# What is the singlemost useless thing you learned in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434 "2022-04-07T02:31:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/81 "2022-04-07T17:01:15Z")
The whole Pilgrim/Puritan freedom of religion nonsense. It was a marginal business enterprise. Freedom of religion just meant they were free to steal land from the Indians and lynch the occasional Quaker. Freedom of religion is an oxymoron. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/82 "2022-04-07T17:10:52Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > As for “useless”, I leaned all about human reproduction in full detail, but I have never had a child of my own, nor delivered one. Not even babysat. Sex ed was only about heterosexual sex ed. Gay sex wasn’t even mentioned. Totally useless for me. And why did I take a year of Russian in high school? Where was I ever supposed to use it? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/83 "2022-04-07T17:15:39Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > The whole Pilgrim/Puritan freedom of religion nonsense. Which is how the Mormons ended up in Utah - driven out by the uptight church brigade. “Freedom for me, but not for thee.” Same with Catholics, but at least they didn’t get driven out of town on a rail.\* > [@panache45](#): > > Sex ed was only about heterosexual sex ed. Gay sex wasn’t even mentioned. Oddly, I think we did cover it. Not in great detail, but more than you’d expect. I guess back then Wisconsin was pretty progressive. \* what does that even mean? ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/84 "2022-04-07T17:18:47Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > what does that even mean? …What does the saying, “Run him out of town on a rail” mean? In colonial times, people who were thought too loyal to Britain, or too outspoken against independence, or crown tax collectors, were sometimes tarred, feathered, and tied to a wooden fence rail and carried out of town. [wikipedia] ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/85 "2022-04-07T17:22:58Z")
How to read and write Hebrew in [Rashi script](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi_script). (It would have been useful if I’d become a Talmud scholar…) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/86 "2022-04-07T17:24:09Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > [wikipedia] I should have known. Is there nothing the Internet can’t do? I always figured it had something to do with trains. I thank you for not saying LMGTFY. 🙂 Didn’t tar and feathering cause severe burns? They sure loved to torture people in imaginative ways back then. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/87 "2022-04-07T17:25:51Z")
Very severe burns, and apparently it took forever for the tar to wear off. Resistant to turpentine, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/88 "2022-04-07T17:59:44Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > I can still recite the first page of the Canterbury Tales…in middle English. Me, too! We had to go to the prof one by one and recite it to him. ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/89 "2022-04-07T18:08:43Z")
I can sing the quadratic formula. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/90 "2022-04-07T18:14:11Z")
First thing I thought of! 7th grade, open concept middle school meant it had no walls, no windows and being in the subtropics dependent on air conditioning. Class rooms were partitioned by bookcases and chalkboards. Noisy? Chaotic? Yes! I’m at the back of the class and could never follow what the English teacher was teaching about diagramming sentences. I love reading/writing but breaking it all down ihnfi! Otoh, I loved 7th grade math, it was quieter there because at that time the 6th grade went to lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/91 "2022-04-07T18:21:14Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Writing in cursive Cursive is beautiful, but my scrawling has never come close to the textbook examples. ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/92 "2022-04-07T18:22:56Z")
I never saw the point of learning Roman numbers. So, I can tell the time on a clock with Roman numbers, but I could do that with any symbol, just count. And I can read the copywrite date on some books, which should be using Arabic numbers anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/93 "2022-04-07T18:25:35Z")
That one might not be _valuable_ per se, but you’ve definitely used it a lot. Between clocks, copyrights on movies, sequel titles, and chapter numbers in various forms it’s still used everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/94 "2022-04-07T18:30:42Z")
State capitals. Periodic table. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/95 "2022-04-07T18:38:35Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I think a lot of this is geared towards learning to think. Not so much remembering the quadratic equation. > > Again in High School. The class was called Logic. Ok Sounds good. But it was really 1st grade level basics. If A=B and B=C then A=C. Umm, yeah, no shit. A big problem is that a lot of what’s taught in math classes is preparatory to learning more advanced concepts which a lot of people never get around to. So you get a lot of “yeah, no shit” stuff like absolute values that seem pointless until you get to things like polar coordinates where absolute distance from the origin becomes pivotal. Similarly, calculating the slope of a line seems meaningless until you get to calculus when the derivative of an equation is exactly equivalent to finding the slope of a line at that point of the plotted curve. And math is too often taught as rote procedures where you aren’t told why those procedures work. For example the quadratic formula is ultimately a diagram of a procedure called completing the square, which is very elegant and extremely useful, although the rote formula is faster for cranking out the values you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/96 "2022-04-07T18:45:25Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > While I agree about the deposit slip (although to be fair I’ve had to fill those out for any physical checks that were to be dposited at my credit union as recently as 2016), balancing a checkbook is something that all kids should know how to do. Physical checks are pretty uncommon these days but knowing how to track expenses and balance accounts is vital. > > Judging by a representative sample of about ten (asked my students), Kids These Days dont know how to do that or even recognize that its important to do so. They look at their bank balance online and assume that amount is their avaliable balance, ignoring the fact that some things may not have processed through yet. They apparently think everything in cyberworld happens instantaneously so a puchase made at 5:07 pm from Amazon will be debited from their account at 5:07 pm exactly. The idea of float is foreign to them. I use an Excel spreadsheet as my register because I have a significant amount of money reserved for periodic expenses, and monthly expenses that I can presume have to be met every month. So my spreadsheet is organized more like an accounting ledger, with the important result is how much discretionary funds I have versus my gross balance. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/97 "2022-04-07T18:50:23Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > The Renaissance era of history. Boring shat! 🤮 OTOH, a course on European history between 1492 and 1607 with an eye to why exactly English-speaking peoples came to settle in North America would be a sorely needed addition to American history. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/98 "2022-04-07T18:53:15Z")
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all. And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none, I can read the writing on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/99 "2022-04-07T18:55:35Z")
Oh, so unused I’d completely forgotten it: DOS 5.0 ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/100 "2022-04-07T18:57:00Z")
> [@Tarataratara](#): > > I never saw the point of learning Roman numbers. The point, of course, is to be able to tell the year the movie was made. Mine has got to be manual typesetting, with the little bits of lead type that had to be sorted into a wooden typesetter’s case with all the positions memorized (there was a test). This was public school shop class in, I’m sorry to say, about 1982. What an embarrassment and a waste. It was actually fun for me, but I don’t think anybody pretended it had any practical application by then, or even 30 years prior. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434.md?page=6)