Wanted: Your Views On High School And College Courses

[Will O'B]

Reading people's views on Moby Dick and how most had to read it in high school started me wondering. It seems that most posters here are past high school and college and are working in some career. A lot of material that is learned in school can seem like a waste of one's time at that time. My question is: which classes did you take in high school or college (not directly related to your career) do you now feel were the most beneficial, and which classes, if any, do you now feel served no real purpose in your life? I know that everything we learn is important, but I hope you know what I'm getting at. It was a loooong day and I'm not thinking too clearly. Thanks.

I'm told that most people felt this way when they were in high school.

[missy]

well, I've worked in science, labs, or related all my life........

In high school, probably the classes that had the most "benefit" were the English classes. The quarter of Science Fiction was great and introduced me to the writings of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. The quarter of "Research Seminar" taught me how to DO research and write up papers.
The least beneficial - probably gym. I am NOT athletic, and I hated gym class. The only time I got a good grade in it was the quarter we had health instead.

In college - the least beneficial was Organic Chemistry - even though that WAS part of my degree field. I took that class in Evening college - after I had already had Analytical, Instrumental and Technical Organic, and worked in an analytical lab for over 2 years at that time. But the teacher was HORRIBLE, he couldn't explain a thing, and I wound up having one of the PhDs I worked for basically "teach" me enough to get passing grades on the tests.
The most beneficial was probably the year of abnormal Psych I took - just because of all the "strange" people I've come across in life!!!!

[emmline]

Just thinking about your question made me realize how much answers will vary.
For example, my initial gut response is foreign languages (useful,) because I find it greatly enriching to understand language, and culture, and I feel much more comfortable if I can make at least some sense out of the signs and whatnot in other countries. Some people, however, find the study of language to be so tedious that they would prefer not to be bothered with being enriched in this way.

My second thought is algebra and geometry. This is a little odd, because I was not strong in math, and didn't really "get it" until I was in college, but I do believe that attempting this stuff, which was always a bit alien to me relative to language, was an excellent brain exercise, and you do want to challenge your brain.

Learning to write is a good idea for anyone, and for this reason any advanced literature class, in which you must think and exposite, has got to help.

You know, I can scarcely think of anything that was not in some way beneficial, even if not directly applicable.
I really liked the architecture class I took in high school--my only foray into industrial arts.

I think the least useful class I took was in college--it was about fish and fisheries. An elective for an animal sci degree. At least I visited a hatchery. In fact I cannot apply much of what I learned for those degree-specific classes to my current life, as I eventually became a quasi-vegetarian.
Except for anatomy and physiology which were very worthwhile.

[djm]

In high school I think history and goegraphy were the best. They are still pretty neat, and they helped me build my filters so that I can often recognize similarities with what's occurring today.

English was useless. I got more from reading post-ed. Math was useless. For the few times I have ever needed to know math in my programming career I just ask one of the math weenies. Science was a bust. I have picked up more science through my own reading and interest post-ed than I ever learned in school. Art was an easy A, but we never learned anything that would have been useful in the working art world.

I have no post secondary education.

djm

[straycat82]

Interesting that art was brought up, that was one of the first things that I thought of when I read the question. I am an artist, took every art class in high school that the academic advisor could fit into my schedule (I think 8 in all) and went on to attend an art college.

Oddly enough, most of what I learned about myself as an artist in high school came not from the teaching, but the doing. I can't recall much that the teacher actually taught me, and I was never impressed much with her artwork. I can say, though, that I learned by doing; by trial and error if you will.

I experimented and I failed and succeeded at various techniques and styles. I was able to take many things from that. Did I feel at the time that the classes were useless? A bit. Did I still enjoy my time in there? Heck yes, it beats college algebra any day. Would I have learned as much about myself if not scheduled to be there and work on art each day? Nope.

I see similarities between that and, for example, a math class too though. In math class you may not ever use some of the specific formulas, rules and equations that you learn in the classes but it does teach you to problem solve and I think you take that with you if you are the type of student to actually apply yourself and do the work assigned.

[WhistlingArmadillo]

My schooling was in Chemical Engineering and my career in software development. The most useful class I ever took: TYPING. Couldn't do without it!

[KatieBell]

The most useful high school classes I took: Marine Biology, Electronics, and Graphical Engineering. They weren't such great classes but were classes I took just because I liked the subject. I think there is too much focus nowadays for 13-18 year olds to specialize their learning to specific subjects or career paths and I think these deviations from the straight academia was the best thing high school gave me. It instilled a confidence to learn new things and work in new ways.

I would say English class if mine had been any good, but they weren't so I won't. However, I would say the English (not literature, but grammar) I did learn has been of supreme importance to me.

Least beneficial: PE and health. The health taught me nothing new. The PE only instilled a hatred for physical activity I had to work hard to overcome. (Thus the unconventional college PE classes.) And I had to take a study skills type class in both high school and college which was stupid and did no good.

