ListNook

raksdadesi Apr 3, 2026 +32

Math felt useless until I realized calculating pizza slices per friend is basically survival skills.

32

Harakiri_238 Apr 3, 2026 +50

I don’t think P.E. as a concept is useless. As a concept it actually has some very beneficial ideas (promoting team work, exercise, a break from sitting at a desk, etc.) But the execution makes it useless for a lot of people. If you’re shy, awkward, insecure, not athletic, etc. it’s an absolute nightmare. I was decent at a lot of the things we did in P.E.. I liked traditional sports until P.E. Ruined it. I was taking 12+ dance classes a week so was relatively fit for my age. But I got a C- every year and got told I had a bad attitude because I was too petrified to participate. I was literally on the verge of tears and a panic attack basically every gym class lol. A lot of the kids who have “bad attitudes” are actually just scared 😅

50

ycpa68 Apr 3, 2026 +1

I always got good grades in PE except one semester. I got the "bad attitude" ding basically. In the middle of cross country season I ran like an 11-12 minute mile in gym. The teacher got upset and told me he knew I could do much better than that and I wasn't trying. I told him that's correct, I'm not messing with my training process to put up a 6 minute gym class mile.

1

9bikes Apr 3, 2026 +1

\>The teacher got upset Sometimes, we get less good coaches in P.E. than the ones who coach a sport. The best math teacher I ever had was primarily the baseball coach. That man could teach! He explained concepts well, worked with students to make sure they understood and motivated us to learn. Most of the P.E. coaches I had were not nearly the educators he was.

1

Jammypints Apr 3, 2026 +1

PE is should be thought to obviously teach/ educate about the body and exercise. It should be fun and inclusive in schools and not competitive. There will always be a competitive aspect to games played in it but a good teacher makes games more fun based and less based on winning and more on taking part. Kids that want to be competitive will join sports teams in school and outside school where they are encouraged to be competitive. You wouldn't compete in the same sense in English or Science within lessons but yet their are competitions for science or English writing. The objective should be to teach and with regards to physical activity and sports it definitely should be to enjoy so that kids keep up sports for their health into adulthood

1

you-face-JaraxxusNR8 Apr 3, 2026 +1

My highschool PE We did often soccer/football and i hated it. For that reason my classmates always put me as a goalkeeper. But certain classmates shot the ball so hard that eventually i just stepped aside. My teacher would then tell me that i am not participating... excuse me when they shoot the ball so hard that when i block it with my leg it basicly gets bruised. All the other things were usually fun and i would participate but damn competitive sports ruined it for me. Not because it wasn't fun but because classmates were either assholes or didn't know their strenght in kicking the ball. (Also we got no gloves while goalies in the actual sport wear them)

1

SpeedBlitzX Apr 3, 2026 +1

You know as a kid I didn't understand why we had to run laps all the time or do stretches as much. But I now understand the running helped with building stamina to an extent and stretching helped with keeping limber

1

NosDarkly Apr 3, 2026 +1

Yeah, at my junior high(7-9) they did social promotion until the 9th grade, so we had all these 18-20 year old criminals in the school with preteens. PE was the only time most normal kids had to interact with them and it was dangerous.

1

RoccoTirolese Apr 3, 2026 +1

I don't know about other countries, but I wished the gym classes were made better in mine. In middle high school we had a very good teacher she made us did a lot of different activities. In High school they made us did just running, some stretching and then play volleyball or football for an hour.

1

Soless Apr 3, 2026 +1

Yeah, I was forced to take weight training. I think its good to know the weight machines and all that. But a mixed class? m/f? Yeah that was awkward as hell. I hated that "class". I dreaded walking into that room every day. I think most did. I feel like PE should just be cardio, get the heart rate up how ever you like, and if you want team stuff, you probably already doing it.

