BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Janie
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 09:57 PM

I actually was taught that pin and pen were homophones. (Actually, I was taught they were homonyms, but on googling to check my spelling just now, I learned that homonyms are words that are both pronounced and spelled the same, but have different meanings.)

Learn something new every day!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: s&r
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 07:27 AM

Agreed 100%. StrangelyI heard Chaucer first from the same teacher also in a Yorkshire accent.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 05:18 AM

So is:-
Whan that Aprille with his showres sote,
And the drochte of Marche hath perced to the rote.

of course a few of you might recognise this from schooldays!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: s&r
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 09:14 PM

I lost the will to live with 'and stare as long as sheep or cows' and had hysterics at squirrels hiding their nuts in grass.

My best poem ever at school was Adlestrop recited by an inspirational English teacher named Braillsford in a rich rolling Yorkshire accent.

Try it

Adlestrop

by Edward Thomas


Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

That's poetry

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 08:27 PM

According to Dorothy Parker, the only useful thing she learned in school was that if you spit on an eraser it will erase ink.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 05:43 PM

I did History.. and I knew for me it would soon be a thing of the past!!!
I did Geography but could never find the classroom.
Mathematics just didn't add up.
English but I already speaked it
French was good because I have been to France many times and French speaking countries and needed the language sometimes.
Latin was excellent when I was a cop.... English Law uses many Latin terms, especially in Court work.
Chemistry... has never been of much use ( but the chemistry I felt when the French teacher... Mademoiselle Soubile.. walked in WOW)
Physics...... I hated and have never found a use for since.
MUSIC>>>> singing solo and with the choir for school... good grounding for my Folk singing in the seventies/eighties.
Art... I was a natural and have used it to some degree since school.
The great thing my school did for me was educate me in middle class living... I was from a very poor working class background but passed a scholarship for Boarding School..... or perhaps it wasn't so great....who knows???

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Acorn4
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 03:44 PM

We had a German exchange teacher Herr Vester:-

"I do you a ten page essay on disobedience, bring it to me yesterday!

And if you don't do it I take stricter measurements!"

And a (very good) History teacher who was an ex army major who used to try to say things too quickly:-

"Sorry I'm late, 5A, just been disgusting with the headmaster!"

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 03:37 PM

Actinomycetes.. the bacteria that gives earth its"earthy" smell.
I still don't know if I will ever find that fact useful.
I didn't even have to learn it, I stumbled across it during a boring detention session and it kind of stuck.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: heric
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 03:22 PM

On grammar:

I don't think I learned anything useful from it, but I still get to smile decades later when I recall the gym teacher screaming "I won't put this bullshit up with!"

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Peace
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 03:07 PM

If you put a hair on your hand when you're going to be strapped, the hair will be driven through three layers of skin and one's hand will bleed. The strapping then stops. However, eventually the teachers caught on.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 02:59 PM

I don't think Davies' Leisure is 'doggerel' - in a sort of lecture-recital folk evening I once did in my wife's Cambridge women's college in aid of their Building Fund, I got a smile & nod from the [English-specialist] senior tutor when I said that one of the virtues of folksong is how often it can teeter on the very brink of doggerel without ever quite tumbling in — a knack which W H Davies, in this poem & elsewhere ['A rainbow and a cuckoo's song May never come together again - May never come This side the tomb'] to a considerable degree shares, to my mind.

His 'Autobiography of a Supertramp' is well worth reading - had an odd, violent life: judicially birched a dozen strokes at the age of 12 for organising what we would now call a gang of juvenile muggers; lost a foot riding the freight wagons in USA in his 30s...

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 02:41 PM

I learned all kinds of useful things, but most of them not in ordinary schooling; but a lot of good stuff came from there, also.   Algebra and trig have stood me in good stead through my whole life, and more than anything else I value the lessons in Logic and Boolean Propositional Logic which were taught by a silver-haired old gal named Ruby. At the time, no-one had heard of computers, but, lo! when they appeared, I understood exactly what they were doing thanks to being drilled on boolean reasoning, set theory, and other logical disciplines by this quaint, stern woman. My thanks to her, wherever she ended up.

I also learned to love language and its myriad forms, to respect spelling and grammar in their place and to abuse them when needed.

I learned from Harry Golding why ice expands as it freezes (hydrogen bonds) which has always impressed me with a respect for science.

