In another thread I started on “Worst teacher”, someone brought up the fact that they were taught how to diagram sentences, a skill that I was also painfully taught…and never had to use in over 60 years. I believe that someone mentioned that they loved to do it, I don’t think anyone mentioned that they actually needed that “skill”.
I also learned how to type on a manual typewriter (which I guess might come in handy when using a computer keyboard), and how to use a slide rule (gee, I can’t remember the number of times that came in handy over the years. No, wait-yes I can. Zero).
So, what useless skills were you taught in a classroom?
I’d posit that diagramming sentences isn’t a skill, per se, but more of a learning tool for teaching students how to understand sentence structure, syntax, and parts of speech. That said, you’re right, it’s not something that comes into play in everyday use.
I was just a bit too young to be taught how to use a slide rule, as (relatively) inexpensive electronic calculators came into being when I was in grade school. Prior to that, slide rule knowledge was a very useful skill if you had a career which required mathematical calculations.
The only “useless” skill I can think of from school lessons, as far as having been something I simply never used again, was square dancing. Square dancing was a staple of PE classes when I was in grade school, and we were forced to learn a lot of steps, but it’s something I never pursued again.
Probably cursive. I have had zero use for it for decades. I used to think that maybe being able to read cursive was an advantage I could attribute to learning to write it, but My Gen Z son who never learned cursive had no problems reading various historical documents that I showed him to test that theory.
Multiplying, dividing, and other arithmetic applied to fractions. Absolutely zero point in it outside of elementary school. And other than in cuisine (1/2 teaspoon of this, 1/4 tablespoon of that*), I never use fractions anyway. Everything relevant to my life is expressed in integers and/or decimals. And I can apply arithemetic to decimals quite easily: I have, in my pocket, a machine that is tens of millions of times more powerful than any calculator that could be purchase in the 1970s, when I learned.
Regarding diagramming sentences: if your profession routinely requires you to do public speaking (the ministry, for example, and preaching sermons), or explaining this or that to investors, or motivating people at a TED Talk, or whatever, diagramming sentences can be a useful skill because it helps you map out, visually, what you’re trying to convey.
*And also, American cookbooks need to ditch this volume shit and express recipe ingredients by weight, in the metric system.
I took Latin as a language elective. Everyone else on the planet was taking Spanish. I hated it. Little did I know that what was sinking into my brain was how language is structured. As a C student in English, I thought grammar was stupid. Then, after my second year of Latin, I had a huge AHA! moment in my junior year. The teacher started in on sentence diagramming, which I had always just tuned out because I didn’t get it, when suddenly it was like a lightbulb turned on like you see in the funnies. The entire English language structure suddenly made sense to me. I got A’s in English from then on. Yes, really.
In retrospect, I don’t think any of the actual skills were useless; they were just poorly taught. Teaching trigonometry without showing the practical application of it is pointless. Teaching history as a series of dates to memorize tells you almost nothing of the panorama of it. Geography without the climate, people and animals and how they live is largely pointless.
If we’re counting obsolete skills, probably technical drawing. I wasn’t very good at it in school, because at the time, the proper tools for it didn’t exist. Now that they do, I’m pretty good at CAD.
I don’t doubt that many of my high school math students thought that. Some of them probably still do think it. Sigh.
I’m glad it worked for you!
Sadly my Latin teacher never discussed sentence diagramming or any other language structure.
I did get top grades in English - I think that was mainly because when Mum was busy, I went to my aunt, who had a large collection of Reader’s Digests (including ‘Test your Word Power’.) I read them voraciously .
I was going to say two years of German in high school, but then I remembered that I ‘quizzed out’ of taking a language in college, so it wasn’t a totally useless skill.
But learning how to use a slide rule is a skill that I never used after high school.
I had 2 years of Latin. When I was a personal property appraiser it actually came in useful, as we appraised a good number of vintage maps, antique books and such-like. I also collect hymnals, so Latin hymns are a thing.
Yep, I agree. Diagraming sentences isn’t a skill you are expected to learn and use. It’s a tool to teach you how grammar works. Grammar was the actual skill you were being taught, not the mechanics of how to diagram a sentence. If you know proper grammar, then you actually learned the skill that was being taught.
I absolutely hated diagramming sentences though.
I use it mostly in woodworking, but it comes up in engineering things on occasion as well (admittedly rarely). It’s not completely worthless for me.
Cursive writing is definitely the answer for me. I have never had any use for it whatsoever outside of school, except that my signature is written in cursive. And my signature has become completely illegible over the years (as an engineer I have to sign documents constantly, which has totally wrecked my signature).
Pennsylvania passed a law earlier this year requiring schools to once again teach cursive writing. Personally I think this is absolutely idiotic and is a complete waste of time for both the school teachers and the students.
I was taught how to use one, but at that point slide rules were being phased out and we were taught how to use them in case our fancy new-fangled calculator thingie was broken or needed batteries or whatever.
Other than in school I have never had to use a slide rule and have since forgotten how to use one.
I agree a slide rule is useless now, but at the time, I thought it was a lot of fun! I still have the slide rule that my dad used in the Navy. We also had a circular slide rule.
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