General

@XDSwagYoloManXD: Well I don't live there I just go by statistics and the like.

i want to say history because its my least favorite subject, but when you have great American writing and apush crammed in a double period you start to see a lot of connections. books explain the ideas of history so you need to understand history or you wont get the back drop and will lack a full picture
edit: +they both develop skills that you use in forming a sound and complete argument
health and arts (not the fine arts but like painting or environmental sketch classes) are the most useless classes
(digital photography and graphic design were pretty fun tho )

Um, history is actually a very important subject. It teaches you key skills on how to form an argument, think from other perspectives, not always trust what you read and think about motives behind sources etc. It promotes critical thinking. Same as English.

[quote=xipwnux99]English is too analytical for most people, and authors aren't writing books and essays to have them dissected for metaphors and symbolism. If it shows up that means it was specifically put in to make a point, although some authors like Ray Bradbury have said that symbolism, metaphors, and stuff like that is just something they naturally write in.

To be honest, French and Spanish are the most useless. Now, other reasons aside, school is the worst environment to learn a language. I find it easier to learn Latin on the internet than Spanish in a class. The other reason being, well, you will NEVER want to visit the countries that speak these languages. I can see going to France for a short time, but in terms of where to live German and Swedish would be much more useful to learn. They are some of the best countries to live in the modern world, the USA is one you can leave for example and go to Canada, its far better and its nearby. Me and a friend have this joke where we think American schools teach us the languages of countries we don't want to go to so that we don't leave the US. It could always be true though.[/quote]

Considering Canada uses French in some provinces I'm pretty sure it's a good language to learn. French and Spanish are also languages that are applicable to several countries not just their own homelands.

@BoredAF: If I had the mentality I have now when I was in school, I probably would have participated in P.E. more, but it's unfortunate that I didn't

Probably art.

Simply because, how are you honestly suppose to grade it? Especially with the various types of art there is. You could be given a project to draw your town/city in your aspect, but that can be in any art form.

The whole grading aspect of Art is basically the useless part.

English is too analytical for most people, and authors aren't writing books and essays to have them dissected for metaphors and symbolism. If it shows up that means it was specifically put in to make a point, although some authors like Ray Bradbury have said that symbolism, metaphors, and stuff like that is just something they naturally write in.

To be honest, French and Spanish are the most useless. Now, other reasons aside, school is the worst environment to learn a language. I find it easier to learn Latin on the internet than Spanish in a class. The other reason being, well, you will NEVER want to visit the countries that speak these languages. I can see going to France for a short time, but in terms of where to live German and Swedish would be much more useful to learn. They are some of the best countries to live in the modern world, the USA is one you can leave for example and go to Canada, its far better and its nearby. Me and a friend have this joke where we think American schools teach us the languages of countries we don't want to go to so that we don't leave the US. It could always be true though.

[quote=permadragons]French is mandatory for us in ontario up to grade 9 [/quote]
Best bird course ever, easy 90+ every year

English. The subject itself is crucial, but the teachers who taught the class are just so incompetent.

History

[quote=iDrinkOJ]I don't care for politics. Just a bunch of people in power that abuse it, use deception, and manipulate other people/things for their own gain. Sure you can discuss current events and politics in your own spare time for entertainment values and purposes. I rather have something measurable, facts, evidence, data to support claims not biased opinions.[/quote]

Well, where do you think people get a lot of those facts, evidence, and data? From history. And even if you don't like the nature of politics, you have to admit that it does or at least will affect your life. You're gonna have to take some opinions at one point or another. Also, when I said history is needed to interpret current events and politics, I meant it in the sense that it can help you get passed the biased opinions and "deception" and to actually get to the facts and understand what is going on. If you would rather just ignore it altogether, then fine, go ahead, but that's not really being a responsible citizen or cultivation of the intellect (which are the two main points of school--to make you ready for the real world and to make you smart/intellectually curious).

Calculus

Based on my school (maybe even state) i say History only because for a while we just learn Hawaiian history.
That will never come in handy. At all.

French is mandatory for us in ontario up to grade 9

#historymajor

I don't think any pursuit of knowledge is useless.

[quote=BoredAF]P.E is not useless at all. Look at how fat the population is becoming. Schools need more P.E, less sitting on their backsides getting fat.[/quote]

Unfortunately, even if more P.E is implemented, there will still be more and more people willing to sacrifice their grade by just not participating or not getting dressed for it

[quote=MapleFacez]For all those who think history is dumb and useless, history needs to be taught so we don't make the same mistakes we did in the past.[/quote]

...
-looks left-
-looks right-
-turns on tv-
-reads local news-

nope... pretty sure history class isn't helping

Took an art history class in university. Had to memorize dates, artists and a bunch of other random crap. Forgot everything shortly after the finally exam. Definitely was the most useless class I've ever taken as a science student.

English by far.

