# 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:** 6
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/101 "2026-06-06T19:57:04Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> Do you believe that I’m now competent to declare that it _is_ as useless to me as I’ve always _thought_ it was?
You want a simplistic answer to a simplistic question? The operative word in the sentence you quoted is Lessons, the plural of lesson. Primary school is the accumulation of knowledge as a child without an express link to some specific purpose. Overall the lessons help later in life in a variety of ways. Cursive writing is a pretty simple skill to learn. It allows for faster writing and it helps with motor skills which a young child needs.
You’re competent to have an opinion.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/102 "2026-06-06T19:59:04Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> If you like grammatical cases, what you want is a non-Indo-European language. Hungarian has around 18, for instance.
I’m stilll mad at my mom for not speaking Hungarian to us when we were kids. She grew up in the bad old days (that are coming around again, shit) when speaking anything other than English was completely sus. When I tried studying it later, it was very difficult. And to add insult to injury, my mom criticized my accent.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/103 "2026-06-06T20:03:28Z")
> [@carrps](#):
>
> I’m stilll mad at my mom for not speaking Hungarian to us when we were kids.
I asked my father about that once. His parents were first generation and grew up fully bilingual, speaking fluent Serbo-Croatian. My father can speak just a very little bit. I can’t speak a word. Not only was it to some degree an issue of assimilation (but less serious where he lived, where ethnic enclaves were common), but he said the main reason was that his parents preferred to have a language of their own the kids couldn’t understand 😉.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/104 "2026-06-06T20:09:14Z")
Sewing. I’ve never sewn anything since school.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/105 "2026-06-06T20:14:56Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> Dunno. I started college taking notes in cursive but fairly quickly switched to a print/cursive hybrid which suited me better. Keeping in mind that I’m a pushing-left hander and part of it was helping with legibility after smears.
Yes. I think everybody does that on some level. Lefties more so because of smearing. You should appreciate modern pens. The Pilot Precise V series dries instantly and writes streak free until empty. I’m sure other’s have followed in their path. The pen came out in 1980.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/106 "2026-06-06T20:19:59Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> I asked my father about that once. His parents were first generation and grew up fully bilingual, speaking fluent Serbo-Croatian.
My mom (second oldest of seven) grew up in a small town with a lot of other Hungarians. They moved into Columbus (OH) when she was six or seven, and they lived in the German part of town. She was often the only Hungarian and/or Catholic in her school classes. That marked her.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/107 "2026-06-06T20:33:37Z")
I made an ashtray out of clay in school.
Boy, _that_ skill sure came in handy!
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/108 "2026-06-06T20:38:09Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> Sewing. I’ve never sewn anything since school.
I’ve sewn buttons back on when they’ve come off (although that’s not something I was taught at school). Does that count?
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/109 "2026-06-06T20:40:22Z")
Typing class was the most useful thing I learned. I can still rip off 80 wpm while others are hunting and pecking at thier keyboards.
History was outdated, incomplete, and biased. English literature was boring but I did like a few books we read. The Brothers Karamazov was a usless slog and is why I still hate Russia. It was like something you have to do in prison, you are sentenced to read this awful book.
The most useless skill was playing the Recorder, a small flute everyone had to learn. Why, why , why?
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/110 "2026-06-06T20:42:37Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#):
>
> The most useless skill was playing the Recorder, a small flute everyone had to learn. Why, why , why?
Because they were cheap, cheap, cheap to buy, buy, buy.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/111 "2026-06-06T20:43:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> So, what useless skills were _you_ taught in a classroom?
How about a ‘most useful skills’ thread?
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### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/112 "2026-06-06T20:43:14Z")
Matrices in mathematics. Also Critical Path Analysis.
Intervisibility in geography. Only used it once, in the army, and that was for a test paper.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/113 "2026-06-06T20:43:24Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> You want a simplistic answer to a simplistic question? The operative word in the sentence you quoted is Lessons, the plural of lesson.
Well, (a) you’d flatly stated that “lessons people think are useless in school are the ones that provide a foundation for a more satisfying and productive life”, which struck me as a, uh, ‘simplistic’ claim — and (b) if it’ll help, I’ll shrug and mention a second ‘lesson’ that _also_ took classroom time away from, y’know, useful stuff that’s provided a foundation for a more satisfying and productive life.
