Thinking back, what was the most pointless class you were required to take?
 

Thinking back over your schooling life, are there any classes you considered to be a complete waste?

Myself, I am a junior in college, and my major (English) requires me to take 2 semesters of a language at Intermediate level.

I took 2-3 years of German in high school, so I never really worried about the language requirement in college. I didn't like being forced to take a foreign language in high school, and I don't like it in college. So I pushed it off. Now, I find out I remember almost zero German from HS, and I have to take two semesters of elementary German (which I won't get credit for), just to know enough to pass the two semesters of Intermediate German that are required.

This is also causing me to have to go at least one extra semester at college, and other than this foreign language issue, I was right on schedule to graduate in 4 years.

I have no desire to learn a foreign language, yet I am forced to. I consider this requirement to be a complete waste, as I have no desire to speak a foreign language, and myself and classmates have enough trouble with "mastering" the English language without putting our effort into a foreign language we have no interest in.

I also have to take physical education at college. I consider that more of a joke than anything, as it is easy. But realistically, it is a waste too IMO.

What are some of the classes you have considered to be a waste throughout your schooling life?

Art History and Mexican Cooking...

An english comp class that concentrated on analyzing poems by homosexual black men (from the slavery period) This is pretty useless for an Industrial Management major who will be running a manufacturing plant

Gym. Specifically those parts that involved dressing up in weird, smelly, ill-fitting, costumes and then smashing into other badly dressed people. I hated Gym and haven't missed it in the least these last 15 yrs.

I had to take an intro to operating systems class. It was about 2 years ago and they were doing DOS for the whole semester except for about an hour of unix. Now dos is handy dont get me wrong i use it all the time when im fixing pcs but they were teaching things like "copy con" now im not sure when the edit command came out but it was there when i got my first AT

Me fail English? Thats unpossible!

I would say english 7-8 in HS. If you dont know the english language after 11 years of school, how exactly is 1 more year going to help?

My first Business Systems class was taught two years after Windows 95 came out. It was taught on Windows 3.1.

Now that was awful.

Sex ed ...

Creative Writing.... I totally want to take it at the time, but all I ended up doing was sitting there and writing about 2 pages of story per week. Also, Chemistry in the Community was a joke.

Definitely would have to say the Computer Skills class required to graduate. I learned a few things that I didn't know already, mainly how to use Access, but I already knew how to type (I got something like 85 wpm the first day on the exercises), how to use Word (better than the teacher did...) and how to use Excel. So, instead of letting me sleep in 3 days a week, or take another class, I had to go "learn" how to use the computer. Then the teacher had me go around and defrag and erase the internet temp files, cause she didn't know how to do it.... I loved high school...

100-level Marketing. What a joke. All of the quiz/test questions were straight out of the bold sections of the book. Maybe it was the prof, but it was a waste of time. Although, after I figured out how the tests went, I only showed up for exams and still got an 'A'.

most pointless class? in college - i'd have to say it was "Transport Phenomenon" You see, it's supposed to be the study of electrons travelling through semi-conductors on a physics / quantum level (i was a computer engineering major) but in reality, it was my teacher complaining about the staff, administration, and mistreatment he'd received during his tenure. (he was one of the pioneers that helped invent fiberoptics, apparently, and the school tried to shaft him out of the credit, etc. etc.)

so at the end of the course, he had us write a paper about some "interesting topic" that we could pick for ourselves. i wrote it in 3 hours, handed it in as my only work for the whole semester, and he gave me high honors. cake. :D

in high school i overloaded on college prep courses and stuff like that, but if i had to pick one, i would say general health, because it was like "well, duh, that's where babies come from???"

Hmmmm,

I found most of my college courses had value even if I didn't know what that was at the time. They've helped make me a well rounded individual who could talk intelligently about a variety of issues and who could at least follow technical discussions in many areas.

So I'm struggling to find a subject that I was forced to take and was worthless, but I'm coming up blank. Even the more esoteric ones such as Soils and Concrete, Macro Economics and Gym had a place (although I hated having a PE requirement when I hit college.)

Definately gym class and Biology...I hated them both and still don't know why they were required.

Anthropology - The History of Coffee and Sugar.

What a friggin joke. :rolleyes:

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I don't think it would be a bad idea for any English major to take at least a semester or two of both German and French. After all, they were the sources for modern English.

Language classes are valuable for several reasons. They teach something about other cultures as well as just the language. They help us understand the strenghs and limitations of our own language as well as language is general. Knowing just a few words in a foreign language can be invaluable in relating to people when they visit us or when we visit them. More importantly they bring depth and texture to our own lives.

Back in 1985 I took the most worthless class I ever enrolled in. It was intro to computers and was about an already obsolete language. Our second assignment was all about how to use some command that had not been included in the version on our mainframe. Somehow the teacher had missed that important fact. After wasting untold hours I dropped the class. I am still computer illiterate, but I know that class would have not made any difference.

keyboarding (business) it was so boring

any health class. i hated those heath classes.

