useless lessons from your youth

I went to a very old fashioned Grammar School, where they were always doing peculiar things like making us kneel down and measuring the length of our skirts above our knees. If it was more than 4inches - detention.

But the oddest Lesson for Life was when they banned black patent shoes on the grounds that men would use the reflection to spy on our underwear !

I still smile every time I see shiny shoes !!

I went to two different private girls' schools in Scotland.
Junior School was good, nothing sticks out as being irrelevant there, except having to knit a baby's matinee jacket! Why on earth were 9 year olds expected to knit baby clothes? None of us had baby brothers or sisters, and most of my class were like me the elder of the two children their parents intended to have! Surely, if they wanted to make sure we could finish it in the course of a term, dolls' clothes would have been more suitable.

In senior school the brainy ones did Latin and the others domestic science. I do not agree with the men who felt that any woman who could read, could cook! There are tricks in all trades and until quite recently cookery books were definitely written by women who could cook for women who had learned how to cook too. So I took a domestic science course when I had finished school.

Having learned to cook, iron, wash and clean properly means I have spent much less time doing it as a grown up than my mother who never had learned to do so, and just muddled unsuccessfully along!

But I am glad a learned Latin, as my choice of adult life made languages a necessity, including Latin.

I had a domestic science teacher who was determined to teach us something, in my not so posh school, so we made pastry.... for 6 weeks! I can make an excellent quiche. Would be good except I can't stand pastry now!

We had a short course in 'mother craft' . I remember bathing a doll, and being introduced to the layette. Never a word about how the 'baby' came to be.

Grammar school girl here too. Did Domestic Science for three years then dropped it when we chose our options for O Levels. Had to make gingham apron and cap in the first year, and then a blouse which I never wore. At least it taught me how to use a sewing machine. First cookery lesson was making toast and coffee! I don't remember what else we were taught to cook. And then I did Latin, as one of my O Levels.

I was only ever chosen once for the hockey team and the match was cancelled once we got to the other school. We spent the day on the beach nearby.

Never went to Grammar School, went to Secondary Modern in Hackney. We had to make an apron for house craft as it was then called, learn how to wash and starch the bloomin thing before apparently learning how to cook such delights as eggs mornay and beef tea in case we knew an invalid and scrambled eggs on toast and all sorts. Starching now here's a thing, who on earth starches today? Gosh if ever there was a useless lesson it had to be that one. I cannot sew, but cooking is passable I suppose.

I went to an all girls' grammar school and did Domestic Science to O'level, because I was marginally better at that than art. I'm sure I only got my O' level because I knew how to put a new element into an electric kettle. I remember asking if we would be taught to type as I knew my friends at Secondary Modern school were busy clacking away on manual typewriters, only to be told that Grammar School Girls would never have to use a keyboard!

We spent a term making a gingham smocked apron (again grammar school) which I refused to wear afterwards but I was taught invisible hemming and how to sew on a button which has proved useful over the years as I am constantly being asked to alter the grandchildren's clothes. I keep showing my daughters how to do it as I constantly say to them, 'Who will do this for you when I'm dead!' For my first cookery lessons we made a packet jelly and washing salad stuff. I remember producing a queen of puddings though which was yummy.

From year 2 onwards, the clever clogs (me) weren't allowed to take any more domestic science lessons. I remember one boy continuing cookery rather than doing woodwork though so that must have been allowed (1960s). I took Latin to A level and ancient Greek, French and German to O level. I'm a regular pub quizzer so the languages have been useful. I've never needed to solve a quadratic equation though since leaving school!

Doversole, sheep in NSW in the 70's ? How about forestry in Canada in the 60 ? I bet we both use that knowledge everyday (not) lol.

I enjoyed Domestic Science and Needlework but didn't learn much as my mum had already taught us all at home, me and my 3 older brothers.

To this day my 73 yr old brother still knits socks, go figure :-) My mum always said we all needed to know how to look after ourselves and any family we might have. However, I don't light fires any more but I have done in the past.

Nor do I mend shoes, never had to thank goodness. My dad taught us to do lots of repair type jobs some of which have been useful, costumes and projects for school and such like.

But I have never found a use for knowing about forestry in Canada :-) Still it helped to pass the time.