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### Author:  [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/114 "2026-06-06T20:57:18Z")
Metal shop helped me learn how to make a money clip. I gave to my dad. Even polished it myself. About five years later, I found it in the back of a drawer. I understood. It was ugly as hell. I’m positive that I haven’t made a single thing from metal since, nor really wanted to.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/115 "2026-06-06T21:22:28Z")
Some people have been naming skills that _they’ve_ never used, but the OP wasn’t really explicit about whether “useless skills” means skills that have been useless _to you_ or skills that are useless _in general_.
It is possible to know from personal experience that a skill is usefull, but it is not possible to know purely from personal experience that a skill is useless. Just because you’ve never had a use for a skill, that doesn’t mean that other people haven’t. Or that you never will in the future. Or that you haven’t had opportunities to use that skill that you haven’t taken advantage of.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/116 "2026-06-06T21:34:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> Well, (a) you’d flatly stated that “lessons people think are useless in school are the ones that provide a foundation for a more satisfying and productive life”, which struck me as a, uh, ‘simplistic’ claim — and (b)
I don’t think its particularly simplistic. A well rounded education provides broader opportunities in life. It doesn’t require a person use everything they learned and by extend to discard everything not used as useless. It just allows more avenues to pursue. You don’t have to go back too far in history to see examples of people who were taught a single skill and that became their future.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/117 "2026-06-06T21:45:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> means skills that have been useless _to you_ or skills that are useless _in general_.
I assumed either/or. Cursive is close to useless or at the very least unnecessary in general in modern society. I don’t regret learning or knowing it and have used it heavily at times in my life. But I have zero objection to it being dropped from school curricula. Spend the time on other stuff.
Learning how to use a T-square on a drafting board, use technical lettering or draw a proper-looking vector, etc. was likely useful to a small minority of students when I went to school. But it was utterly, utterly useless to me. And I imagine it hasn’t been of much practical use since computer design overtook free-hand drafting an age ago.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/118 "2026-06-06T21:51:38Z")
A LOT of what kids learn as “skills” are just vehicles to insert the ideas behind the skills into their cute little heads.
And yes, there are a bunch of teachers and school administrations that confuse teaching the skill as an end goal (WRONG!) with teaching the concepts the skill demonstrates and instills (RIGHT!).
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/119 "2026-06-06T21:53:12Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> I don’t think it’s particularly simplistic. A well rounded education provides broader opportunities in life. It doesn’t require a person use everything they learned and by extend to discard everything not used as useless. It just allows more avenues to pursue. You don’t have to go back too far in history to see examples of people who were taught a single skill and that became their future.
The problem is, that general statement isn’t much help on specifics. What if the time I’d spent on cursive had been spent on, say, _geology?_ Or _astronomy?_ Or any one of a dozen other subjects?
Given what you’re saying here, I could argue that studying a different subject would’ve likewise been part of a well-rounded education that provides broader opportunities in life — allowing more avenues, instead of that single-skill stuff — but, for some reason, I was required to broaden my education with cursive rather than with geology. I was required to broaden my education with cursive rather than with astronomy. I was required to broaden my education with cursive rather than with something that could _just as easily_ be plugged into talk about ‘roundedness’.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648/120 "2026-06-06T22:00:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> A LOT of what kids learn as “skills” are just vehicles to insert the ideas behind the skills into their cute little heads.
>
> And yes, there are a bunch of teachers and school administrations that confuse teaching the skill as an end goal (WRONG!) with teaching the concepts the skill demonstrates and instills (RIGHT!).
A very astute observation. And this is exactly why I say that learning higher math like calculus, a computer language, and being exposed to liberal arts like literature, are an important part of education even if one never directly or obviously uses those skills in later life.
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> The problem is, that general statement isn’t much help on specifics. What if the time I’d spent on cursive had been spent on, say, _geology?_ Or _astronomy?_ Or any one of a dozen other subjects?
Then you might know more about geology or astronomy, but you wouldn’t be able to sign your name to a legal document.
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