I was looking at some industrial science books and came across one on drafting for machine design. It reminded me of the drafting class I had in 8th grade, and how so much of what I learned I still use today: the drafting skills, but maybe more importantly that it taught me how to see. At the time I had no idea it would have such enduring value, but looking back, I think it was the best class I ever took. How about you? Any classes like that in your youth?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2023 08:41PM by lost in space.

The various science classes I took, Biology, Advanced Biology, and Physiology/Anatomy, have served me well over the years.

The high school I went to also offered an Upholstery class, and several times since high school I've wished that I had taken it.

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WARNING- If I posted a link in the above message, assume it is at minimum "NSFW- Language". Occasionally you'll be wrong.

Lie to me if you must, but don't lie to me and insult my intelligence in the same sentence.

Resist the Thought Police: George Orwell's book 1984 was meant as a warning, not an instruction manual.

"Political correctness is just intellectual colonialism and psychological fascism for the creation of thought crime" - Steve Hughes

What's my "Super Power"? I can make active threads go stone-dead with a single post. I try to use this power only for good and not for evil but, you know... stuff happens.

I'd say Typing was the most useful overall.

Though being able to communicate with a Mexican boyfriend in the 1990s made me very happy to have paid attention in Spanish.

That is a real tough choice.

Spanish
Wood Shop
Metal Shop
Home Ec
Drafting

All have come in handy. My kid will get only one of those and even then less than half of what I got. But that's the difference between a rich and far less rich school district.

Don't know if I could narrow it down to just one - I had many great teachers during my K-12 years, and much of what I learned during that time has been continually useful to me for decades.

If I did have to select one subject, I suppose the various writing/composition courses I took during highschool and Freshman year at College would top the list - being able to intelligently express myself both in writing and verbally has been a daily aspect of my life for pretty much the entire time from then until now, and I think it gave me a step-up from the vast majority of my peer Engineers. If you can't articulate your thoughts, how can you communicate with your team members and coworkers?

The one with the seat next to Susan Groh.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2023 10:18PM by Steve G..

Typing - the most practical class

That Critical Race Theory class taught by Silicone Sister Margaret Mary.

Most all of them.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

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Lew Zealand
That is a real tough choice.

Spanish
Wood Shop
Metal Shop
Home Ec
Drafting

All have come in handy. My kid will get only one of those and even then less than half of what I got. But that's the difference between a rich and far less rich school district.

I had the same all in Jr. High. In my area it's not been between economic class, they phased out that system in favor of more "academics" and it's been quite shortsighted in hindsight. there is a dearth of kids going into trades and just simply knowing how to swing a hammer or sew (ok, I still really can't sew) or know how to make pasta.

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Hurts like a bastid...

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vicrock
Typing - the most practical class

This. Without a doubt, I use what I learned in this class FAR more frequently than any other.

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It is what it is.

I needed all of my English classes, but the skill I would not have learned without the class was mechanical drawing. I have used it throughout my life. I love my science classes, and taking typing was invaluable to me. I would not have needed much of my high school math education.

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N-OS X-tasy!

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vicrock
Typing - the most practical class

This. Without a doubt, I use what I learned in this class FAR more frequently than any other.

Also band, though I don't even remember if it was actually a class.

Typing... it's not even close.

In a way, the steadfast resistance of the school I used to work for to actually teach typing is one of the reasons I decided to hang up my "School IT Guy" hat... I felt like after 20 years of tilting at the "actually teach them how to use technology" windmill had been useless.

I use my typing skills every single day... and I hated every minute of that class in Jr. High... and I STILL thank my mom for forcing me to take that class!

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

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Paul F.
I use my typing skills every single day... and I hated every minute of that class in Jr. High... and I STILL thank my mom for forcing me to take that class!

Same here. I type every single day - far more frequently than anything else I learned in school.

Unlike you, I took typing voluntarily, in my junior year of HS. I knew I would need to type papers in college and wanted to be prepared. Of course, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be typing them on a computer instead of a typewriter!

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It is what it is.

Biology. Required, but that was the class where the "light turned on" for me for a subject I could enjoy and also excel at.

I may have actually enjoyed that class if I'd waited a year... They replaced the MANUAL typewriters we used with "new" ELECTRIC typewriters!

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N-OS X-tasy!

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Paul F.
I use my typing skills every single day... and I hated every minute of that class in Jr. High... and I STILL thank my mom for forcing me to take that class!

Same here. I type every single day - far more frequently than anything else I learned in school.

Unlike you, I took typing voluntarily, in my junior year of HS. I knew I would need to type papers in college and wanted to be prepared. Of course, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be typing them on a computer instead of a typewriter!

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

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Eureka, CA

Typing and Woodshop.

I hated doing math, so I ended up taking lots of science classes, featuring...Math.

HS was basically a holding tank for me. I hated it. I had a couple of cool teachers who sent me to the library, then had me write up a report. But I did enjoy me Biology, Anatomy. My Computer Science teacher taught us BASIC. and Electric Desk on the TRS 80s. Taught us some basic statistics as well.

I really enjoyed my Home Economics class. I really think that should be a requirement to graduate HS.
Include basic cooking and budgeting!

Unfortunately, I was really good at taking tests, so the administration steered me away the wood working classes I wanted to take. Some HS in my side of town include Electrical and Auto Body! A good number of them went on to be business owners.

