Useless Subjects

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So long as we're talking about useless subjects, I feel I should bring up CALCULUS. English Literature may not be your forte, but the year 2008 demands that you be literate. Not enough people have basic literacy these days. It's rare that any individual have strong aptitudes in both Language and the Math / Sciences.

For most people, it's one or the other.

It's not useless. It has tremendous application in engineering and the sciences.

I love Math and English

But Science in my opinion is annoying...useful but annoying


The most pointless subject is HISTORY. Who freaking cares about the past when we're not even going to use it for future decisions?!?

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Future generations need to learn about the mistakes their ancestors made so they do not make bad decisions themselves.

Useless subject: ART!!

I can understand that if your interested in art then you should take the class...but in high school for the first year it's compulsory in NZ. When I was at high school, I wasn't even remotely interested in art but still had to take the class. I think thats pretty stupid as learning to how draw/paint etc, isn't all that necessary anyway.

I think you have it mixed up....Calculus is *very* useful. Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics and others need it.
English Literature on the other hand? Very pointless. When will I ever need to know Beowulf or the Canterbury Tales? I can already read...so I don't need to read literature. Not to mention I find symbolism difficult and annoying.
Writing on the other hand? That's useful.

I tend to have a hard time in any class that isn't calculus based.

I agree.

Most electives are useless, like SAT prep and Creative Writing.

Art is definitely useless, unless you have an interest in it. Same with music. PE at my school is pointless, I don't know if it's different elsewhere. How about foreign languages? Noone (at my school at least) has learned enough in high school Spanish to actually be able to carry on a conversation.

I feel you about the foreign language thing. I haven't met anyone who has learned a second language through high school courses either. It's just forced on students because too many politicians think we're inferior to Europeans because our culture doesn't require learning a second language.

Hogwash.

Art, foreign language, music, calculus. All pretty useless, frankly.

Which is not to say that if you enjoy them, you shouldn't pursue them. I basically suck at art, music, and foreign languages, but I'm pretty good at calculus.

But would I argue that everyone should be forced to learn calculus? Probably not. There are some maths that everyone should learn, because they're useful, but calculus isn't one of them.

Similarly I don't get the point of the other three. I took a certain amount of art & foreign language that was required of me, and a lot of pain later where did it get me? Mostly drawing stick figures when necessary and an incapability to talk to anyone except in english (and even then...).

If you enjoy doing art or music, or speaking foreign languages, or if you're like me, doing calculus, by all means pursue and do what you like doing. But it's not worth forcing people to do them.

You are speaking to one person who learned English (the school-form is called Gymnasium and it can be compared to high school) in school and is able to hold a conversation in it (except with Brits, their accent is hard to understand).


I agree that literature is useless, but PE is the most useless crap, which is mandatory. It made the association between physical activity and being ridiculed VERY strong to overcome. Can you imagine a class where you get a bad mark because you are disabled? I can. My vision is really bad and I can not estimate distances correctly if my life depended on it. We had to do many ballgames (in which I was very bad for an obvious reason) and thus I ALWAYS got a 4 (like a D) in PE.

I think everybody will agree here
Speech Communications, public speaking, etc.

if you really can't do this well, the class is not going to cure you or help you
if you can do this at all, then you're all set anyway
i believe this course is to prove how great teachers think they are
i get it, you can babble in front of people for extended periods of time, you're superior

All things academically (math/science/enligh/social studies etc) based as opposed to applications based (vo-tech type stuff).
Meaning all things I have some talent with, vs all things I suck with...I'm so screwed. ><

So it's not just me (and lots of other native-english speaking americans)

Half the time I turn on BBC America, I totally wish there were subtitles