Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RDR » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:52 pm

rabmania wrote:
RDR wrote:Believe it or not we got taught Archery in 4th year. Always thought it was an odd choice for a bunch of folk from a Glasgow scheme. I'm sure some of the guys used in a practical way outside of school........


Am being a pedant here, but surely by definition archery isn't pointless, unless the arrows had them wee sucker things at the front?


They certainly had points on the arrows. Might had been safer if they had been pointless...
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby moonbeam » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:13 pm

Latin a dead language. Goodness knows why. Was rubbish at it. Got told that all modern European languages derived from, latin thus if us blockheads learnt latin French/ Spanish/German would be easy. Never got to do any of them. Did tech drawing. Enjoyed it better than Latin!
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby moonbeam » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:49 pm

Reading the other posts. Yes I left school with a couple of "O" grades Then an apprenticeship 3- 4 nights a week at night school for 5 years. J1,J2, S1,S2,S3 . S3 was ONC. Then day release to college another 2 years. Got into uni. Did 3 years-got into second year-yippee!. Seemed to spend my entire life till 28 years studying but got their in the end. I as some have pointed out was virtually on the scrap heap at 17 but my dad got me a good apprenticeship-5 years in my day. Damned hard work. Starting work at 8am then straight into Glasgow for 7pm to 9.30pm night class at Stow. Some of us "senior" apprentices we were really tradesmen by this time but the company dangled the vision of "glory" and higher pay if you got an HNC. As I had my ONC and at college apprentices had to work Saturday mornings if we had day release. That happened to me when I got to do my HNC at college. Was this common in engineering works in the Glasgow area in the mid 1960s? It seemed to be if you got 1 day a week of for college the company expected a 1/2 day Saturday in return. I had a feeling that there were tax incentives for company's to send people on day release to college. Is that correct? Any body know? Scottish education the old days. God it was hard and lots of lads and lassies fell by the wayside. I know this is off subject but reading the posts others have followed a similar path as mine. Night class's at Allan Glens then Stow College.
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby Doorstop » Fri Oct 10, 2014 2:16 am

I was a bit later than the 60's, but did block release at Anniesland for my ONC and at Stow for my HND during the 80's. One week out of four and no obligatory overtime back on the tools or the D.O. {depending on where you were at the time} to make up for it.
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RDR » Fri Oct 10, 2014 5:35 pm

I did my ONC at Stow and HNC at the then Glasgow Tech. Night school at both and day release and did have to work Saturday mornings. You also got fired if you failed your exams more than once...
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby moonbeam » Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:29 pm

Yes ONC at Stow. Then HNC on day release but had to do extra maths at night as I thought I had a chance to get to uni. A long day 9am to 9.30pm. Talked to other old boys and those that did the 5 year apprenticeships seemed to have to work 1/2 day on Saturday. I did 8am to 12 noon. But it does seem to have been more common in engineering or electrical engineering, as I did, works that made you work on Saturday mornings. We used to get our "bus" fares to college reimbursed! I recall my tram car fare was 6d single to Stow. "Normal School" was the stop I used. For day release 1 shilling a week on a petty cash slip! Payable one week in arrears as the college notified the work if I did to turn up. Yes if you failed twice -oot the door! A few did. Seemed to be 3 compulsory classes with 1 extra ie maths, tech drawing, etc-but these extras were "non-compulsory"
there was a term used "non endorsable?" to describe them which I cant recall but if you wanted to get to uni or membership of the institute you had to have them and they had to be on the "wee" slip of paper that came through the post in early August with your results. I still have them some where! ticks for pass cross for fail. Got 4 ticks in first year of HNC! Got a "wee" bonus from the work for that 10 shillings!! Then when I passed by HNC got a £1! They offered a pay rise to I think about £11-5s or thereabouts. When I started as an apprentice got £2.5s a week! Each year you went up a £1 a week plus 2/6d if you passed your exams.
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RapidAssistant » Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:05 am

moonbeam wrote:Latin a dead language. Goodness knows why. Was rubbish at it. Got told that all modern European languages derived from, latin thus if us blockheads learnt latin French/ Spanish/German would be easy. Never got to do any of them. Did tech drawing. Enjoyed it better than Latin!


