# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/141 "2022-04-08T03:51:09Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > And how many of us had to memorize the Gettysburg Address (in Old English, middle, new, or otherwise)? My grammar school, in a controversial twist for Kentucky in the 1970s, made us memorize “I Have A Dream.” > [@Senegoid](#): > > And how many of us still remember it? The opening line? Sure. For the rest, I remember the gist. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/142 "2022-04-08T04:00:04Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > And how many of us had to memorize the Gettysburg Address (in Old English, middle, new, or otherwise)? I lucked out and got to memorize In Flanders Fields instead. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/143 "2022-04-08T12:08:55Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > If Shakespeare’s so great, why are his plays full of clichés, well-worn tropes, and over-used quotes? > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I hope this post was sarcastic. > [@Folly](#): > > … … [Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)[Guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/g/Registered) 13h 😉 > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > @Dandan, you’ve been thoroughly wooshed… > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@Dandan](#): > > > > Yeah? Not the sharpest brick in the hod, me. Please 'splain. > > > > > Dan > > I hate to explain jokes, but here it goes: Am I not following this sequence, or did you have to ask Folly if he was being a wise guy, leading to the wink-wink-nudge-nudge smiley? Were you self-wooshing, or was Folly being too subtle for poor me? Hell, apparently a smiley is too subtle for me. Perhaps you were guilty of wooshful thinking. Dan ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/144 "2022-04-08T12:19:13Z")
I’m gonna have to say the “fact” that “Hanukka” was the Jewish word for “Christmas”. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/145 "2022-04-08T12:21:29Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > So I will change my answer to square dancing. WTF was up with that? Square dancing was to save you from jazz > **[America’s wholesome square dancing tradition is a tool of white supremacy](https://qz.com/1153516/americas-wholesome-square-dancing-tradition-is-a-tool-of-white-supremacy)** > > Henry Ford believed that a square dancing renaissance would counteract what he saw as the unwholesome influence of jazz on America. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/146 "2022-04-08T12:45:15Z")
The girls hated square dance class. It was literally a machine that rotated them through all the boys, most of whom they found unattractive and many of whom copped a feel. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/147 "2022-04-08T13:18:54Z")
Catholic school “music” class. No theory, no “music appreciation;” class was “taught” Friday afternoon the last hour before weekend dismissal and consisted of following Sister Mary Elephant as she sang out of the hymnal. If you didn’t seemed enthused enough, you got a bad grade. Surprise – no one was enthused enough. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/148 "2022-04-08T13:23:49Z")
Speaking of stupid sex education back in the late 80s my middle school had these guest speakers come in and one of them was talking about the AIDS epidemic. She said something to the effect that AIDS was introduced into the US because it became prevalent in Haiti and Haiti shares the same island as the US territory Puerto Rico. And infected Haitians were crossing the border into Puerto Rico and coming to the mainland US because Haiti was too poor a country to treat them. (There was also a homophobic bend to this because she said these Haitians were all male homosexuals.) This was just the most egregious of the stupidity I listened to THAT day and someone must have complained because they WERE never invited back.(Not just that one speaker–the entire group that organized the event.) ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/149 "2022-04-08T13:24:14Z")
Quit complaining you guys. I read the _entire_ Canterbury Tales in Middle English in college. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/150 "2022-04-08T13:44:01Z")
Speaking of difficult English assignments— I just remembered trying to read Beowulf in high school. No one in my immediate family was much help. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/151 "2022-04-08T15:06:22Z")
One from undergrad. Here in the UK, you don’t do a general programme of study and decide what to specialise in, you sign up for a specific subject right from the start of the course. This course will be a set programme of study, with maybe a couple of options, and all your classes are related to the topic, or widely applicable ones like essay writing and stats. So, I was supposed to be studying zoology, and the course included a class on the molecular mechanisms of ion uptake into plant roots. The course included no other classes on plants at all- not even as an option. No mention of what the plants needed said ions for, or where they came from, just the molecular mechanisms of how they got through the root cell walls. This class was really detailed, delivered in a mind-numbing monotone, and so truly irrelevant that I still have found no use for it despite dropping out of that course and subsequently completing a degree in Horticulture. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/152 "2022-04-08T15:15:03Z")