In college, I would say the best classes I took were Humanities, weightlifting, and sailing. The latter two for the same reason as the previous. They were challenges and required me to be open to learning and doing new things. The Humanities class I took tied together so many subjects--art, music, history, sociology, religion, cultural anthropology, archeology, etc, etc--and it was taught by such a superb professor that I believe it finally allowed me to take everything I had learned and grow with it, to look at it critically, and to see uniting and dividing themes. It was one of the few classes I would say I actually learned something (instead of just memorizing it). My very favorite classes at the university, though, were the honors symposiums. We had lecture each week with all the students in the college and the lecturer was some great person in the field, then we had our discussion classes of less than 10 students per instructor. We read all great books and researched and studied and discussed them while learning from some of the most preeminent scholars in their field. The great books themselves inspired and educated me, the atmosphere challenged me, and the joy and love of learning that was almost palpable really encouraged me to love learning for the sake of learning, and to see it as an end and not a means.

I plan to go back to college just for fun, and the types of classes I'm interested in are not necessarily things my life needs, but things I feel will give it greater texture and depth. I want to take sculpture welding, foreign languages, histories (both broad histories as well as focused historical places or peoples), and to continue with the symposium type classes, no matter what field they're in. I've seen everything from music in the 1920s to architecture in ancient Rome that spurred my interests. There have been a few classes I've noticed over time that also looked interesting like working an archaeological dig or in a research collection lab, some technical/electronics classes, and random hobbies like underwater basket weaving. While I think the math I took through high school was important (calculus), I don't think I need any more. I also don't care for any introductory classes that skim a wide range and never explore any issue at depth. I've had enough introductions. Now I want to learn.

[mutepointe]

i had a catholic grade school education and cruised through all the rest, including college. the three r's are crucial. in high school, i took a class called visual communications. i have received promotions and job offers because of that class. it was photography, printing presses, calligraphy, rubber stamp making, newspaper layout, and the use of rubber cement. i can make stunning posters out of junk. the least useful class was geology in college. it was the only science class without a lab.

[Jack]

The classes that helped me least were PE (physical education) classes. I am chronically ill, fatter than I should be, and not inclinded to movement. And taking showers with 20 guys when you're a gay 15 year old is terrifying (and exhilirating). So if I could go back, I'd change that.

The classes that helped me most were English classes. They made me feel smart because I knew everything intuitively.

[Walden]

Taking showers with 20 guys when you're any kind of 15 year old is terrifying.

[Congratulations]

My current "Survey of American Literature" course is shaping up to be the most useless thing ever. Mostly because we haven't done any literature. It's been history stuff, like stuff written by John Smith (the one that made out with Pocahontas) and the Declaration of Independence and the "City On A Hill" stuff, and it's just not lit. It's not fiction, it's not poetry. It's what historians call "primary sources." So it's essentially been a dumbed-down history course thus far, but I've already had high-level American History courses. So yeah, useless. Maybe we'll do some lit later on in the course? I hope?

[peeplj]

My schooling was in Chemical Engineering and my career in software development. The most useful class I ever took: TYPING. Couldn't do without it!

I'd like to second that.

My career is in IT; specifically, UNIX engineering and administration.

There are skills that I use every day that I learned in school; math and science, for instance, are extremely valuable, both the specific techniques of figuring out things using math, as well as just the facility of critical thought in general.

But there is no skill that I use more than typing.

I'd be sunk without it.

--James

[chrisoff]

I work in a small team developing and supporting online learning for a University. Funnily enough the best class I had in school was Computing and my degree was BSc Computing for Internet and Multimedia so it was all pretty relevent (although most of it was Java based and I don't use java, but the skills are transferrable to other lanugages).

[brewerpaul]

Shop class was hugely useful-- it taught me skills that I use practically every day.
My Mom insisted that I take typing because my handwriting is really awful and she reasoned that in college they wouldn't accept papers that were illegible. Back in the '60s, only secretarial students took typing and NONE of them were guys, so I took a bit of ribbing from it. Still, every time I sit down at a computer today, I give thanks to Mom.
Biology was a biggie for me which led to careers in Podiatry and more recently in nursing. In the very first week, our teacher brought in a whole pile of magazine ads for over the counter medical products and we dissected them for logic, unsubstantiated claims etc. Eg "I'm Micky Mantle and I think Pain Away is the best treatment for muscle pain"-- who made him a medical expert? That really got me started thinking critically about such things.

[chas]

I'll put in another good word for typing. I didn't take shop in high school, but did in graduate school, and I'll put in another good word for that too.

I went to a college that had pretty relaxed (for that time) distribution requirements -- one had to take three courses each in three broad categories (natural science, social science, humanities). I took the bare minimum in humanities and social science. Found the humanities very useful, in that they're something you can appreciate your whole life -- music, art, literature are all things I love, moreso than when I was in college.

In high school I took pretty much every academic course available, and I'm glad of it. Thing is, in high school you're still learning how to think, and I think it's very important to be exposed to as broad an intellectual palette as possible. Heck, when you come down to it, I'm still learning how to think in my middle age, and I still try to expose myself to as much new stuff as possible.