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
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Macrame

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Steve G.
The one with the seat next to Susan Groh.

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Paul F.
I may have actually enjoyed that class if I'd waited a year... They replaced the MANUAL typewriters we used with "new" ELECTRIC typewriters!

We used manual typewriters, too. I can't say I ever enjoyed being in the class, but I was eager to learn.

Plus, Debbie Mendoza was in that class. Yowza. The prettiest freshman girl in school -- she could have easily passed for a junior.

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It is what it is.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2023 01:12AM by N-OS X-tasy!.

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vicrock
Typing - the most practical class

I wish I could claim this but I cheated in typing class and looked at my fingers, even though I was in the front row. Still need to fingerpeek to type dagnabbit!

Don't cheat in typing class, kids!

Typing definitely. Summer school. 2 typing classes. My mother forced me to take them, but I enjoyed it.

Furniture Making three years of it in high school, several hours a day 5 days a week.

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Grateful11

.....I believe they stopped teaching typing in schools, so the younger generations doesn't know how to touch type.....

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_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Typewriting I in high school

I was one of maybe 2 or 3 males in the class

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My high school was small and didn't offer a lot. Girls weren't allow to take shop and college prep courses were not college level at all. A few AP classes mostly languages (not my forte) Art classes were a joke - art history was learning the titles and painters of 100 images. If I had needed a portfolio of work to apply for college I would have been dead in the water. And don't talk about sports - Title Nine kicked in my senior year. I was woefully unprepared for college but at least I got to choose my classes according to my interests.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2023 07:38AM by Lizabeth.

Sister Mary's English class has served me very well over the years.

Typing - the most practical class

I wish I could claim this but I cheated in typing class and looked at my fingers, even though I was in the front row. Still need to fingerpeek to type dagnabbit!

Yeah, me too. I can still type pretty quickly even looking, but I could never compete with a real typist.

1: typing(never would have guessed it at the time)
2: drafting
3: physics
4: everything else was icing,

I didn’t realize how good my education was until I met my wife and we talked about our early school experiences. She’s a teacher and loves talking shop. She tells me about some “cutting edge” technique they’re using that’s been tested since the 80s and shown to work really well. Apparently my school district was where most of it was tested.

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

Drafting and Journalism. One set me up for a successful career and the other I have used numerous times. I considered architecture for a career but my math was nowhere near strong enough.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

Seems like a theme going here.
I have to go with drafting as well followed closely by physics.

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Athens, OH

Band/Orchestra.

I wish that I had been able to take metal/auto/wood shop classes (conflicted with Band/Orch. and other college prep.), it might have shown me that I didn't need to go to a state college/university. My high school didn't have a drafting class AFAIK.

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

Biology. I had a wonderful teacher. He was one of those "tough but fair" guys that no one tried to pull anything on. A very good teacher and a good friend to my mom, who was the high school librarian. He reached out and sent a letter of condolence after my brother died last year.

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My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals

Spanish.

Wish we had had Home Ec in junior high or high school.

Also wish I had switched majors to physics in college so I could have had the metal shop class.

Typing class in junior high was a bad joke.

Creaky, manual typewriters which required a ridiculous amount of force to operate when by that time everyone in the real world were using electric models.

I noticed the foreign born kids in college would beat computer keyboards in the classroom to death & presumed it was because they also learned on cr@ppy manual typewriters.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2023 09:39AM by Bill in NC.

Lunch

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Study hall. I read soooo many books.

Wood shop here too (and metal, and basic electrical). If nothing else, taking shop got me using tools and giving me an I can do this/make things mentality that has stuck with me (for better and worse) for 50 years. I felt kinda bad that at my kid's high school there was literally no time to do so for them because of the academics (tho some of my DIY attitude rubbed off on them.)

I aslo tooke typnig.

That didn't stick. At all.

I enjoyed taking a "pre-engineering" class. Basically wood shop with a Rube Goldberg challenge at the end. I already had a lot of experience in DIY by helping my Dad with nearly every house project to date, so I had a leg up where a lot of kids were just getting started.

It really worked out as the teacher recommended me for a computer repair training course which absolutely influenced the direction of my career.

Also, CAD class was fun.

We had Leadership classes taught by retired military instructors. Far and away those were the most useful, memorable, and life changing courses I took in high school. The lessons and values from those classes helped build a foundation of life skills that serve me well to this day.

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C(-)ris
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C(-)ris
We had Leadership classes taught by retired military instructors. Far and away those were the most useful, memorable, and life changing courses I took in high school. The lessons and values from those classes helped build a foundation of life skills that serve me well to this day.

Ooh, I would like to have done that.

OTOH, the one experience I did have with the military while in school (i.e. application to the USAFA) was a complete fustercluck, all on their end.

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It is what it is.

1. Auto shop (I still use skills learned in here frequently)
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Trigonometry
5. Typing (I can still touch-type very quickly. The machines we learned on were manual (non-electric) and had no letters on the keys)

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

Trig is the one I got the most use out of, seventh-grade Shop class has served me well ever since, and I had a good creative writing teacher my junior year. Other than that I honestly can't think of a really useful class I had in grade school. Almost all of them turned out to be either not relevant to my adult career/life or a waste of time (heavily tilted towards the latter).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2023 03:24PM by Will Collier.

Study Hall