# What were the most useless skills you were taught in school?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 5, 2026, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648 "2026-06-05T19:11:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 14
### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/261 "2026-06-09T15:52:40Z")
That’s not vocabulary, that’s memorizing the conjugation of the verb, “amo” which, in Latin is “I love”. In other words, the verb forms for I love, you love, he/she/it loves, we love, you love, they love.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/262 "2026-06-09T15:55:31Z")
I was given tests when I was accepted in college, and I tested right out of having to take any English course, so I had some credits to play with in terms of choosing an elective. I made the mistake of choosing a course named, “Humanities”, because it looked easy. Oh, Lord, I was bored to death.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/263 "2026-06-09T16:01:41Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> > [@Kimstu](#):
> >
> > > [@Kent\_Clark](#):
> > >
> > > For the sake of discussion, please define “math.”
> >
> > I think I’d call it, for purposes of this discussion, “topics taught in school and higher-ed math courses”. That would include both the quantitative computation you’re comfortable with, and the more abstract high school math content that didn’t work out for you at that time.
>
> I respectfully disagree and consider that a demeaning description of math from someone who apparently despises it. I’m not a mathematician and in fact math was one of my weak points, but I can appreciate it as a methodology for grounding abstract concepts and turning them to practical use.
Uh, wow. In the first place, the idea of mathematics _“as a methodology for grounding abstract concepts and turning them to practical use”_ IS very much _“one of the topics taught in school and higher-ed math courses”_. I don’t know where you’re getting the idea that identifying math with the content of mathematics education, **at all levels** , is somehow “demeaning” to mathematics.
In the second place, when non-mathematicians are discussing what it means to be “good at math” or “bad at math”, ISTM that the place to center that discussion is on their own experiences of what math is.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/264 "2026-06-09T17:01:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> If you took geometry before you hit that threshold, you’d conclude that you weren’t any good at it, when the truth is just that you weren’t quite ready yet.
Well, if the schools are driving students into coursework that they are not cognitively ready for, I’d have to say that any math past arithmetic was a “useless” skill for me, and my junior and senior years (for that matter, all four years) would have been better spent if I had some sort of number-crunching practical “business math” type course. But I was a college-prep student, and of course I needed higher math. At least my school was smart enough to not put in me pre-calc, where would have only dragged the rest of the class down.
Incidentally, I scored well enough on my college entrance exams that I tested right out the math requirement for the academically excellent college I ended up attending. This suggests that the most **valuable** skill I learned in skill was how to recognize the closest answer on multiple choice tests.
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> I can appreciate it as a methodology for grounding abstract concepts and turning them to practical use. I’ve always been especially impressed by calculus as a way of reducing the infinite and the infinitesimal to practical calculation.
Numbers themselves are abstract concepts. I learned that much in basic arithmetic. And the infiniite and infinitesimal are as much philosophical concepts as they are scientific.
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### Author:  [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/265 "2026-06-09T17:06:33Z")
In French Canada, when I was a kid, the imperial system was still in place. In French, we used:
_1 once liquide_ = 1 liquid ounce
_1 tasse_ = 1 cup or 10 ounces
_1 demiard_ = 1 **pint** or 20 ounces
_1 **pinte** _ = 1 quart or 2 pints (you read that right: _1 pinte_ = 2 pints)
_1 gallon_ = 1 gallon
But all these were _Imperial_ ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons. **None** of these were the same size as in the U.S. Which means miles per gallon didn’t mean the same thing in Canada vs the U.S.
If you went to the store in Canada in 1975 and bought a measuring cup, which set of units was it in? If you buy one today, and there are ounce and cup markings, are those U.S. ounces and cups, because the Imperial system is mostly gone? Or because the designers (in China) don’t even know there are different sizes of ounces and cups?
If you have a recipe that calls for 5 ounces of milk, what country and decade did the recipe come from?
Even today, if you buy a Ninja air fryer with “10-pint capacity”, what are you getting exactly?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/266 "2026-06-09T18:49:16Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#):
>
> However many tablespoons per cup the instructions said, times 60, obviously. If they couldn’t figure that out, they just didn’t know how to multiply.
>
> What’s that got to do with metric?
I found some Fortnum & Mason coffee, and the brewing instructions are in tablespoons, not metric.
60 tablespoons is 3 3/4 cups.
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> I can’t imagine being an engineer in a non-metric country not wanting to change to metric. They should be the ones to know the advantages, or else they’re idiots.
I agree that science and yes engineering is best with metric, but my point is that metric has no advantages for everyday common use.
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### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/267 "2026-06-09T18:56:09Z")
Not everyone who is bad at something has some sort of disability, though.
