Oftentimes while in college classes, it can sometimes feel like the focus is on teaching the students many worthless things. You probably find yourself thinking to yourself “Why are they teaching me these things? When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” Well, the odds are that you will never have to use the majority of those things after you get your degree. This effectively makes most of what the teach you in college worthless. Below are ten of the most worthless, expensive, and time-consuming things professors teach you in college.
Yes, we’ve all been there: sitting in an algebra class listening to the professor talk about whatever it is they’re attempting to teach you (you have no idea since you probably zoned out a while ago). Algebra truly is one of the most worthless things you can learn during your time in college. Is it important to learn about basic math? Yes. However, is it really important to learn about higher mathematics like trigonometry or algebra? Not really. College graduates almost never have to use the things they learn in algebra class in the real world. It’s just another thing you have to go through to get your degree, unfortunately.
English majors have to put up with a lot of ridiculous classes where they learn a lot of worthless things (English major here). Perhaps one of the most notorious of these is APA format, which is a way to cite outside resources in your essays. You just don’t have to know how to do it after you finish with college. Usually, when you’re writing a memo to your boss that includes someone else’s words, you’ll mention them for sure, but will you be required to use APA? In most cases, no, never. People, unless they’re researchers, just don’t care enough for the extremely technical aspects of citation.
Ah, another of the top worthless things you’re taught in college. Ask yourself, “Does anyone care what I think about this novel? Will anyone even read this or know it exists?” No, they will not. It honestly seems like the only thing traditional literature classes accomplish is instilling in those who take them a severe dislike of what they’re learning. The prevalence of dissecting Shakespeare plays in both high school and college (and the snobbish behavior of those who teach them) is probably one of the reasons why everyday people don’t like them very much. Again, the skills you learn in classes such as these will almost never aid you outside of the classroom.
Right, let’s get this clear: being able to read is extremely important for everyone to know how to do, but spelling is increasingly considered one of the more worthless things to learn. Not that it’s not important to know, it is, but it’s becoming unnecessary. You probably text a lot per day, right? Have you noticed how the words you write, if they’re not spelled correctly, will just switch to the proper spelling? Why learn to spell when your phone will just do it for you? Even when the auto-correct function fails to find the word you want, all you have to do is speak it into your phone and the Siri will find the right spelling for you.
Electives are something that every college student has had to take at one point or another. Many students are annoyed that they have to take these classes where they learn ‘worthless things’ which teach them nothing about the field they are interested in. Students can usually pick what electives they want to do, but even the most interesting classes are really expensive and only add to the already huge debt that many students are stuck with. As with all college classes, they’re also time-consuming, but many students can’t help thinking that their time could be better spent studying for the important classes or taking a much needed break.
Alright, does it really matter where the exact locations of countries you’ll probably never visit are? Why should students care what the GNP of such and such country is? These classes are full of worthless things that will never in a million years help you get a job. If you really needed to know facts about a country, all you have to do is google it or check Wikipedia (which is outlawed in the classroom for some reason). The good thing about modern technology is that it is making an extraordinary amount of information available to pretty much everyone. This makes it so that things which you used to only be able to learn in a classroom is now readily available online.
Does anyone really remember what they learned in psychology class? Just seems like a lot of worthless things, which aren’t even very interesting. “Hey there, student #406! Are you interested in hearing about what some psychologist from the 70’s found regarding the number of times you blink per day?” Uh, no, not at all. None of this stuff will ever actually help you after you finally get your degree. Imagine being in an interview and your potential employer asking you what some tiny part of your brain does and why it’s important. It just doesn’t happen.
Glorified gym class. That’s all it is. This may be the absolute pinnacle of classes that only ‘teach’ you worthless things. Are you required to run laps on the track outside? Well, all you’re doing is running in circles really fast. Yeah, that’ll come in real handy. Do they encourage you to eat healthy and drink lots of water because it’ll put you in good shape? As if you didn’t already know that. There is definitely not a single thing in PE class that will really help you in life. It seems to only be an excuse, albeit a pricey one, to go outdoors for a bit and get some exercise.
Another type of class where they only teach you worthless things are ‘appreciation’ classes. How is teaching the students to appreciate something going to assist them in life? Take Jazz Appreciation as an example. All the students do is sit in class every day and listen to jazz. It may sound a little fun, but your smile will probably disappear when you remember that you’re paying to, in effect, do nothing and learn nothing. The best you can really hope for by taking this class is to maybe have an easy class but, again, you’re wasting your time and money.
Don’t waste your time with art history classes. When you’re sitting there gazing profoundly up at a van Gogh, ask yourself “Is this really helping me? What practical skills am I learning as I gaze profoundly up at this, admittedly, beautiful painting?” Not much. Practically nothing, actually, if we’re being honest. The only job where the information you learn in this class is useful is with curatorial jobs, which are probably pretty rare. There’s always the option that you can get a position at a museum where you sit in the corner and look at the paintings, though.
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