1

Chimpville Apr 3, 2026 +1

Agree entirely. I love nearly all sports but I was made to do a term of dance and it was f****** awful as I have no grace, creativity or interest in it. I just felt awkward and like I was wasting my time. This is no doubt how a lot of people who love dance felt about other sports. Resorces mean that we can't have a class for everything and contact sports have to be limited by age group for sure.. but it feels like some activities could be split across year groups to allow more options to be viable.

1

Competitive-Pay-766 Apr 3, 2026 +11

In uni, I reckon Business Studies. This was a core subject for the computer science course.

11

WiseStupidMan Apr 3, 2026 +14

Depends on the grade level.

14

Secret-Survey-4630 Apr 3, 2026 +8

depends what you mean by useless though right like i studied loads of stuff that seemed pointless at the time but then years later when i was doing my linguistics degree i kept having these moments where random bits from gcse history or even primary school maths would just click into place and suddenly make sense in a completely different context. my dream interpretation hobby uses psychology concepts from a levels i thought were boring as hell back then. even keeping my cherry shrimp tank involves chemistry knowledge i picked up without realizing it was actually useful for understanding water parameters and ph levels

8

xSlashNZx Apr 3, 2026 +27

Religious Education

27

per88oo Apr 3, 2026 +1

Are you saying that because you don't like religion(understandably), or because you find it genuinely not useful. Because where I live, it's taught through a very secular light, but It can be very useful knowledge to understand why the world is the way it is.

1

chalk_in_boots Apr 3, 2026 +1

Yeah, we only had it offered for the last 2 years of school, maybe 10 people took it. It was a great class. One teacher (the guy we all knew was gay but we never made a point about it in case a parent got upset) taught the 3 big Abrahamic religions, the other taught everything else. Incredibly interesting, a lot of it was just history as to why certain things developed in certain areas. Really cool subject.

1

SJB95 Apr 3, 2026 +1

I agree and disagree. It's important to teach kids about religions and cultures different to their own to build a better understanding. The problem is in how it's taught in a lot of cases. I went to a Catholic school and we hardly ever learned about other religions, instead spending most of our time being taught about a religion we'd already been raised in and having the dogma forced on us.

1

humblepaul Apr 3, 2026 +1

As an atheist I disagree.

1

OddgitII Apr 3, 2026 +1

Depends on how it's presented and the purpose of it. If it's a Anthropology/sociology style class studying it like an academic subject then it can be useful. I learned a lot about Judaism, Islam, and Shinto in similar classes. Very enlightening about the world and cultures. If it's like a Sunday school type thing that pushes religion like it's the truth and the only way to go? No, it has no place in a place of education.

1

Roustouque2 Apr 3, 2026 +1

Where is that a school subject?

1

Walter_Armstrong Apr 3, 2026 +1

Line dancing

1

thegreatmango Apr 3, 2026 +1

There aren't many - education is value. Never found a class that was useless, frfr.

1

steroboros Apr 3, 2026 +12

When I was kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, hands down American Socal Studies. It was 80% propaganda and down right lies.

12

000abczyx Apr 3, 2026 +12

A language that you forget immediately after exams

12

chalk_in_boots Apr 3, 2026 +1

*Awkwardly remembers that I tried to buy Tolkien books in latin to read for fun but only The Hobbit has been translated*. That was like a year ago. I have 2 bachelor's degrees.

1

Ragazzano Apr 3, 2026 +11

RE

11

Goldedition93 Apr 3, 2026 +5

English cos my English good is

5

brickiex2 Apr 3, 2026 +3

There goes little goldedtion93 ending sentences with intransitive verbs again... sigh, kids these days

3

Crittsy Apr 3, 2026 +8

Religious Education

8

Popular-Style509 Apr 3, 2026 +7

P.E I don't personally know a single person who had been like 'Wow P.E was such a useful class and I learnt so much!' Also from a personal standpoint, I disliked it because it was literally just 'Hey let's play soccer for close to an hour' didn't even learn shit about idk... How building muscle works or the importance of stretching.

7

DangersVengeance Apr 3, 2026 +14

At the time, I hated it. Now I’m glad I didn’t because I was NOT pushed at home to do a damn thing, so this was often the only exercise I got.

