While we’re students, there are more than a few things we’re forced to learn and memorize that can seem pretty superfluous. Looking back as adults, most of those things can kind of sort of make sense.
Even with the benefit of maturity and hindsight, though, there are some things we still feel like were complete wastes of time – and these 15 tidbits definitely fall under that umbrella.
15. Nothing is always wrong.
That sticking up for yourself is wrong. I punched a kid in the face because he was being physically abusive to me. He grabbed my arms and spun us in circles, intending to let go once I would be sort of thrown through the air.
I got an arm loose and punched him in the face before that happened. Instead of him being expelled I, a female half his size, was forced to apologize for defending myself. I’m still f*cking mad.
14. We don’t need more divisions.
Left Brain vs Right Brain.
Not only is it not true, it just divided all the kids from “smart kids” to “art kids”.
13. P.E. is a joke, full stop.
We had written finals in high school for P. E. It was so ridiculous that even the P. E. teachers didn’t really bother reading our answers while grading the exams.
Example questions :
A friend of mine answered “Describe the history of the football” with an elaborate answer about how a guy stuck on an island kicked a coconut and due to a quantum anomaly, his foot fused with the coconut. This led to the birth of the legend of the football.Another friend answered “what is an aerobic exercise” with a drawing of a man doing push ups in the presence of a chemistry set creating oxygen via hydrogen peroxide. And drew arrows to them labeling the reaction and the push-ups as aerobic and exercise respectively.
Another friend answered a question about things to keep in mind when trying to eat a balanced diet for health with points like “try not to eat a brick wall.”
Only one of them failed. One of them had their final exam sheet framed.
12. Isn’t everyone in Canada nice?
It was our school’s motto. The school also actively punished honesty and integrity when it mattered, and instead held award ceremonies for students who showed basic human decency like “hey you dropped this in the hallway, here you go”.
You would get awards for not being a piece of sh%t, but if you decide to show any real character like stepping up for your friends when they’re in trouble, you get detention.
Let it be known: Erindale Secondary School in Ontario, Canada is a sh%t hole.
11. Not great advice.
That if someone’s bullying you you tell them that you don’t like it. like no sh%t, that’s why they do it.
10. Which is also important.
how to “take care of a baby” by
- bringing in an egg
- having the teacher sign the egg
- decorating, protecting, and carrying the egg at all times for two days
- revealing to the teacher at the end of day 2 that the egg was still in tact, without cracks.
all that taught me was how to take care of an egg.
9. Running is not for everyone.
“Can you run a mile in 7 minutes?”
“Wtf no?”
“Lol no 4.0 for you.”
8. Neither of these is true.
“Ignoring the bully , he/she will go away”
“sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me”
That needs to change. I’m sorry but if someone is bullying my child on a day to day basis, my son has every right to take charge.
7. I have never had to ride a unicycle.
Our elementary school was heavy into unicycles. Gym class year round was learning to ride, then ride together, and in formation.
I was one of the unlucky few who never got it (I can’t dance or ride a bike either, so I suspect there’s some balance issues). School all but threatened to hold me back a year until I learned how. Everyone forgot and never picked it up again as soon as they moved to middle school.
Worst part is that we were a very poor school in a very rural area without much funding. I can’t imagine how much the school spent on those unicycles. There was no sponsorship, and we weren’t competing in anything.
6. Everyone is not equally at fault.
0-tolerance policy is the dumbest thing ever taught and implemented.
All it teaches is to fear authority when you’re the victim. It enables the perpetrator (who is normally a bully). I know administrators are lazy fucks, but they need to actually investigate the goddamn problem instead of saying, “hey you both were involved in the issue so you’re both going to get punished.”
It basically just raises you to hate authority, and while I don’t like authorities either I don’t think they’re all distrustful. Although, I guess this could be interpreted as commentary on how garbage authority is.
5. Just hand out condoms and point the girls toward their Planned Parenthood already.
Abstinence only Sex Ed.
Imagine if Driver’s Ed just to told you the only way to avoid an accident is to never drive a car.
4. Respect has to be earned.
They teach you to respect adults no matter what.
That’s how teachers get away with so much nonsense. It’s how parents get away with abuse.
Kids are taught to ‘respect adults’ but what they really teach them is don’t do anything to inconvenience an adult.’
So a kid is more likely to keep their mouth shut if they’re getting molested or beat.
They need to teach instead that respect is earned and not to blindly trust people just because they have seniority or authority over you, that you have a right to make a judgement on somebody if they’re doing something bad.
3. Who even believes that?
That the female body will shut down during r*pe and she won’t get pregnant.
Thus babies cannot be conceived during r*pe.
Catholic grammar school, Northern Ireland.
F*cking useless, factually and ethically wrong.
2. I see why it fell by the wayside.
D.A.R.E. was the single worst f*cking useless thing every taught at school.
Especially when the cop teaching said class ends up getting arrested for coke.
Studies show DARE increases drug use because 1) when they realize DARE is lying about weed, they assume DARE is lying about other drugs and 2) so much emphasis on resisting peer pressure makes kids assume everyone is doing drugs, so they have to do them to fit in
1. Do you remember it, though?
I’m from Texas, and in Texas History class we learned WAY too much about the battle of the Alamo.
There are just so many things we could be learning instead, don’t you think?
Tell us in the comments what you thought was a total waste of time in school – and whether or not you still feel the same way now!