Let's see.. In HS, I can't think of any, but now that I find myself in college, having to take some of the same crap I did in high school...

Grrr.

English 101. My teacher told me at the end of the semester that I was in the wrong class, and had wasted my time. Should have been in 106. But I have to take 102 because the advisers at my school don't care about getting you into the right classes, really. I also have to take Intro to Speech Communication 101. Same class I took in high school and passed with an A. :rolleyes:

Gotta love Gen Ed.

A class in basic finnish... when my mothertongue is finnish,...that was a waste of time :rolleyes:

I noticed that I had take a shit load of math classes being and English major...

I still don't get it.

any science class...being an english major they won't let you into any of the more difficult science classes, so you're stuck taking all the ones with nicknames like "stars for tards" and "physics for dummies". i took hard science classes in hs, and so these classes are just a waste of time for me.

my second semester senior year in college, i needed a 4-credit elective to fill out my schedule. all my other basic requirements were met. i took "the politics of personal experience." all we did was sit around playing "killer" all semester. what a waste, but an easy ace...

I have to go with my Recorder class in middle school. I've never seen anyone make a career out of playing that instrument. The class was boring, we just basic learned scales. The teacher never taught anyone how to read music, we just played by numbers. Yeah, we learned a few songs, but other than that the class was just waste of time.

Statistics, i went to half of the classes, studied for 4 hours, got a VG grade (thats A in sweden). Didn't learn anything.

in highschool, my most useless class was health and pe, in college it was freshman seminar. we did nothing in those class. psychology as well, but only because the teacher was a "rich bitch know-it-all".

the most pointless would have to be when i was a sophmor in hs ...the class was intro to computers....i had to take this as a prerequisite to take advanced classes...soooooo boring....the teacher didn't believe me when i told her i already knew how to type and all the basic computer functions...she actually would stand behind me and watch me....she realized real fast that i was going to bored out of my mind in her class

all of my computer programming courses

Everyone of my CIS classes, I hate them all!

I am currently taking "American Popular Music" and I find it very pointless.

Fourth year musicology class deciding how to objectify the meaning of music,while being taught by an ultra-feminist who hated men(mysoginist,sexist bastards) and knew nothing about music. Told her one day the reason she hated men was because she didn't have any balls(literally and figuratively). I had to get the rest of my papers marked by the dean of the program and still got my music degree before getting turfed out.

When I went to Community College I had to take a 100 level computer class, intro to computers, or something like that. It was a summer class, so the teacher had us write three one page papers that had to be computer related. I made it up about if I were to buy a computer what I would look for, and a couple of other things. I learned absolutely nothing about computers in that class. I knew mothing about computers until three years later when I finally built one because I was embarrassed about how little I knew. The sad thing is that class transferred and counts for my degree here as well.

chemistry !!!

oh I hate it !

Windows NT administration, required class, taken a few months after Windows 2000 came out.

Useless.

I haven't taken it yet, but I know as a Vocal Performance major, I'm gonna have to minor in piano. Now I understand mkaing us learn to play so you an learn music on your own, but the extra time and work that goes into minoring it in is jsut way overboard! Silly music school.

A counsellor in like grade 10 convinced me somehow that taking a Tutoring class woudl be good for me (Tutoring a great 8 student who was having problems). The course was marked by a teacher based on how well I was organized, etc....probably would have been great if I went into teaching....but I didn't..and it was a waste of a class.

There were other classes I should have taken instead.

excuse me sir, but did you go to my college???

I had to take a bullshit OS class just like that last year, and it sucked my ass. We did basically the same things as you are talking about, but we didn't learn much about any useful dos things, like fdisk or anything like that.


As for another, i would say first year math in college.

Hell, how about the whole first year all together.

I learned it all in high school, and on my own like 3 years prior to taking the program i was in.

stupid fucking school.

high school was more useful than first year at college.

now i am starting my own business and i am loving it!!!!

i am learning on my own, and it's great!!!

All English past 7th grade (or earlier) was pointless. I can read, write, and speak English. That's enough for me.

"English? Who needs that? I'm never going to England."
-Homer

Computer Applications for technical Professionals... It really is as painful as it sounds... its just word, and excel... every friday, 9 am to 1pm... i hate fridays now.

Art and craft...the teacher was a witch.

Phys 25/26 at UMR
Its required for geology majors, yet what that class really is is electrical and magnetic physics with a little bit of optical thrown in for the hell of it.
I'm going ot be looking at rocks and cleaning up waste spills, not designing electrical and magnetic things.

I would have to go with Keyboarding as well.
The second half of the semester was spent learning to reproduce ASCII pictures. Seriously.

Critical Thinking ... it wasn't even thinking, we did absolutely nothing and it was a required course freshman year. P/F of course -_-*

Oh wait they taught us how to think about how to do our homework.

[Comic Store Guy Voice] Worst Class Ever [/Comic Store Guy Voice]

Logic and Critical Thinking - I suppose it would be useful if I had 20 minutes to translate each argument into 'standard form' before I made a decision.

