Which school subjects are useless in the regular real world?

GGizmo

GGizmo

GGizmo

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I generally liked all of my classes at school. But I always remember at the time people who were older than me and had left school saying some subjects are a waste of time in normal life.

As I've grown up passed the big 40 I'm thinking back and I have to say I agree.

https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum

I looked at the subject list today on the government website. The only compulsory lessons in my opinion should be English, Maths, Science, Physical education and Computing. Everything else should be an optional choice.

Currently Design and technology (don't know what this is), History, Geography, Art and Design, Music, and Ancient and modern foreign languages, and citizenship are compulsory.

Which subjects do you guys think are a waste of time? Or at least should be optional?
 
Thread title - Which school subjects are useless in the regular real world?

None. Just you might not personally need them all.
 
I can't say RE provided me with anything worthwhile that an hour on Wikipedia couldn't have.

Other than that they all look ok although citizenship sounds a bit brainwashy.
 
LOAM said:
I can't say RE provided me with anything worthwhile that an hour on Wikipedia couldn't have.

Other than that they all look ok although citizenship sounds a bit brainwashy.
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Then you either missed the point or were badly taught RE.
 
LOAM said:
I can't say RE provided me with anything worthwhile that an hour on Wikipedia couldn't have.

Other than that they all look ok although citizenship sounds a bit brainwashy.
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Citizenship should be an explanation of how the U.K. judicial and parliamentary systems work along with a guide to your rights and responsibilities.
 
Dis86 said:
Then you either missed the point or were badly taught RE.
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I'll not lie they guy was a complete idiot. He was far more interested in turning up to to the PE changing rooms just as we were about to get showered than teaching tbh.
 
tbh, you could make the argument that they're either all useless, or they're all essential.

way i see it the school system up to GCSE's is about getting both some very basic fundamentals under your belt, but more importantly providing kids with an opportunity to try a bunch of different subjects and see what they like/are good at.

for example foreign languages might be very useful and valid for someone who's natural talents/desires end up with them being a professional translator (or historian in the case of ancient/dead languages)

kids don't always know what they want to do, so letting them try a range of things can help narrow it down for them.

where this falls down is when these "tasters" end up not being a very accurate guide to certain subjects or there are gaps where a student might actually want to follow a path but aren't aware enough of the subject to realise it's something they want to do.

edit:
MikeTheNative said:
Music and Art for me. I was useless at both and never had any interest at pursuing it outside of class.
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case in point- would you know you didn't like/weren't good at art if you hadn't been made to give it a go?
 
Dis86 said:
Then you either missed the point or were badly taught RE.
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Re didnt sit well with me, didnt see or take anything from it. DOnt see the point of that being "taught" in a school setting, like it has the same logic in a classroom as Math.
 
Subjects I don't think should be core (at older ages)

Science - was core
English literature - was core
Languages
History
Geography
RE
D&T etc
Music
Art


Subjects that should be core

PSE (or whatever its called now)
Basic IT (better than it was when I was at school)
Basic personal finance (basically adulting)
English language
Maths
PE

Note when I was at school RE, PSE, IT were particularly badly taught. Personal finance... Was never taught which is probably the most important subject you could learn at school!

I hated PE at school. I was bullied basically because I was terrible at and thus hated football. We never got to do the sports I was good at (swimming, hockey) so I was super unfit, hated all sport and was probably quite affected by with self confidence.

It was always football. Good kids would deliberately come into the 'bad' team just to make you look bad. You couldn't do same in maths for example.

Hopefully PE is better now, as it's important
 
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Definitely RE. Even the teacher didnt take it seriously at my school. Luckily we were allowed to drop it for GCSEs and do something else, so everyone did.
 
LOAM said:
I'll not lie they guy was a complete idiot. He was far more interested in turning up to to the PE changing rooms just as we were about to get showered than teaching tbh.
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Ah, one of those delights!
 
I think one of my biggest dissapointments from school is this.

The subjects aren't taught in a way that represents real world jobs.
Science was always interesting, I loved it. So much that I took all of them at A level.
Even did it at uni. Wasn't until during uni I kind of picked up on what the jobs were like. I wish I could have known earlier. Biggest regret in life was doing science at uni. Well. The science I did. Waste of time and money.

Obviously you aren't going to tell a kid in primary school 'this subject is a terrible job' but as you come towards college and uni I wish there was a way (like extended work experience) to understand what the jobs would be like. When I was at school none of this happened.you were basically told to do what you were good at
 
Its school for god sake its not supposed to give people job life skills. :cry: Its there to give people a basic knowledge of subjects.

Boy just chose his options(for year 9, not gcse).....these are compulsory

English, Maths, Science, Geography, History, Art and Design, and Core PE. In addition, they will follow a carousel of lessons in ICT, Enterprise, Media, Psychology \ Health and Social Care and Citizenship to introduce them to some of the new subjects available at Key Stage 4.

Then one from each group.
French, Spanish,Engineering TA (Technical Award), Photography, RE, Philosophy and Ethics, Music, Physical Education (GCSE or Technical Award)
Drama, Engineering TA (Technical Award), Music, Photography,Physical Education (GCSE or Technical Award), RE, Philosophy and Ethics

Seems fine to me, though I would have preferred if they made a foreign language compulsory.
 
adolf hamster said:
agreed, even at degree level this is a problem.

the closest you seem to get these days is the technical colleges, as they tend to put a lot more emphasis on industrial liaison when constructing their courses.
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But that's kind of the point. They can't possibly tailor a course to suit all of the potential real world uses.
The courses are there to build and test a set of core skills and abilities. Taking RE as an example since its come up a lot. Its there to help you develop the ability to analyse texts and draw your own conclusions. What was the author of this gospel really trying to say. How can this religion be right, but also this one. Etc.
 
Dis86 said:
But that's kind of the point. They can't possibly tailor a course to suit all of the potential real world uses.
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true, although they could at least patch some of the glaring holes in the content.

Dis86 said:
The courses are there to build and test a set of core skills and abilities. Taking RE as an example since its come up a lot. Its there to help you develop the ability to analyse texts and draw your own conclusions. What was the author of this gospel really trying to say. How can this religion be right, but also this one. Etc.
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mostly i remember it being more about viewing both sides of arguments such as abortion and making your own mind up on the subject.
 
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