14

WinxieValVal Apr 3, 2026 +4

Im grsteful i went to a weird school thst actually taught the science of fitness lol

4

thegreatmango Apr 3, 2026 +1

Your PE was ass, lol. Ours was literally called "Health/P.E" and we did learn building muscle, eating well, stretching, etc. The warms ups we did still fuel my warm ups to this day, over 20 years later. So, I'll be your single person - I learned a lot from PE.

1

DiSzym Apr 3, 2026 +1

I went to arts high school, we didn’t have p.e for awhile. Then they made everyone take dance as their p.e credit, except for those of us who already were dancers.

1

svtmaniacz Apr 3, 2026 +3

Honestly it probably depends on the person since what feels useless to one might actually be really useful to someone else. For me it was learning cursive since I barely ever use it in real life anymore.

3

KAugsburger Apr 3, 2026 +1

That's something fairly easy to decide in hindsight but is tough to determine when someone is a child. Many kids in high school let alone younger children don't really know what they want to do with their lives. Even many students who think they know what they want often change their minds once they graduate and figure out that their expectations are unrealistic. A liberal education with many different subjects improves the chances that students will be able to find something that they enjoy doing rather than being stuck doing something that they hate because they don't know any better.

1

ArizonaTucsonguy Apr 3, 2026 +4

Math beyond a certain point.

4

nikel23 Apr 3, 2026 +13

math helps grow analytical & critical thinking and problem solving skills. It's not just about numbers, but numbers are a good representation of a thought process when solving a problem.

13

miniatureaurochs Apr 3, 2026 +3

I agree that maths is important, but I’m not quite making the link to critical thinking skills as compared with subjects that have you analysing source material like sciences or history. Could you perhaps give an example/analogy to explain?

3

nikel23 Apr 3, 2026 +4

I cannot give you a concrete example as its benefit is more of a thought process than a fact, but this is my experience. I was good at math back then, and my teacher taught me quite intensively. Calculus was my favorite subject and I studied a lot, but I've almost forgotten the majority of it. You know how in math we're kinda expected to remember formulas? Back then before I get to use a new formula, my teacher would make me prove the formula based on existing information and formulas. It was pretty tough. When I looked back then in the present day, I find it interesting how all the equations and formulas tied back together and made sense of it all. After all, a formula is just a memorized shortcut when someone else already proved it. But to get there, you need to have proper steps and understand why each steps is logical and not pulled out of the ass. In computer science, we learned data structures, how to do sorting, types of sorts, how to invert binary tree etc. when there are already built-in functions for these. Learning the basics allow you to understand the concept of each function and why you should do approach A instead of approach B to solve a problem. That is also the concept of math. It trains you to reach a destination by learning and analyzing the steps, why each step matters and becomes critical of it. Math lets you gather data & facts and analyze & process them into something meaningful. __tldr;__ you process problem solving the same way you process math, just with less numbers.

4

FanBladeFleshlight Apr 3, 2026 +3

Basic PEMDAS is far enough for 90% of people, add some algebra for people in the trades, and it's only the fringe cases that actually need to know anything above like math 70.

3

rm-minus-r Apr 3, 2026 +1

I went to college on a math scholarship. Long division in grade school and pretty much all high school math aside from basic algebra - trig, calc, geometry - are a waste of time. I love math. I'm arguably pretty good with it as far as undergrad math goes. I looked into what you could do with math professionally after college and the answers are either teach it, or maybe work for the NSA. That's it. I work in tech now because I enjoy not being paid like a joke. And in 15 or so years of writing code, working at AWS, and three other big name companies you've heard of, you know how many times I needed math more advanced than algebra? Once. It's a waste of students very precious time. Teach financial literacy. Teach cooking. Teach kids how to build things. Teach kids about how relationships as an adult work. Teach kids about how to parse and handle workplace politics. Don't waste their time with something they'll literally never use.