[quote=MapleFacez]For all those who think history is dumb and useless, history needs to be taught so we don't make the same mistakes we did in the past.[/quote]

yeah I learned that from watching yugioh too

[quote=kahime]Which academic class in school do you think is the most useless? (don't say like P.E. cause yeah we know)
Tell me why you think so.
Personally I think that English class is the most useless. You can probably already tell because i'm also pretty bad with my grammar and punctuation.
1) If you wanted a future in that field and got an English degree, your life is limited to becoming things like a teacher, or a translator. THAT'S ALL I COULD THINK OF.
2) Sure English is important to develop my writing, but when i'm shoved with Hawthorne, Shakespeare, or Fitzgerald in my face, I'm required to read it, to study it, and to like it. Sorry if I don't learn a whole lot from pointlessly induced boredom.
3) You don't learn anything after 8th grade. Now all we get is an opinion of The Great Gatsby shoved down our throats with an emphasis on symbols, allusions, themes, and narration.
4) I consider English to be more of an art rather than a whole mess of analytical essays. Most writers don't write to be analyzed, they write so readers will enjoy their books.
5) It's the lack of objectivity that ruins English Literature for me. Obviously, the sciences and the maths have clear right and wrong answers, but in English it is just how difficult your teacher is. If you write an essay that is just horrible, another teacher could see it as a pot a gold.[/quote]

1. well if that's all you could have thought of, clearly you didn't take time to investigate before making this thread. seriously, that's just lazy work if you're going to claim english as a class is so useless.
2. disliking english class does not make it useless. your can apply your argument to any class, but it's a bad one.
3. if you're not learning anything, it's probably your problem more so than the teacher or the institution which people like to lay down the blame on these days.
4. many writers write to make a point. being analyzed is a given process for any novel that depicts the author's thoughts and feelings on certain problems. it would extremely boring to write a 25 page manuscript on "a critical analysis of 17th century puritan society" rather than write "the scarlet letter". analysis is an important skill because in any college setting you will be asked to interpret first person sources. it is also important in reverse since you can write professionally so that your writing can be interpreted in exactly one way.
5. yeah, and then you realize math and sciences don't always have "clear right and wrong answers" beyond the algebra level. there are a lot of mechanisms and theories just taken as givens when there is really a lot of ambiguity in the topic. also, if you go against the teacher's interpretation and fail, it's not because you went against his/her idea, but you probably just wrote a really crappy argument that grasps at straws for evidence.

Definitely history because it's all politicized BS

[quote=CowPoop]Good luck tapping into a political discussion or a discussion about current events without tapping into your knowledge of history. History is simply a different type of analysis: it's an analysis of what has happened. For example, you cannot begin to understand the current Gaza-Israel conflict without knowing the history behind it, behind the US's history of its foreign policy towards Israel and the middle east, World War II, the U.N., etc. If you think math is used everywhere to solve problems, then history is used everywhere to simply understand the problem first.[/quote]

I don't care for politics. Just a bunch of people in power that abuse it, use deception, and manipulate other people/things for their own gain. Sure you can discuss current events and politics in your own spare time for entertainment values and purposes. I rather have something measurable, facts, evidence, data to support claims not biased opinions.

All of these have uses, but I would say English is the least useful because most of the time you're just reading books that you'll probably forget about in the near future.
Also, I find some (mandatory) electives in school to be pretty useless.
Like, what's the point of taking an art/music class if I'm not going to use them in the future.

English: important because you need impeccable grammar skills later on in life. If you go into any business career, you write memos quite often. Also, some firms communicate with employees via email and you need to know how to properly address certain people. In accounting, when preparing financial statements, everything needs to be 100% correct. Bad grammar looks bad for third party users of financial information (shows carelessness and can get you fired)

Math: By far the most useful subject. You use math with everything from taking measurements to simple daily stuff like bank transactions, budgeting, end of the year personal returns, counting calories (for people concerned about their weight) and so on. Depending on your career, you may also use math for planning, forecasting, estimation, present value (once you start setting up retirement funds or taking loans, you need to know how to calculate interest especially if you don't want to overpay), inventory count, future projections, ect.

Science: If you go into a career that deals with pre med/ biology, science is by far the most important subject for you. Sustainability is also a huge aspect of business now a days and this involves environmental efficiency. For those not planning on being a doctor, you still use science in many daily stuff such as possibly eating nutritiously.

History: I find this to be the most bsable subject. If anything, history teaches you about the government. Learning about different cultures can be beneficial when dealing with international clients however, in school everything taught at least from my recollection is either ancient history or mainly about the country.

History is the most bsable out of the main four subjects. Art or music are probable the two most bs classes more so than history. Sure, both are fun, but a degree in either of the two is garbage.

English actually helps you develop your vocabulary and analytical skills.
Math, specifically calculus at high levels defines your whole environment.
Science, well it's science. We need advancements in technology.
History. There's literally nothing good about it.

i actually think all subjects are important in highschool.

[quote=iDrinkOJ]History. You never use it. History is written by the winners.
English and Math are the most useful. Math is use every where to solve problems in science, engineering, and business.[/quote]
Everybody should use history when they vote.

