# 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:** 19
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/361 "2026-06-11T15:35:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Yeah, I’m never surprised to hear that someone doesn’t use calculus. The only thing that I can think of that someone in a non-STEM field might use calculus for is min/max problems, and even there, calculus only helps if you have a formula for your functions, rather than just a graph or a sampling of data points (both of which are much more common for real applications).
>
> Take calculus if you want to, take it if you’re planning on a STEM career, but don’t take it just because. If you don’t know why you would want to take calculus, there’s bound to be some other course that would fit in that slot in your schedule that would serve you better.
A couple of notes:
1.) At MIT, _everyone_ has to take at least a semester of calculus, even if you end up majoring in “humanities”. They even have an assembly-line-style process that’s open all semester long where you can take a series of six tests. Pass the tests and you pass th course. You can take them all on the first day, or the last day, or space them out through the semester. You can even take them before the first day of class. That’s what I did (I took calc in high school, using the same text book.)
2.) I do think that too many people get forced to take calculus who don’t need it. Case in point, my wife, Pepper Mill, who had to take it for a business curriculum. Why, I don’t know. But she is one of those math-inhibited people who has trouble with algebra, let alone calculus. She went to the instructor, who gave her a test, recognized her difficulties, and told her he’d give her a “D” (s passing grade) if she promised to never take the course again. She instantly agreed, and hasn’t had any problems or regrets since.
#.) even among people you would think would use calculus, several years after college they end up not using it. I still occasionally use it in my work (optical engineering), but one of our friends, who is in sa technical field (chemistry) confessed to me that she hadn’t had to use it in years. I was flabbergasted – my college chemistry involved a lot of calculus. But maybe that’s because they were teaching new concepts.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/362 "2026-06-11T15:38:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> even among people you would think would use calculus, several years after college they end up not using it.
I’d wager to say that _most_ people who have taken a calculus course do not use it in their job or profession.
I’m an engineer, so I got the full treatment (four semesters of it). I am glad I took the classes, but it’s been at least five years since I’ve used it.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/363 "2026-06-11T16:14:12Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Did you mean, why they had to be so **similar** (to one another)? Or why they had to be so different from their upper case forms?
Both. Why do similar to each other and why so different from the upper case.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/364 "2026-06-11T16:24:04Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#):
>
> have abandoned cursive
A lot of forms have a block for _printing_ your name and a block for _signing_ your name. If you don’t know cursive, do you print your name in both blocks?
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/365 "2026-06-11T16:31:33Z")
For some bizarre reason, the entire ‘pure mathematics’ A level I did was based around calculus. I also had a teacher who literally started the first class by telling everyone that most of us would never need to use it, and if we ever did we’d need to learn it to a higher level, He could explain why it was so relevant but it would be a waste of time. It’s what the syllabus says we need to learn, so just memorise it \[1\].
Anyway, I failed A level pure maths. I hadn’t actually wanted to take the class, but until that point I’d been getting really good grades, so I was pushed into it. Two years of being bored out my skull without even knowing what the point was.
* * *
1. That guy was so amazingly boring. No enthusiasm for anything, ever. He dressed in a plain grey suit including a grey tie every day, even when bumped into out of school. His wife, unexpectedly, was a rainbow-clad hippy lady. Theory among the students was that they’d both started off normal, but she had gradually drained him of all colour over the marriage…
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/366 "2026-06-11T16:42:28Z")
My college age daughter who has never learned cursive, has a signature that has the letters connected. She was required to create one for some purpose when she was a tween or early teen. It has changed a lot over time. Her recent passport application signature looks very different from the one she had when she was 12.
But I bet she hasn’t signed in ink more than twice since turning 18. It’s just not that common any more. She’s signed numerous contracts and applications but they are almost all digital signatures.
Heck if someone were to compare my signature on a check I recently wrote to the signature card from 1995, I’m sure it will be very very different.
Net, net. A signature is not as important as you think it to be.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/367 "2026-06-11T16:46:33Z")
Why wouldn’t they? A signature can be printed.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/368 "2026-06-11T16:51:59Z")
A lot of signatures are illegible as text, and I expect that’s true regardless of whether the signer knows or uses cursive. But I suppose that someone might have a signature that’s legible, and which matches the printed name. So for that specific person, the form didn’t actually need two separate lines, but for most people, it does, and it’s in the nature of forms that they’re not customized for an individual’s needs, so that person still needs to fill out both lines.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/369 "2026-06-11T17:09:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> > [@aceplace57](#):
> >
> > I was forced to take Statistics in college. Hated it and hope to never suffer through the material again.
>
> You didn’t like the subject, sure, that I’ll buy. But statistics is a useful math class for absolutely anyone. Even if you’re not using it professionally, the world is full of people trying to sucker you with numbers. Statistics is the self-defense course of math.
An excellent point, and well exemplified by the famous book “How to Lie with Statistics”, by Daniel Huff and first published in 1954, and actually used as a college textbook in some statistics courses. Without this kind of basic grounding, those uneducated in statistics are likely to think of it as a very science-y subject, and therefore very accurate, while the reality is that it’s often anything but.