1

theknight38 Apr 3, 2026 +1

>Don't waste their time with something they'll literally never use. Exactly! Churn out useful cogs, never thinking citizens!

1

Ducknowwed Apr 3, 2026 +2

Arts and crafts, or music. Both ruined the experience of it to me, turning creativity into a struggle for good grades. They sucked ass. I do enjoy music and doing art now, but school certainly didn't help with that, as it was more like a measure of how talented people happen to be at that stage. Putting people who've never played a guitar or a piano together with people who have been practising those for years is not fair. Third one would be P.E, but not because being physical is bad, but because it worked counterintuitively and discouraged unfit people from trying hard because they were embarassed every step of the way. A better replacement would be, say keeping a diary of your exercising doing activities you enjoy, and trying to hone your skills in the ones that you don't enjoy that much. I never learned to swim for example. School swimming classes didn't help once others became better than you and you fell behind.

2

zefciu Apr 3, 2026 +2

I used to hate Geography and most of the things I learned there were totally useless. A lot of my Geography lessons were like ”learn by heart the names of the 5 longest rivers in Asia”. Pseudo-knowledge. That being said I believe that learning about the world is superimportant. It’s just that the methodology of teaching it is completely flawed.

2

Ok-Basis5987 Apr 3, 2026 +3

The geological part of geography, which is wierd considering that the human part of it is really useful imo

3

DependentRounders934 Apr 3, 2026 +4

Idk geologists are pretty employable

4

Practical-Suit-6798 Apr 3, 2026 +3

I actually found physical geography and earth systems to be be really interesting. It has helped me understand the word in ways people just don't.

3

Archon-Toten Apr 3, 2026 +2

French. Especially when you don't want to learn the language it's a waste of half a year. Geography is a close second.

2

theknight38 Apr 3, 2026 +1

>Geography is a close second. Geography is the second most useless subject? Please tell me this is satire.

1

Archon-Toten Apr 3, 2026 +1

I blame the school itself. I would have loved to study maps, learn how to read them and plot courses and whatnot. All I remember is writing words from the board mindlessly.

1

Just_One1732 Apr 3, 2026 +1

P.E

1

miniatureaurochs Apr 3, 2026 +1

I think they all have their virtues, really, but I really resented having to do art and music at the time. Both were incredibly boring, I didn’t learn much outside of interesting theory/history which wasn’t really a focus, and I didn’t feel it was preparing me for anything useful in life so it just felt like a colossal waste of time. I hated maths, too, but at least that was useful. Leave the arts for people with souls and let the rest of us get on with it.

1

nurtura Apr 3, 2026 +1

Introductory technology

1

My_Feet_Are_Flat Apr 3, 2026 +1

Ask again when the current generation grows up 🤣

1

jessycatx1 Apr 3, 2026 +1

We have mandatory orthodox religion classes in Romania. Ama

1

cam-douglas Apr 3, 2026 +1

Religious Studies or Geography.

1

TheKingJest Apr 3, 2026 +1

In the US at least, history class. I'm not saying it's bad to learn history but how many times do we have to go through the exact same aspects of the revolutionary war years in a row? That's how it was for me at least,

1

StandardBee6282 Apr 3, 2026 +1

If it’s something you’re least likely to use in later life I can definitely say that not once since I left school 47 years ago have I ever needed to call on my knowledge of logarithms.

1

obolahiz Apr 3, 2026 +1

All subjects….. but that’s mainly because I went to a terrible school in the 90s and terrible teachers who made everything feel pointless. I’m 40 now, and I see it completely differently. I actually appreciate every subject. Back then, no one bothered to explain why we were learning any of it or how it would sharpen our thinking or open doors later. It was just “learn this because you have to” which killed my interest and enthusiasm. They provided no context. They also never connected subjects to real careers. No one said, “If you’re good at this, here’s the kind of life you could build.” That’s a massive miss. I hated maths at school, but I work in engineering now and use it all the time. If someone had just shown me the real-world application back then, I probably would’ve been all over it. The problem wasn’t the subjects, it was how badly they were taught. I just had a school full of $hit teachers.