As a side note I worked with someone who had some sort of dyscalculia; any time she wrote a room number down (she was in PBX), she would have to have someone double check that the room number was correct. The room number was 3 digits long and she could not guarantee that she wrote it down correctly.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/268 "2026-06-09T19:01:52Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> but my point is that metric has no advantages for everyday common use.
Maybe not in every situation, but for cooking and baking? I’m glad to have my recipes in metric measures, and it’s also convenient that you can easily transpose volume to weight and vice versa for liquids in SI units.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/269 "2026-06-09T19:11:17Z")
Just a reminder: One person’s useless can certainly be another person’s useful, and I would like to get back to things learned in school, please
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### Author:  [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/270 "2026-06-09T19:13:54Z")
I can’t think of a single useful thing I learned in physical education, except to hate physical activity.
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/271 "2026-06-09T19:15:36Z")
I learned some excellent skills for avoiding doing things while looking keen and busy in PE. I’m pretty sure that’s not what they were _trying_ to teach though.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/272 "2026-06-09T19:57:35Z")
> [@kitap](#):
>
> Not everyone who is bad at something has some sort of disability, though.
Yeah, sorry, I had intended to be drawing a **distinction** between people who simply have no math ability, and people who have a specifically math-related **disability** :
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> After decades of teaching math and related subjects, I have yet to meet a student that I would describe as intrinsically “bad at” math, in the sense of simply not having the ability for it.
>
> AFAICT I haven’t even ever met (although I would kind of like to, because I’m curious about the phenomenon) anybody I would describe as genuinely [“dyscalculic”](https://ldaamerica.org/what-is-dyscalculia/): that is, with a neurological learning difficulty that interferes with their basic quantitative perception/estimation/operations.
To repeat, I have yet to personally meet anyone that I’d consider belonged in either of those categories. I’ve met plenty of the math-anxious and math-disaffected, though.
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/273 "2026-06-09T20:20:13Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#):
>
> Cursive is a specific style with lots of extraneous squiggles and loops that joins letters together.
Looking at your avatar the cursive I expected was this:
[ ](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f3/fc/37/f3fc37e4403337502fc05bab4ba68882.jpg)
I am disappointed.
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> I can’t imagine being an engineer in a non-metric country not wanting to change to metric. They should be the ones to know the advantages, or else they’re idiots.
Now you mention it…
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> my point is that metric has no advantages for everyday common use.
Apart from signalling that you are not in the camp of idiots. And cooking. Baking also. And common sense, defined as the sense that is not statistically rare on a planetary scale. Makes communicating easy. Reduces mistakes.
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### Author:  [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/274 "2026-06-09T20:24:52Z")
I remember that. My friend’s parents were into Chisanbop. They also believed in levitation
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/275 "2026-06-09T20:32:28Z")
What would Washington say?
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk)
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### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/276 "2026-06-09T20:41:55Z")
Yes, General, that makes as much sense as anything I’ve seen in the news recently.
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### Author:  [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/277 "2026-06-09T22:53:47Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> This suggests that the most **valuable** skill I learned in skill was how to recognize the closest answer on multiple choice tests.
Same here. I was failing Algebra 2 as a high school junior and begged to be allowed to drop it after the first semester, the teacher and principal wouldn’t allow it. That was because my math PSAT scores were high, because I could usually eliminate at least a couple of choices quickly. All you really had to do was work backward.
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### Author:  [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/278 "2026-06-09T23:00:30Z")
My issue is that I hit a wall in math that I never hit in other subjects. I needed a tutor every day after school to pull out a D in Algebra 2, and in those days no one took it before junior year of high school. Could I have gone further? Probably not without subjecting myself to more frustration and anxiety than I was willing to do. I didn’t like the easier subjects either, but they just boring for the most part. I did like history and government classes ok, or at least well enough to get a BA in those areas.
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/279 "2026-06-09T23:25:23Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> 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.
I use fractions all the time when I’m adjusting recipes to serve more people or fewer people or to adjust a recipe that calls for a round 9 inch cake pan for an 8 inch pan.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/280 "2026-06-09T23:36:11Z")
You do not need to be a professional mathematician or engineer for studying mathematics— and I mean beyond merely adding and subtracting numbers like a human calculator— to be useful. You learn important problem-solving skills along with numeracy.
> [@Orville\_mogul](#):
>
> I remember that. My friend’s parents were into Chisanbop. They also believed in levitation
Richard Feynman recounts a “contest” with an abacus wizard in Rio de Janeiro, which demonstrated that the abacist sure could calculate fast, but did not really understand what he was doing. So being able to do rapid arithmetic was the “useless” skill, not mathematics. Something to consider with the ease of access to calculator apps, “AI”, and other computer aids even today.
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