What were the most useful things that you learned at school?

[Chestnut]

How to grit my teeth and knuckle down and put my effort into something I don’t want to do.(our school gave separate marks for effort and achievement, so AD was forgiveable when you got home but DA was not!)

[Can the Man]

I suppose maths, reading and science especially chemistry

[Greenleaves]

Although I was constantly in trouble, I did enjoy geography and biology. Learnt a few other things that weren't on the curriculum too

[Thelma Sanders]

No problem Thelma - I have a BSc in maths we'll start with algebra - quadratic equations perhaps and I'll send you a few problems to work through - then gradually we'll work our way up to calculus - be a real hoot I assure you :-)

Hahahahaha - I'll pass, thanks for the offer though
In my late 30s I did the Open University foundation course in Technology and during the week I spent away (at Bath Uni) I still couldn't 'get' calculus, despite several staff members and mates trying different approaches, and was eventually told that I didn't have to understand how it worked! just to apply the necessary steps to DO it LOL. That's not how my mind works, somehow
Luckily I still manged to pass. Phew!
Strange, you may think - but I've never/ever actually needed to use it so it's long gone from my memory, along with how to calculate the distance to the sun. They were good times, though

[AntC]

How to feed calves from a bucket.

[nickdub]

Hahahahaha - I'll pass, thanks for the offer though
In my late 30s I did the Open University foundation course in Technology and during the week I spent away (at Bath Uni) I still couldn't 'get' calculus, despite several staff members and mates trying different approaches, and was eventually told that I didn't have to understand how it worked! just to apply the necessary steps to DO it LOL. That's not how my mind works, somehow
Luckily I still manged to pass. Phew!
Strange, you may think - but I've never/ever actually needed to use it so it's long gone from my memory, along with how to calculate the distance to the sun. They were good times, though

Oddly enough I did an OU degree too, mostly in Arts to top off myself after the maths and I also did a week at Bath - as it happened it was contemporaneous with 5th Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1981 - so I spent most of the time the glued to my radio :-)

Calculus is an odd subject conceptually - I didn't understand it myself, until as a post grad I studied the history of math and realised how people had thought of it in the first place - which is in essence quite simple - say you take a circle and ask "how do we work out the area inside it ?" (no cheating by using π (radius)2 - we are trying to prove that is right)

OK first draw your circle - then draw an equilateral triangle inside, vertices on the circle and another outside sides touching the circle - its obvious that the area of the circle is less than that of the big triangle and greater than the smaller one, do the same again with a square inside + outside, then a pentagon etc adding another side to the inner and outer regular polygon each time - it will become obvious that area of the circle is being limited to smaller margins each time the number if sides goes up by one.

OK here comes the calculus part :- if we now imagine that the smaller and larger limiting regular polygons increase the number of their sides towards infinity then they both will become nearer to being a circle themselves, and their areas will be the same +/- a smidge as our original circle - ie mathematically we have two series tending to the same limit (the circle's area) the inner polygon's greatest upper bound and the outer one its least lower bound and they are both the same number -
that is integral calculus in essence and was more or less the method Archimedes used to find out what the formula was for calculating the volume of a barrel say.

Next week probability theory for professional card players :-)

or if you'd rather do differential calculus, we'll look at Newton working out what the formula for gravity ought to be :-)

[Nicos]

Biology and geography/geology were my main subjects too. The geography aspect became my hobby/interest and biology my career.
But I also did maths A level. Nuts I know, but it's amazing how useful the basics have been when needing to calculate stuff for renovating this old house.

Other things from school....hated sitting still and loved physical activities...realised that I should only sing in the bath (or car if travelling alone)...
The French I learned (the chalk is on the blackboard, the pencil is on the desk type stuff) most certainly didn't prepare me for living over here
Latin certainly helped with biology.
As I attended an all girls school I was permanently put off preening myself and preferred a tom boy existence!
Looking back, yes, school certainly had both a positive and negative influence on my road to self discovery
Rebel? Moi?

[bikermike]

How to think and how to learn. everything else flows from that.

Oh and rugby, beer, smoking roll-ups, and the ability to tie a tie when horribly hung-over

[Snadger]

Geometry and trigonometry were my favourite subjects and surprisingly were the most useful to me in my later working life
I hated History at school, but now I love reading historical novels and local history is one of my passions.

[Snoop Puss]

My mum taught me to read when I was really ill and she didn't know how to keep me occupied. So the first useful thing I learnt how to do at school was multiplying and long division. They've been useful ever since.

Languages have been useful. And I developed a lay-person's interest in physics, biology, chemistry and tech.

Perhaps the best thing I learned was humility. Doesn't matter how clever or good at a subject you think you are, somewhere there is someone better than you. Unless of course you're really exceptional. Which I'm not!

[MyWifesBrassicas]

My biggest lesson, which came as a huge shock, was to work out who to trust and who to completely avoid and how mean kids really upset me at the time.
Think I was a very naive child, others took advantage of that, however I only let them get away with it once I still hold grudges to this day
I also learn't some kids were nice too

[Scarlet]

Biology /the arts and Maths for me....Art has been a big part of my life, all my jobs have been designer based. I don't work now but some of my hobby's can be technical and I'm always having to use the odd Maths calculations.

[1Bee]

I learned how to construct a sentence (and I don't mean grammatically, but persuasively) and that words have meaning but also inference and mood.

I learned how to make a coherent argument and back it up with evidence. I learned to dig deeper into sources and to question their bias. I learned that history is written by the victors, and to question what we've learned.

I learned a lot about landscape and history, and about biology and plants, that I'm still using every day.

I learned that bullies are fearful, wounded people, deserving of sympathy and that it's surprisingly easy for 'good' people to turn into bullies. I learned that I can't regret being bullied when it made me who I am, that some of the empathy and tools it gave me have empowered me to be a better mother.

I learned how to learn, reason, listen, persuade.

I learned how to be myself.

[1Bee]

But I have to say, most of the practical stuff school taught me - how to wire a plug, read, construct things from wood and metal and plastic, grow things, measure things, cook things.... my parents had already taught me.

And my Dad taught me how to make compost, which trumps the lot.

[ESBkevin]

I have taken a couple of things from my formal education (other than a fistfull of certificates that I've never had to produce since).
Firstly how to learn, be that reading or comprehension or listening to the question/problem.
Secondly, your certificates will open doors, but you'd better be able to fight your way beyond them if you want to progress. Progression is what life is about irrespective of the direction that progress takes.

Sometimes it's better to be the big fish in a small pond, sometimes the little fish in the ocean, but give yourself all the opportunities forst, then decide. You have to use the system thats there not the one you would like to be there.

I rarely use my skool edukayshun on a daily basis but recognise that learning to learn was the real winner.

Phew, thats heavy for a Friday!