And from Mister Berkowitz, I learned chamfering, planing, woodburning, and how to use a bandsaw safely.

On my own, I learned that moist people are philosophically disinclined to ask too many questions, and not to bother them.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Peace
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 02:35 PM

I didn't learn that in school. I learned that in a dictionary.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Peace
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 02:30 PM

'The problem is not with the "rule" but that it is meant to apply only when the "ie" or "ei" combination represents the "ee" sound.'

There are at least 11 ways to make the 'ee' sound in English.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 01:47 PM

either /either, neither /neither!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 11:34 AM

Useless... 'I before E except after C', oh, as in weight and height.

The problem is not with the "rule" but that it is meant to apply only when the "ie" or "ei" combination represents the "ee" sound. It's not meant to be applied when other vowel sounds are represented. Within the "ee" sound context, it's accurate most of the time, with the occasional weird exception.

If you were taught that it should apply in all cases, find your teacher and give him or her a vigorous dope slap.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 10:01 AM

Im my experience there is no such thing as useless knowledge.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Mr Happy
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 09:35 AM

..........Hmmmmmmmnnnnnnn, they tell ya lots o'fibs at sghool too!

I recall in primary school being taught in a geography lesson that in Japan, where there's a lot of earthquakes, people live in paper houses, so that if they fall down, the people wouldn't get hurt!!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Alan Day
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 08:58 AM

I remember well chewing up pieces of paper and putting them inside a silver milk bottle top and throwing them up to the ceiling where they stuck firmly.
You learn a lot about people who write on this site.
Lizzie your a darling.
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 08:32 AM

Along with everyone else in our English class I witnessed a popular, friendly and perpetually cheerful teacher having a nervous breakdown in front of our horrified eyes. The poor man became completely unhinged within a matter of minutes and had to be forcibly restrained and led away by two burly P.E. teachers.

We were told a few weeks later that he had committed suicide.

The whole episode was shocking and very distressing, but it taught me that people are not always what they seem.

And it also taught me compassion and tolerance. Because of this deeply upsetting incident, I find I can recognise the signs of suffering behind the 'brave face' so many people put on in their daily lives.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 08:23 AM

>>>Most useless: Doggerel poem called Leisure.

Most useful: enthusiasm makes a better teacher than subject knowledge.

Stu<<<



Stu, I fully agree with your 'most useful' comment there, but disagree entirely, with every breath in my soul, with your 'useless' one....

Give me Davies, over Hughes, any day. That poem, for me, exemplifies so much of what we have lost. I never learnt it at school though, needless to say... :0)

All that we are missing, through time........ 'Leisure' by W.H. Davies

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: paula t
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 08:14 AM

I wanted to take typing lessons. I wasn't allowed because I was "too clever", would never be a secretary and therefore never need to type. I tried to argue that I would need to type at university etc. To no avail.I had to take geography instead.
I'm now a teacher. I have lots of planning to do. Everything must be typed on the computer......... It takes hours!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 08:11 AM

Useful?

That very few teachers actually care about you, as a child, as a human being, but those that *do* are wonderful.

That many children are cruel and pretty darn nasty.

That no-one seems to have time to stop and stare at beautiful things.

That the way the sunshine lit up the leaves on the trees outside my windwo touched my soul far more than logarithms.

That I was not designed to high jump, long jump or hurdle.

That winning the rounders or netball match really was of any importance to me.

That schools need colours.

That long, empty corridors and stairwells with no plants, no sounds were frightening and depressing.

That you look after the science lab 'pets' with love and you take the school rabbit home whenever you can to free him of the filthy surroundings in which he was kept, letting him snuggle into your arms and sleep.

That the willow trees on the playing fields were far more beautiful than the running tracks.

That the sound of nature is far better than the sound of people.

That school is the most unnatural situation I have ever been in, alongside one of the most frightening and depressing.

That many children feel that way even more than I did, now feeling the need to carry knives to protect themselves.

That teachers are NOT always right, in fact, they are very often wrong.

That school never taught me how to change a plug, how to use a drill, how to run a home, how to run a bank account, how to look after myself, and therefore served very little purpose in life.

That school turns many children off from learning and, as a wise and wonderful teacher once told me, that you don't *start* learning until you've *left* school.

That being controlled is unnatural and wrong.

That adults forget how to be children.

That adults do things that are wrong and mean and cruel.