1

Tzarbucks29 Apr 3, 2026 +1

French and RE are both boring, and who cares for it after you leave school.

1

sam_2_435 Apr 3, 2026 +1

P.E. (Physical Education) as it’s currently structured. It’s not 'education'; it’s just 45 minutes of being forced to play dodgeball or run laps while the athletic kids thrive and everyone else develops a lifelong hatred for exercise.

1

IndependenceLore Apr 3, 2026 +1

Probably those classes that were 90% memorizing random facts you forgot immediately after the test. My brain treated them like temporary files.

1

No_one_intresting666 Apr 3, 2026 +1

I think it depends on the person and their career choices, all of the subjects are useful in their own way, so "useless" is dependent on what the person wants to do in their future. If someone wants to become a vet, physics is useless, and you can apply that for every subject. The question would probably be better asked which is the most useful, and even that is trivial to the person's choices, so sorry, I cannot give a clear answer for you.

1

Xo-Mo Apr 3, 2026 +1

Unless someone is going to become a writer or a public speaker, rhetoric. Unless someone is going to become a bio engineer or biologist, biochemistry. Unless someone is going to spend their life doing mathematic equations, anything above Algebra 2 is pointless.

1

Temarimaru Apr 3, 2026 +1

Music. I don't know how to play musical instruments other than bongos and a triangle. I just don't have the talent for music

1

Orcasgt22 Apr 3, 2026 -1

Math once you learn the basics of add/subtract/multiply/divide. The useful shit it could teach you (taxes, investing, mortgages) are thrown to the way side so you know how to calculate the area of a circle or the angle of a triangle.

-1

Virtual-Squirrel-725 Apr 3, 2026 +7

algebra is used all the time.

7

Maleficent_Sir_7562 Apr 3, 2026 +2

Ok tell me how you do “I have 50 dollars, the subscription has a 10 dollar sign up fee and then 5 per month, how many months can I get?”

2

Orcasgt22 Apr 3, 2026 +1

Basic Subtraction and division question. The real word placement of the question is excellent though and absolutely something that would not be taught in a school. Jim has 50 apples and John steals 10 apples once and Jessica steals 5 apples a day. How many days until Jim is out of apples is more how they would word it.

1

Maleficent_Sir_7562 Apr 3, 2026 +1

Well yeah it is 50 = 10 + 5x Its algebra. You just don’t realize it.

1

Orcasgt22 Apr 3, 2026 +1

50-10=40 40/5=8 No one would ever willing calculate that with your equation.

1

Maleficent_Sir_7562 Apr 3, 2026 +2

Yes, that is algebra. Again, you don’t realize it is because of how easy it is. Saying “nobody would do it through your equation” is moot because you just solved the exact same equation.

2

jiffysdidit Apr 3, 2026 +1

Yeah I did advanced maths and science in senior school but now I work in construction . I use maths all the time but could have realistically left school two years earlier and had what I need for my job and hobbies

1

Famous_Abrocoma_1335 Apr 3, 2026

Whatever subject required memorizing things that a five second search now answers instantly. The content mattered less than how we were taught to engage with it.

0

Deemril Apr 3, 2026 +17

For critical thinking you need knowledge of a subject ....

17

AgeOfWorry0114 Apr 3, 2026 +7

Teacher here. This is a HORRIBLE argument. Do you really want to have no innate knowledge? There’s a bunch of reasons why you are wrong (read bloom’s taxonomy), but your idea is becoming more common and I hate it.

7

OutgoingRug2 Apr 3, 2026 +1

PE. Like cmon.

1

WinxieValVal Apr 3, 2026 +7

I think it's good actuslly but more in a recess lunch type of way. I dont think it should affect grade point average and such

7

OutgoingRug2 Apr 3, 2026

At least that. I also feel like it shouldn't be forced. I do some sports in my time and they're pretty fun. You know what isn't fun? Being forced into playing football in the morning.