In Domestic Science we were taught to whisk egg whites on a plate with a flat bladed knife. Woe betide you if your finished fluff fell on to the floor when the teacher tipped the plate upside down.

At my catholic junior school we wasted hours and hours learning the catechism, parroting off prescribed responses and verses that as a young children no thought was given to the meaning of what we were memorising. Unlike times tables it served no use in life whatsoever. Other than that hours spent on needlework, embroidering tray mats with cross stitch why? Then one's mother was expected to stump up and buy the much handled and therefore grubby useless item. Similar tasks were set throughout my school life, I have an enduring hatred of sewing, I go no further than sewing on a button if I absolutely have to. Domestic science on the other hand gave me the basic skills I have found invaluable. I always remember my domestic science teacher telling us, one of the best pieces of equipment in the kitchen was a balloon whisk as it would always eliminate lumps from a white sauce, I've never been without one. I was somewhat chaotic in the kitchen in those days but I took forward and applied much of the practical aspects of what we learnt when I first set up home. I think I also enjoyed the alchemy of how the various ingredients changed during the process. Definitely a life skill.

I went to a technical high all girls school. I learnt how to patch clothes...plain and patterned by hand and repair 'hedge tears' in clothes.

If you want to know how many sheep there were in New South Wales in 1970, just ask. vital piece of geography knowledge

Doversole very useful indeed, particularly if you went on to marry an Australian sheep farmer.
Or you could start counting them if you couldn't get to sleep

Am I the only one who actually found logarithms relevant?

As a hard up young mum, pre unit pricing days, I used to go round supermarkets with a slide rule to compare prices.

Pre portable calculators too of course!

I didn't, but I do tend to look at the unit price on the tickets in the supermarket these days, particularly when something is on offer. Quite often the offer is not as good as it seems.

I remember being taught how to correctly iron and fold tablecloths and napkins. When one girl said her Mum did it differently and described how, the teacher said "Your mother puts a sheet on the table." I also put sheets on the table now!

We also spent 3 years practising calculus for our O Level Maths. I have never since needed to use it.

Dissecting frog legs-have never had to do that since I was at school! Also knitting an egg cosy in primary school - was useless at knitting and have never done any since. No boiled eggs in our house ever needed a cosy-the kids ate them all before they had a chance to get cold.

That pastry where you have to dot it with butter and lard alternately, then fold, rest, and repeat several times. is it puff or flaky? What a waste of time when you can buy it frozen!

I spent a whole year making an apron for dinner-time, and never wore it, using the one my mother had been told to buy as part of school uniform.
I spent the time reading 'Song of Solomon' in the bible, only book available in the desk, which gave me much more pleasure. Never did any form of dress-making; hate it to this day.

I think most of the redundant stuff I learned (e.g. logarithms, slide rules, rods/chains/furlongs) was only wasted because they were superseded by modern methods. I hated Latin and thought it was a complete waste of time until the 5th year when we translated Julius Caesar's diary record of the invasion of Britain, when it hit me how marvellous it was to be able to read this first hand! Of course I have since found Latin to be extremely useful as I went into a science career. I do wonder whether so many 'facts' need to be learned these days when they can be looked up so quickly, especially as they change so often. I also hated PE/games but with hindsight I know the exercise was good for me.

We had a Mr Frost who taught Russian and maths....not together!!

Remember we had to have a “hat” with our initials embroidered on it. My mum made mine. I can only think, thank in the case of an oven explosion, we could later be identified by our next of kin?

One of the other women at my book group nearly had a fit when I said we were taught to scrub tea towels and cloths at my school and haughtily rejoined, ‘At MY school we did Latin.’

Well I made sure that my daughter went to schools which did Latin!

The tea towel scrubbing never came in handy but the plain sewing and cooking lessons came in very useful. I was a dab hand with a needle until my sight weakened and have been able to rustle up all manner of nice foods that my family love.

The fearsome cookery teacher who terrified us all taught us cake and bread making, not just one but many types and methods including a Christmas cake with homemade marzipan and Royal icing She taught us how to make various sauces, stews and pies. We learnt how to make short, puff, flaky and rough puff pastry and many other meals besides.

Looking back the woman was miraculous. She did not like me much and in the exam I was bumped from top to second because I did not make my Bakewell before my casserole though she said my actual dishes were the best. If I met her now - she is long gone -I would thank her profusely.