That being belittled is a terrible thing, let alone belittling someone, purely because you are in a position of power.

That I would never subject my children to the traumas I endured, if they did not take to school naturally.

That fighting hard to remain an individual, within a system that sees you as just another face in the crowd is actually damned hard..and...bloody important!

That no-one has the right to bully, be they teacher or pupil, or anyone else.

That believing in yourself is the most important lesson you can learn.




Useless?

That school is always right, because....it is anything BUT..

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: s&r
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 07:47 AM

Here it is

Leisure

      by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: s&r
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 07:44 AM

Most useless: Doggerel poem called Leisure.

Most useful: enthusiasm makes a better teacher than subject knowledge.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 07:38 AM

Through debating in literature class and its ilk, I learned to take a difference of opinion as just that, and not as a personal attack. One of the things that constantly stuns me is how so many of the well-educated mature and serious folk lovers on this board, seem unable to make that same fairly simple distinction.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 07:36 AM

Useless... 'I before E except after C', oh, as in weight and height.
Don't split infinitives.... To boldly go is actually a masterful constuction thar means something more than to go boldly.
Don't start a sentence with 'And'.   H.G. Wells 'History of the World' begins with the huble 'and'.
Don't finish a sentence with a preposition....this is something up with which we should not put.

   And most of the content of so called grammar lessons.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 06:57 AM

I learned to polka at school. It has given me a lot of fun and pleasure for years.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: bubblyrat
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 06:18 AM

Well,there you go,Acorn4 !! Me too---I learned to hate rugby( we weren't allowed to mention football) and yet seek refuge in cross-country running.My fellow ruggerphobes and I were not as dedicated as you,though---we used to run about a mile,then stop in the woods,light a fire,and have a smoke !
             On a serious note, I think that one of the most useful things for me,from my Primary (Junior) School days,was my learning of the "Times Tables".Young people,who are not taught that sort of thing in the UK any more,are always impressed when they say,for example, " What's nine times nine?" and ,quick as a flash,I reply " Eighty one !!" and they say " How did you DO that?". How sad !!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 05:38 AM

That teachers came in three categories: the inspiring, the "get you through the exams and don't ask awkward questions", and the absolutely f***g useless.

That adults don't have all the answers.

Paws

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Rasener
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 04:29 AM

Useful things I learnt at school were

How to throw the old style pen and knib at the blackboard

How to flick ink soaked blotting paper using a ruler with great accuracy.

How to undo and rebuild a desk whilst in a lesson.

How not to get caught.

The cane hurt, but the thin slipper on the backside was even more painful.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 04:26 AM

Useless : how long it takes to fill a bath when some fool has left the plug out.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: GRex
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 04:23 AM

As we were taught little more than the 3Rs at school, just enough to qualify us for 'factory fodder', everything I learned there was usful. Learned far more from life's hard knocks though.

                   GRex

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 04:16 AM

Never give a nun the two fingered salute behind her back - they really do have eyes in the backs of their heads.   The useful thing I learnt is that a 12" ruler across the backs of your hands really does hurt.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Acorn4
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 04:11 AM

Learned to hate Rugby - standing out on a cold field in the middle of February waiting for some brick s***house to come and squash you.

But rescue came in the form of cross country which you were allowed to do instead. I had a seven mile bus journey to school and if you ran around the course quickly you could have an early shower and go home.

The trouble was I almost got quick enough to get into the school team so had to slow down a bit.

School didn't help my musical development much as both music teachers were deaf.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Alan Day
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 04:01 AM

Interesting thoughts Janie.
Ta
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Janie
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 12:12 AM

Yes, but can you think?


It would appear so.


I should add a disclaimer here. I am a product of very mediocre public schools, but they were demographically homogenous and small by today's standards, and any kid in need of a mentor could find one among the teachers. I was both bright and conventional. While junior high and high school were socially very painful times for me, I thrived on academic acheivement and recognition, and that provided a layer of social protection from and with my peers. My son attended public elementary school, but has attended a very small private Quaker school since then, due to the generosity of a paternal grandparent. He is a very bright adolescent with what would be termed learning disabilities in the public system, and the public system would not be able to accomodate the difference in the ways he best learns and thinks.    The school that he attends is truly able to focus on strengths and also focus on social and emotional development, and he is thriving in that environment.   Most importantly to me, he is learning how to be thoughtful and responsible, and to use his brain.