I am taking biology myself at this time and I couldnt agree more. It has helped me help my sister in her MA training though.

How about the entire twelfth grade?

My father relocated to the states at the beginning of my senior year and being raised in DoD/Private schools, I tested FAR higher than my classmates but was forced to enroll in classes that were remedial to me because the cirriculum was not the same as that overseas. (ie: Driver's Ed when I had already had a license for THREE years) I was also appalled by the behavior of these students, the amount of things that one could get away with, the smallmindedness of those living even in a major metropolitan area. I was a very unhappy camper. My entire senior year was a waste, riddled with classes REVIEWING material I'd already learned.

I may have not cared for some classes but thus far Ive always grown in some way from each.

Freshman Orientation Comp Peice o' Shi'te non-transferable waste of time. Couldn't even sleep in it either.

Pottery, it goes without saying!! I'm paying how much for this course?!!

Glad

Statistics.......all three times

I took a social issues course in college that was a complete waste of time. The goal of the course seemed to be to indoctrinate undergraduates in political correctness. It didn't have any real content. We could have discussed the history of different civil rights movements in the US, or the psychology of in-group/out-group effects, etc.. Instead, we discussed how everyone should be nice and respectful to everyone else. (A good idea in general, but not a good idea for the class). Every student competed with every other student to be the most "enlightened".

frisbee golf...but man, that was fun

Heck. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, yet I'm not an Electrical Engineer, nor do I have any desire to be one. I could fill a notebook listing pointless classes. But, off the top of my head...

Differential Equations.

Macro Economics... taught by Ben Stein's twin.... "Beuller... Beuller..." for 3 hours once a week.

what is the lowest level math taught in colleges? Algebra?

COM1100: English
Elementary school all over again, weeeeee!

High School: Baking
College: Discreet Mathematics

For me it was in High School: Office Aid. All I did was spend 5 minutes picking up attendance sheets and occasionaly run notes to a class. The class was an hour long of sitting in the school's office doing nothing. Couldnt even sleep due to the officals working in there.

I always thought p.e. was kind of pointless.

The most worthless class I ever took wasn't one of mine, but I had to go for my wife. She had a Orchestra Directing course. You couldn't miss. Even if it wasn't your turn to direct. You either had to be there or find someone to go for you so the person practicing there directing had someone to direct. I don't play an instrument and don't even read music but I got stuck filling in for her and had to go and attempt to play a bunch of pecussion instruments while some idiot tried to direct us. Could have been worse I guess. They could have wanted me to play the violin or something.

This thread reminds me of a line from the song Kodachrome, by Paul Simon:

*When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all...*

My entire high school experience was a waste of time with the exception of some lit classes, Spanish and a music class.

Most useless college classes (post- grad)? Career Counseling- the information I gleaned from that class could have been summed up in one lecture, and Cultural Diversity- Be mindful when counseling someone of a different cultural background than yours, that you don't impose your values on them. Well, duh!

Keyboarding had to be the most useless class ever for me. You can't learn to type when you already know how. P.E. and health made no sense either.

I would have to say the four years of religion classes i was forced to take in high school were useless. Stupid private schools.

I once had a geometry class that I would blow off monday thru thursday. Never scored lower than 90% on a test or final, but failed because my homework wasn't turned in. They would not advance me to Algebra II because geometry was required

Years ago, I placed out of Freshman Comp, my replacement was Anthropocentrism. To this day I am still trying to figure out what the Hell Anthropocentrism is. All I remember is an article that we had to read entitled "Save the Whales and Screw the Shrimp". Yeah, that class helped a whole lot.

typing class when youre faster/make less mistakes than the instructor

10 hours of French in college. Didn't pass a single test yet still passed the class, go figure I guess it was because I went to class everyday.

Grondar, I really do feel your pain. Really.
But that being said there are no useless classes. None. Period.
Musashi was a famous Japanese Samurai who wrote "From one thing know 10 000". or roughly that.
Each piece of knowledge you pick up, you can use at some point even if it's rudimentary German it may be the one thing that places you ahead of your competition.
And for the folks complaining about your gym classes, your body is as important as your mind. Even Stephen Hawking would agree I think...

well for me it has to be psychology of religion. i took the class expecting to learn about some general psychological theroies on religion for an example the thought process on how a person might become a fanatic. i was looking for that kinda of stuff.

the class was just a way for christians to say the psychology is a subset of religion specifically christianity. correct me if i am wrong but isn't psychology a science, or art, of how or why a person thinks. Religion is for morals and thoughts on the afterlife. i kept a open mind and stayed until the end of class but our final was to write a paper on how this class change our sprituality. so i wrote a very short paper saying that i am a atheist.

to clearify it was a psychology class not a religion class.

To me gym is just fucking retarded, but at least you got to play games ;)
So I'd have to say that keyboarding was the most pointless class... especially when you can type faster than the teacher :D

in Uni they made us take a basic english grammar and reading course. I was light years ahead of most of the people in the class. It was soooooo boring and covered stuff we all did in High School.