In another thread I mentioned that I was required to memorize the names of all the presidents of the U.S. _And_ the vice presidents. _And_ their political party affiliations. This was in 7th or 8th grade. I thought it was completely useless at the time, and I did terrible on the test. Forty-one years later, I still think it was useless. And am still a little bit peeved about it. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/153 "2022-04-08T15:19:51Z")
In high school I took one year of Spanish (language). Hated it. Did terrible. Thought it was useless. When I was senior in college, I was informed I didn’t have enough foreign-language credit hours. So I took a semester of… Spanish. Hated it. Did terrible. Thought it was useless. I _only_ took it in order to graduate. Today I can count to five in Spanish. That’s it. I can’t even construct a single sentence in it. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/154 "2022-04-08T15:26:05Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > In my seventh grade social studies class, everyone has to memorize the names and locations on a map of all 88 counties. You reminded me of the day when I was in third grade and my teacher produced a map of Ohio divided into counties and challenged the class to count how many there were. Knowing the answer, I blurted out “Eighty-eight!” I don’t know how many minutes of drudgery I saved my classmates, but as I recall, Miss S proceeded to do what she normally resorted to when a lesson took less time than she had anticipated. She would get out her ukulele and start singing such tunes as “If I Had a Hammer” and “Cotton Fields”. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/155 "2022-04-08T15:27:05Z")
For me, personally, it was anything I was taught in shop class. I guess if I learned one thing it’s to hire people good at shop to do the shop things I need done @ home. So not totally useless. The one thing I hated learning, thought I WILL NEVER USE THIS CRAP, but was proven completely wrong, was matrix math. Had I known of the future importance of Excel on my life, I may have paid more attention. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/156 "2022-04-08T15:31:35Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > In another thread I mentioned that I was required to memorize the names of all the presidents of the U.S. _And_ the vice presidents. _And_ their political party affiliations. This was in 7th or 8th grade. I thought it was completely useless at the time, and I did terrible on the test. Forty-one years later, I still think it was useless. And am still a little bit peeved about it. Take some comfort in knowing that [George Seaton](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039628/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) didn’t get it right either: Kris Kringle: Who was vice president under John Quincy Adams? Daniel D. Tompkins. I’ll bet your Mr. Sawyer doesn’t know that. It was James Monroe. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/157 "2022-04-08T15:40:52Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > _For me, personally, it was anything I was taught in shop class._ We had a half-year of metal shop and a half-year of wood shop, for three years in junior high school. In metal shop we made a cold chisel. In wood shop, a foot stool. Both were a waste of time but metal shop was especially so. And the metal shop teacher was this real mean guy who once slapped a kid silly and threw him against a wall for being unruly. And by the way, his wife was the English teacher who made us diagram sentences for two years. What a pair. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/158 "2022-04-08T15:44:25Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > That’s useful. My high school math and physics teacher had us use only log tables for about a month. Not because the tables themselves were useful, but being comfortable with using logarithms is… I agree. That’s why I was very specific about: > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > …multiplication by use of log tables… which is, per the OP, > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > …an outdated skill… As it happens, my finishing school/starting university coincided almost exactly with the boom in pocket calculators. I used log tables for multiplication all through school (when I wasn’t using a slide rule); I don’t think I ever used log tables from the day I left school onwards. j ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/159 "2022-04-08T15:51:09Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > For me, personally, it was anything I was taught in shop class. In high school (1982 - 1986) I took one year of drafting and two years of wood shop. I _loved_ it, and learned a lot. [Mr. Paule](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55502293/marvin-w-paule) was the teacher. He was a no-nonsense WWII vet. He was tough on us, but I’m thankful for it. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434/160 "2022-04-08T15:58:29Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > The girls hated square dance class. Speaking for the boys, we hated it too. I think my lifelong hatred of all dancing might stem from being forced to do square dances (and the hokey pokey) in elementary school. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-singlemost-useless-thing-you-learned-in-school/962434.md?page=9)