In public school, he would be toast.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Clontarf83
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 11:40 PM

useless stuff I studied/learned in school: Caesar's gallic wars (in latin)...advanced math....catholic doctrine...extreme nationalism...human sexuality (christian brothers version)...elocution(how to speak propah)...

useful stuff I learned in school: how to evade authority...that auhtority is capricious and often violent....there are bullies everywhere...never show weakness....soccer

what i should have learned: how to manage money...sexuality....French....multiculturalism...spirituality...
women.....comparative religion....

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: meself
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 11:09 PM

Oh, yeah - all that learning has served me well over the subsequent years. Living proof and all that ...

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: meself
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 11:08 PM

Learned to watch my back.

Learned to apologize very quickly upon bumping into someone bigger than me.

Learned that not everyone appreciates irony.

Learned that I wasn't as tough as I thought I was.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Janie
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 11:02 PM

While I confess I recall nothing of logarithms other than a slide rule was involved, I gotta defend the requirement for higher math classes, and a bunch of other stuff. An awful lot of that is about training the mind to think and engage in complex problem solving, and to cultivate abstract thought processes. We are now beginning to understand that it also leads to the development of many alternative neuro-pathways.

The hardwiring of the brain is profoundly influenced by the use of the brain. While much occurs in early childhood, the brain and cognitive processes continue substantial development and growth throughout childhood and into early adulthood. It continues throughout most of the life-span, and the more the brain is used, and the more ways the brain is used throughout life, the more able the brain is able to compensate for the processes involved with all dementias and other age-related cognitive changes in late life.

Which is all a long-winded way of saying that I think it benefits every young brain to be worked and challenged in all areas of cognitive functioning. Do I think all high school kids should take calculus? No. But I think school courses should challenge every kid to use their brains to their fullest capacity in all areas of cognition and integration of the various aspects of cognitive functioning, and for any child of at least average intelligence, that needs to include math beyond simple arithmetic for what it teaches about logic and reasoning. Learning and brain/cognitive development is an integrative process. Effective teaching and coordination of language arts, social studies and higher math, are very important. Classes that focus on creativity, fine motor skills, practical problem-solving and engineering, are equally important. Young brains need all of it to reach their full potential.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 10:58 PM

In my long-since teaching days a girl once said to me, "Why do we have to learn poetry, Sir? It won't get us a job will it?"

I replied, "It depends on what you want to do, Anita. It got me a job, didn't it?"

She thought for a moment and went away...

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Amergin
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 10:45 PM

I learned how to pretend I was sober...when stoned out of my mind....

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Beer
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 10:33 PM

Useful: Quitting.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 10:32 PM

Well, *I* learned that calcium carbide..(the stuff that makes acetylene gas) does 'interesting' things when combined at random with other items on the chem lab's shelves.... I also learned how clean up those interesting results real fast.

But in college, I learned a bit about critical thinking in Philosophy classes, and though I only made $4000 as a grad student from all those classes, I can say I have used the basic concepts about what 'reason' involves for the last 40 years.
And...*sigh*...I also learned that sort of knowledge is not necessarily a popular item in some places.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Peace
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 10:31 PM

Lulu used to go bang.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 10:20 PM

For example, I learned that you can make a low explosive (that's a technical definition, it would be similar to the black powder used in quarrying) from ******** and any variant of C6H22O11, both of which can be found in most homes or can be easily obtained. Or you can cause another, more powerful, explosion by harnessing the power of xxxxxxx -- an explosion powerful enough to wreck your house.

Please note that I have left out the names of the active ingredients AND how to make/use the things. And I ain't gonna tell you -- you'll have to take my word for it. Gnu's all too eager to make things that go BANG!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: quokka
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 09:59 PM

WHAT? I didn't know Cat Stevens was a three-fingered shop teacher!!

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: heric
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 08:58 PM

The first cut is the deepest. I learned that from a three-fingered shop teacher.

Subject: RE: BS: Useful / Useless things learnt at school
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Sep 09 - 08:48 PM

Everything contributed one way or another.
Although my majors were sciences, the literature and anthropology courses I took in summer school to keep the GI bill money coming certainly contributed to my life.

At times I wished I had taken more economics, but after reading a new book on how some of the theories taught in schools contributed to the recent bubble (hedge funds, etc.), it's probably just as well I didn't. I might have saved myself from being another Madoff.