0

EnergyAltruistic2911 Apr 3, 2026 +2

That’s your pe? Mine just makes us do exercise

2

OutgoingRug2 Apr 3, 2026

Well, if I could do anything I want, I wouldn't be complaining.

0

schiz0yd Apr 3, 2026 +1

PE is what taught health/fitness/nutrition, and also what the latissimus dorsi is

1

Ok-Secretary3267 Apr 3, 2026 +1

That’s why you’re depessed

1

philbrailey Apr 3, 2026 +1

PE

1

Cat_Cuddles_ Apr 3, 2026

I was never a fan of philosophy. Sitting around discussing unanswerable questions seemed like a waste of time.

0

dullgreybathmat Apr 3, 2026 +1

If you think that's all philosophy is, then yeah that class was wasted on you.

1

RedTamara25X Apr 3, 2026 -1

Trigonometry.

-1

Gold_Reach_3406 Apr 3, 2026 -7

Some schools teaches “woke values” once a week

-7

millermix456 Apr 3, 2026 +1

I’ll bet you think it’s the schools that let kids use litter boxes too…..

1

tiredofmebeingdumb Apr 3, 2026 +1

Oh shit

1

GothicPrayer Apr 3, 2026 -4

Probably depends on your country, but foreign languages. Translation apps/software is easy to use and free to use. In my country, English is a the main language and there isn't really much alternative.

-4

Kvark33 Apr 3, 2026 -1

Anything you are not intending to acquire for work or to get into college. I didn't need to do anything relating to music, drama or art for work or for college, so in my opinion those subjects were useless. To other people they would think woodwork or technical drawing was useless

-1

Active-Strawberry-37 Apr 3, 2026 +1

For me, art or music. Other subjects will at least benefit you no matter what field you go into but learning about art and music only benefit those who go into those fields.

1

Rockozo Apr 3, 2026 +1

literature. making me read a book that i don't care about and then writing an essay about said book was not fun and didn't teach me much

1

OkCount8739 Apr 3, 2026 +1

geography is useless unless you want a related career

1

illusion102 Apr 3, 2026 +1

Modern history

1

[deleted] Apr 3, 2026 -2

[deleted]

-2

_killer1869_ Apr 3, 2026 +5

Among all subjects imaginable, you chose the one that is present in basically all jobs in existence, no matter what it is. Also, math isn't about memorizing an equation. It's about understanding why that equation looks the way it does, and then being capable of manually adapting it to any possible use case. This is on top of it teaching the basics of logic rhat are required in every other subject and throughout your entire life, in every single hour of your existence.

5

FanBladeFleshlight Apr 3, 2026 -9

History. A giant portion of it is blatantly wrong, a slightly lower portion of it is misinformation, and outside of stuff like the holocaust, the rest is largely pointless to learn.

-9

miniatureaurochs Apr 3, 2026 +8

This is kind of a crazy take. Good history lessons not only teach you facts but also how to analyse sources & assess historiography.

8

solzqvxt Apr 3, 2026 -10

Math haha

-10

Useful-Speaker-1490 Apr 3, 2026 +7

Definitely not, it teaches critical thinking skills and basic logic

7

LawrenceMK2 Apr 3, 2026 +4

Math is the foundation for all of the sciences, and it is the perfect exercise in applied logic. Practicing math will make you better at thinking in general.

4

Confident-Table3759 Apr 3, 2026 -4

English or any other languages

-4

_comfortableInLife Apr 3, 2026 -6

history. anything past 1900’s ain’t needed rn cuz term me why i have to memorise the date of birth and death of a man that lived hundreds of years ago like com’on

-6

revxptzl Apr 3, 2026 -15

Science

-15

revxptzl Apr 3, 2026 -14

Science

-14

KingNobit Apr 3, 2026 +14

As a doctor...i can tell ya it helped me...but forget that I see how badly off people with poor health literacy are. We need science otherwise we get RFK Jr

14

What is the most useless school subject in your opinion?

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