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> Looks like Long Division hasn’t been mentioned. I’m on the fence. I can’t remember the last time I used it, but I think there’s value in showing students that all the basic operations of arithmetic _can_ be done by hand, and we only use calculators as a tool.
I agree, and even if long division is basically an obsolete skill, I think it’s helpful in teaching the basic principles of arithmetic, just like calculus is useful foundational knowledge even if you never use it. And I remember multiplication tables being drilled into our young heads – also now more or less obsolete, yet still handy for quick estimates when you don’t immediately have a calculator on hand. In fact I don’t even have a standalone calculator – it’s always my computer, tablet, or phone.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/370 "2026-06-11T17:30:02Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> And I remember multiplication tables being drilled into our young heads – also now more or less obsolete, yet still handy for quick estimates when you don’t immediately have a calculator on hand.
We were forced to memorize integer multiplication up to 12 x 12. I probably hated doing it at the time, but I am very thankful for it now.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/371 "2026-06-11T18:26:48Z")
Same here.
Thank goodness my Uncle made a game out of memorizing the multiplication tables up to 12.
I use multiplication regulary. Usually doing division in my head.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/372 "2026-06-11T18:32:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> 2.) I do think that too many people get forced to take calculus who don’t need it. Case in point, my wife, Pepper Mill, who had to take it for a business curriculum. Why, I don’t know. But she is one of those math-inhibited people who has trouble with algebra, let alone calculus. She went to the instructor, who gave her a test, recognized her difficulties, and told her he’d give her a “D” (s passing grade) if she promised to never take the course again. She instantly agreed, and hasn’t had any problems or regrets since.
I was a business major as an undergrad, and had to take two semesters of calculus for my bachelor’s degree. AIUI, calculus is an important part of financial models, and that’s the reason why it’s required for a lot of business degrees.
However, my school offered two classes in “business calculus,” which were focused purely on application, and didn’t get into the “how to understand how a derivative equation works,” which regular calculus classes (for people going into the sciences, mathematics, and engineering) would teach.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/373 "2026-06-11T18:40:47Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> We were forced to memorize integer multiplication up to 12 x 12. I probably hated doing it at the time, but I am very thankful for it now.
Me, too. It was on the back of our composition tablets
In one of his books Robert Heinlein wrote about being made to memorize multiplication tables up to 20 x 20.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/374 "2026-06-11T18:56:58Z")
My geometry teacher forbade me to try to trisect an angle with a compass and a straightedge on class time… which essentially forced me into trying.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/375 "2026-06-11T18:58:26Z")
I loved the eleven’s.
Double the digits.
11x2 22, 11x6 66 11x9 99
The pattern breaks after that.
Ten’s add a zero
4x10 40 8x10 80 etc. 12x10 120
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### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/376 "2026-06-11T19:03:10Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> BTW, are physical business cards considered useless? Do you still give them out?
They are useful at the hotel I work at. We hand them out to guests who want to talk to a specific manager or salesperson. Especially at 2 AM. Why people think we have a wedding salesperson on the clock then I have no idea. Or the hotel manager.
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### Author:  [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/377 "2026-06-11T19:31:19Z")
> [@sunacres](#):
>
> There must be some schools somewhere that are sensible enough to offer a math survey course for non-tech students, explaining and demonstrating what calculus is and what it does without having to master the mechanics of doing the calculations. That level of understanding would be very mind-opening for folks in general.
Community college level, not high school: I’ve taught “Calc for Business and Life/Social Sciences” a few times. It’s like Calc 1 & 2 Lite, in a single course. It doesn’t get as heavy into the concepts, it features no trigonometry (thus the only prereq is College Algebra), and focuses more on applied problems rather than mechanics.
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### Author:  [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/378 "2026-06-11T20:36:17Z")
> [@sunacres](#):
>
> There must be some schools somewhere that are sensible enough to offer a math survey course for non-tech students
Not math, but UC Berkeley has a physics course - I’ve forgotten the course number - that is commonly called “Physics for Future Presidents”. It’s designed to provide the barest familiarity with physics to non-STEM majors that still satisfies graduation requirements. IIRC, that nickname is used by nearly all the physics professors, even the Nobel Laureates.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/379 "2026-06-11T20:44:19Z")
Clever teacher!
> [@ricepad](#):
>
> Not math, but UC Berkeley has a physics course - I’ve forgotten the course number - that is commonly called “Physics for Future Presidents”. It’s designed to provide the barest familiarity with physics to non-STEM majors that still satisfies graduation requirements. IIRC, that nickname is used by nearly all the physics professors, even the Nobel Laureates.
That’s a lot more flattering than the usual name of “…for jocks”.
When I was an astronomy major at Villanova, one of the students’ duties was manning the observatory, which was open to the public. One night, we got an entire class of third-graders come up, which was fun. They were doing astronomy in their science period that week. At the end of the week, the teacher sent us copies of their quizzes.
Someone posted them in the hallway together with the quizzes from Astronomy for Jocks. Not only were the third-graders’ quizzes harder, but they did better on them.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2026, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/380 "2026-06-11T20:53:55Z")
8yos FTW!
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