[quote=iDrinkOJ]History. You never use it.
English isn't useless. How can you communicate your ideas to others, analyze what is said, written, if you don't know English.
Most useful is English and math. The ability to communicate ideas, analyze data, come up with logical solutions. Math is use every where to solve problems.[/quote]

Good luck tapping into a political discussion or a discussion about current events without tapping into your knowledge of history. History is simply a different type of analysis: it's an analysis of what has happened. For example, you cannot begin to understand the current Gaza-Israel conflict without knowing the history behind it, behind the US's history of its foreign policy towards Israel and the middle east, World War II, the U.N., etc. If you think math is used everywhere to solve problems, then history is used everywhere to simply understand the problem first.

[quote=ilikefoodand]History makes sense.
It's biased so you'll learn whatever the publisher wants you to learn.[/quote]
Sometimes that's the fun of it

History. You never use it. History is written by the winners.
English and Math are the most useful. Math is use every where to solve problems in science, engineering, and business.

[quote=MapleFacez]For all those who think history is dumb and useless, history needs to be taught so we don't make the same mistakes we did in the past.[/quote]
History repeating itself? Are we in a movie or something?
OT: I'd say any English after middle school is useless. I think the 3 years of middle school novel-reading are pretty important, and we learn actual English. High school and after are useless in my opinion.
Math, I think Algebra and Geometry are necessary, and pre-calculus and calculus not so much.
I'm not sure about science, because the simple basic chemistry, biology, and physics are good to know.
History...I hate history. Just no. No.

All of those are very useful. Each one of those teaches you a different way to view the world and to analyze something. You might not see it now, but as you get older you'll be surprised at the insights people who study english/history can have. For english specifically, if your teacher is simply shoving down her opinions on you--she's just not teaching it right. It's about analyzing the text, drawing your own conclusions or hypotheses as to what the author is saying, and discussing it. Yeah the continuous talk about symbols and themes can get annoying, but it takes a lot of skill to be aware of that and draw conclusion.

I think I read a statistic recently that said over 80% of CEOs of fortune 500 companies considered themselves "voracious readers." Like history, people learn from books, they improve their vocabulary, they have the patience to analyze and discuss, and they simply become very interesting (would you rather discuss a book or math ._.--I'm a math major and even I get bored of hearing people blabber about it sometimes). These are all very important skills. I think people get caught up in the fact that it's not something you might directly use in everyday life, but it is something that cultivates other aspects of you and has a more indirect affect on your overall success. In math/sciences, the effect is more direct and applied, but that does not necessarily make it better.

As far as what jobs they can do, they can do almost anything. I've had many friends who majored in the humanities to move onto becoming bankers, consultants, lawyers, publishers, etc. There are a lot of options, and you'll find even more when you speak to your counselors and career centers in college.

Math, I'm pretty sure about 97% of you guys never used the math you learned in algebra and higher outside of math class.

[quote=MapleFacez]For all those who think history is dumb and useless, history needs to be taught so we don't make the same mistakes we did in the past.[/quote]
Yet we always seem to.

A lot of English class is pretty damn useless. The only real important stuff is learning the conventions of writing. I don't really understand how wasting the whole school year reading random short stories and "classics" like RnJ, TKaM, and The Odyssey really helped me learn anything at all. Another issue with English class is that it doesn't even really "train" your brain, challenge you, or teach you anything. In math, science, and history I am learning stuff day by day while in English I could just fall asleep during class and not miss anything important. Why do they force us to learn outdated words that nobody uses only so we can forget them 2 weeks after a spelling test. Why are we told to analyze text on the stupidest things when there isn't even anything to analyze? I feel like English teachers want us to find deeper meanings in every damn thing we read, even if there isn't a deep meaning at all. And if there is, how are we going to find it? We aren't taught what to look for in text to understand these hidden messages. I think the last time we actually learned about the conventions of writing was in like 6th grade.

For all those who think history is dumb and useless, history needs to be taught so we don't make the same mistakes we did in the past.

Well, history, to a certain degree, is the worst out of the four, because like @ilikefoodand said, it's biased. "History is written by the victors," and most of what you read about, will be the history involving your country, and nothing else until you reach World History, which still has a bias. But, learning what happened in the past isn't a bad thing, it's just what we learn about is sort of cherry picked.

You can't really call English useless though. It's my least favorite subject, as it had no obvious role in my major choices over the years: architecture, engineering, computer science (yeah, they're all math heavy, but math is my strongest subject). But a lot of what you learn in English is applicable in almost every career field. You need to write/type reports, drafts, plans, etc., in most career fields. So you're going to communicate what you're trying to say much more effectively, if you did well in your English classes. But I will concede that the more specialized English courses aren't as useful to everyone. Like creative writing is more useful to people that want to become writers, rather than a general course, but it still improves your vocabulary and writing comprehension.

Honestly High School English and Literature is basically is practicing your comprehension and analytical skills. Fortunately for your first year of college you have to take a gen. ed. writing course where you actually learn how to write like you did in middle school.
And I think health might be the most useless class. It's basically really really basic biology with a side of "don't do drugs/smoke" and "how to have sex".

I wish I could more like @plenair , she has beautiful English

History makes sense.
It's biased so you'll learn whatever the publisher wants you to learn.