What was the subject you learnt at school that you never had to use in life?

As a retired teacher, I've often questioned the sanity of the curriculum. Quadratic equations anyone? Learning the import/export figures of various remote countries? The table of elements in Chemistry? All pretty useless!

What really would be useful:

Budgeting and financial awareness
Relationships, contraception and parenting basics
Study skills and exam techniques
Assertiveness and public speaking
(and many more, I'm sure)

Latin has stood me in good stead.
I never thought it would be of any use but it’s a amazing how often it helps with roots of words and languages and also quiz questions.

Ha, ha, gillyknits you have reminded me about a lecturer I worked with at an Agricultural College in the 1980's - he deliberately stuck a question in to his students' end of year exams saying something like "how many bricks does it take to build a wall 3ft high?"

They were generally so thick that most actually put down a number - the ones who said of course that the question was not answerable got the points! Gave us many laughs over the years ....

curilox Oh heavens Calculus had been erased from my memory until I read it above!! ds by dx or something unintelligible like that?

I had a mnemonic for Trigonometry, strangely from the crap maths teacher, that I still remember to this day! Blimey ...... so if you need to ever again work out whatever with triangles, here goes

Sine = Perpendicular/Hypotenuse (Some People Have)
Cosine = Base/Hypotenuse (Curly Black Hair)
Tangent =Perpendicular/Base (To Plaster back)

Logarithms - an absolute mystery to me! I actually managed and understood Trigonometry but algebra I didn't manage well - in fact Mathematics in general I found difficult and failed my O Level first time around, but my maths teacher, albeit very nice was crap! The only time I ever got thrown out of a class was when she said to me when I told her I didn't understand was "Oh Rachel, the problem is you don't know the basics" I responded "well please teach me them" to which she replied "I can't as I do not have my books" This sent me into orbit and I said "well if you, the teacher, can't teach me without your books, what hope do I bloody have?" I was then ejected, ha, ha!

Having said that, I do reckon that my Junior School education was great (bizarrely, I was sat in the 'library' of a distant relation in Los Angeles in 1984, and flicking through Time Magazine (of which there were literally hundreds!), I came across a photograph of an example of a Junior School in Yorkshire, England - and there it was my unmistakable school hall!! My very well respected Headmaster had one hand and was both lovely and terrifying at the same time!) I also went to a generally good Grammar School, one of the very last, and I do think that I did get a reasonably good all round knowledge of stuff and can hold my own in a pub quiz!

Same for me, sine, cosine, tangent, logarithms. Hated maths, hated my maths teacher she was shouty and scary and impatient. I dared to say I didnt understand something (hand up of course) & was made to stand up for rest of lesson. I suppose I shut down and just muddled through for rest of school life. In adult life thought I was no good at maths but have held senior roles and can add/ subtract, multiply and work % in my head. Left with a C.S.E. grade 2 despite As and Bs G.C.E in all other subjects. Just shows how a teacher can influence you.

Pye formula

Some of the above mentioned, or logarithms, algebra. Also German.

Home economics

I cook, clean, sew, do DIY, manage household finance etc..

.. but use none of the methods or recipes or theory taught in Home Ec!

I had a good all round basic education and choosing the subjects I was best at, which was needlework, I followed a completely different career.
If I had followed my head instead of my heart, who knows where I could have ended up. The mind boggles.

Calculus. Mind you I'll probably need to revise that to help my DGS soon!

TTT meant Tidy Table Tops !

Actually, I just realised that a lot of stuff that I learned but don't 'use' is still useful, because I do a lot of quizzes.

debgaga What did 'TTT' mean?

I had poor experiences in school cookery and embroidery classes and the fact that I enjoy both of these pursuits now is absolutely not down to my school teachers! How anyone can make a peaceful hour spent stitching away with beautiful silks a thoroughly miserable experience, I don't know, but Ms MacBride managed it on a daily basis!

Gillybob if you have ever baked anything, then you are using chemistry. The moment I realised that, my baking improved no end!

I have never used Spanish, although I learned French later in life and used that loads. I have also never in my adult life, needed to know about, or explain to another person, what an oxbow lake is!

Whenever I prepare a meal
I don’t feel the need to yell TTT at myself in the manner of Mrs Williams our Domestic Science teacher. I also have to fight to stop myself embroidering my initials DB on my apron

Algebra, trigonometry, logarithms seem to have been the most useless and I agree. I am pleased I learned Latin which is the basis of Italian, Spanish and French as well as English. I hated hockey.

Didn't make you understand things you read later in novels about living in rural areas? Understand why the fruit and vegetables you ate went in and out of season or why in some years certain fruit and veg were in short supply?

Learnt about arable farming and crop rotation. Seasonal planting and cropping .
Why this was considered of any use to a 12year old in central London is beyond me . . .

Actually the most useful subject I studied was latin. My children, when small, had a fascination with where words came from. 'Why is someone walking called a 'pedestrian'? 'Why are boys called 'boys'and girls called 'girls' Thank God I had studied Latin. I was left wishing I had studied Greek as well (Why is a cinema called a 'cinema'?)

How to make a cane basket. No one ever finished one because the teacher usually forgot to put the cane in to soak before the lesson.

Evie you seem to be assuming that the only purpose of school learning is to be useful in work.

The purpose of all we learn in school is to oepn our eyes to the world and use what we learn in school to expeand our personal horizons into all sorts of other areas.

I cannot think of anything I learnt at school that has not been useful in later life in one way or another, even that maths that I may never have used in a school type manner, but just knowing what trigonometric tables are and a rough idea how they work, is invaluable when I am reading maps or get tangential (see what I mean) references to them in other things I do and read.

Art teacher said to me "You are not doing O level Art are you?" "NO" " Thank Goodness for that"

I realise the question asked what you didn’t use but I felt like a rant.

Pen50 I empathise. I have used lack of self confidence, anxiety, fear of being belittled and bullied, shame for my accent and working class background, lack of self esteem and that there was no point trying for university as only rich, beautiful and entitled people were deserving of a place (despite mybeing very bright 9 O levels and 3good As) . Oh yes, also learned to carry a giant chip on both shoulders.