Law and medicine are probably the only two professional careers where a grounding in Latin and classical history are relevant. Outside of that it's just padding up a timetable for the hell of it, something that the educational system is really good at. Much as though I'm a proud Scot to have a separate educational system from the rest of the UK; there is a lot to be said about the English A-levels - instead of kids being made to do four, five or even six Highers (potentially badly) as you are in Scotland, why not focus on just the two or three subjects which are directly relevant to your chosen career or university course, and devote your time to do them really well. Seems a no brainer to me.
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RDR » Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:33 pm

RapidAssistant wrote:
moonbeam wrote:Latin a dead language. Goodness knows why. Was rubbish at it. Got told that all modern European languages derived from, latin thus if us blockheads learnt latin French/ Spanish/German would be easy. Never got to do any of them. Did tech drawing. Enjoyed it better than Latin!


Law and medicine are probably the only two professional careers where a grounding in Latin and classical history are relevant. Outside of that it's just padding up a timetable for the hell of it, something that the educational system is really good at. Much as though I'm a proud Scot to have a separate educational system from the rest of the UK; there is a lot to be said about the English A-levels - instead of kids being made to do four, five or even six Highers (potentially badly) as you are in Scotland, why not focus on just the two or three subjects which are directly relevant to your chosen career or university course, and devote your time to do them really well. Seems a no brainer to me.


Don't know about Law but Latin stopped being a requirement for medics sometime ago. A lot of the older ones have a fair splattering of it and some of the terms are still in use nocte for night I think and TID and QID short for three and four times a day on prescriptions.
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby motman » Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:14 pm

I wasn't really into PT as a 7 stone weakling, even more so rugby. We were taught by a baldy heided ex-Army instructor whose room was a smoke filled den. The dancing classes in the run up to the school dance was another thing :D . At 13 you had to be dragged across the gym hall after the 'Gentlemen, take you partners': funnily enough at 17 you couldn't see us for the dust after the word 'Gentlemen.......'
Haven't done any Highland dancing for 40 years, but I still remember the steps.
Now..... what ever happened to yon wee lassie? :wink:
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby Roxburgh » Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:47 am

Religious Instruction .... what a load of bollox.
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RapidAssistant » Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:34 am

Roxburgh wrote:Religious Instruction .... what a load of bollox.


Oh aye - I've got a massive chip on my shoulder on that one as well. At primary school there used to be a church service before Christmas, Easter and before the October and Summer holidays. There had to be a hymn practice staged in the assembly hall a week before, and of course our art, our once weekly session with the BBC Micro (showing my age now!), or gym lesson was always the thing that got cancelled to make way for it.....never Maths or English of course.... :evil: :evil:

I think it was then I made my mind up even then, that we should be living in a secular state ::):
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby moonbeam » Thu Oct 30, 2014 12:14 pm

Aye forgot about RE or Religious Instruction. We were "supposed" to have one period a week but
in secondary it was usually taken by an English teacher and you learnt English! Yes I recall
doing rugby instead of PE-last period on a Monday-in first year. PE teacher fixed up a game
against a fee paying school at Scotstoun-cant remember who-but we got thumped around 65-0. I think
they only played 30 minutes each half. Brutal stuff!
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RapidAssistant » Thu Oct 30, 2014 1:21 pm

moonbeam wrote:Yes I recall
doing rugby instead of PE-last period on a Monday-in first year. PE teacher fixed up a game
against a fee paying school at Scotstoun-cant remember who-but we got thumped around 65-0. I think
they only played 30 minutes each half. Brutal stuff!


Well we got football 10 weeks a year in 1st/2nd year PE, compared to 5 weeks for all other activities, and if you are like me you were the 0.01% of the male east end Glaswegian population who was absolutely hopeless at football, and detested both it and everything to do with it - life was an absolute nightmare. From the brutal PE teachers who just made your life harder out of spite, to being bullied by not being "one of the boys" .....sorry I'll take back what I said right at the top of this thread. PE trumped even Higher English as my most hated subject.......
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby RDR » Sat Nov 01, 2014 10:19 am

I was convinced, in the early 70's at school that most PE teachers, were actually sadists, who were escaped Nazis, who had assumed new identities and continued with their sadistic methods. They delighted on picking on the weak and those who, shall we say, weren't the brightest. Another thing was why did all the female PE teachers look like men and have moustaches?
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Re: Your most pointless subject at school was.....?

Postby moonbeam » Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:38 pm

The PE teachers were ex army guys. So many press-ups. Then climbing ropes. It was brutal and quite a few tubby lads were hopeless. Then for four weeks we got a nice young lady, really pretty the guys were all in love until-she was better at football, better at press ups better at everything and then she got us to play netball against the lassies The lassies won. We thought her dad was the head prison warder at the Bar L. She did not have a moustache. For me PE was a pointless experience.
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