as a technical writer, then as a proposal writer, now as a proposal manager. I like to think I would have learned touch typing eventually, but that class was an unexpected godsend.
(And, during the few years between college graduation and getting my first “real” job, having good typing skills helped me get higher-paying temp assignments.)
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> I wasn’t involved in the school paper, in middle school or high school, even though I was very interested in writing and went on to get a degree in journalism. All of my non-band friends were on the paper - they WERE the paper - and I have no idea how I managed to completely avoid being a part of it.
I don’t regret not being on my college paper’s staff – my minor was radio broadcasting, and that was my “thing” all four years – but I do often wish that I’d taken at least one journalism class. I’d never heard of technical writing and couldn’t have guessed that it would become my first career, but I knew I enjoyed and was good at writing; I really should have given journalism a try/some thought.
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