You learned that in school!?

Yeah, now that you mention it, I did have dance in music class in Junior High. I had to jitter bug with this real geek - his hand was sweaty and he wore glasses, was tall and skinney with this geeky "heh, heh" laugh. For all I know now he is some hot late bloomer.

Am I the only one who learned how to forge a signature?

i had friends that got pretty good at it

The dance classes ended up being all female. I think the boys were skeered. So I also know how to lead.

'course the teachers didn't teach me how...but I did learn it for school.

yep it was mostly girls too. You had a choice for music either band or drama/dance. Unfortunately for the boys, the band class filled quick and most of the geeks or the few boys who liked drama got stuck in the drama/dance side of things. Or maybe the geeks were smart - and realized this would lead to their one opportunity to dance with a girl.

As others have said, typing is by far the most useful thing I learned in school. We learned on typewriters with blank keys. Was that typical for the rest of you? It made it tough, but we learned to touch type faster, I think, since there was no point in looking at the keys.

Home Ec and Shop were offered in junior high and high school, but I didn't take them.

I did take music and speech in junior high. In high school, I took journalism, driver's ed, and lots of speech classes. Radio, TV, "play production", acting. I preferred the technical side - props, make-up, costumes, lights, sound, scenery - but did a little acting too. I went on to get a degree in theater and worked for 20 years as a stage manager, and lots of what I learned in school (and in college and at the community theater) was helpful. I never took a stage management course, because none were offered. Now you could get a master's in it.

No we didn't have blank keys, but we got in trouble if we looked at the keys while typing.

I took typing because I knew that I would need the skill for research papers and other reports. It saved me tons of time. And in college I made money typing papers and even going to the computer room and typing in computer programs for other students. Sometimes they paid in beer too (bonus)!

Ah, speech. I forgot about that one, but yeah, we were required to take speech. Couldn't graduate without it. We also had to take a class on policy making and project management, or something like that (not much of it stuck with me, unfortunately). We talked about how to get a project off the ground, starting with funding, sponsors, etc.

A friend of mine tells me she took an environmental conservation class where, in addition to learning how to plant and grow stuff, she learned how to use a bulldozer. I'm not sure what a bulldozer was doing in a conservation class, but I guess that would be a neat skill to have.

I took an environmental studies class in high school - we got to visit the waste treatment plant - nice.

When I was young, girls learned COOKERY

Ten years on, they learned DOMESTIC SCIENCE

Later, it was HOME ECONOMICS

God alone knows what they call cookery now.

secrete sinning bubble fluffs do-dad do-dad

That's what I remember from typing class because that practice line fits the rhythm of "Camptown Ladies" perfectly.

Now they teach "keyboarding".

I didn't mean to slight reading and writing. I excluded them because really none of us would be communicating without each other if that weren't a skill we put into practice.

Same with math. Everybody uses basic math all the time.

I've really been enjoying reading this thread. It's amazing the amount of practical knowledge we picked up in school.

Dancing would have been hilarious at my school! We were grubby little monsters of the grab on and sway sort.

i assume they have to learn how to order take-out and how to heat frozen dinners



anyone know why one needs a cookbook for it ?

I think I went to a pretty amazing publice school. I feel I got the opportunity to do a lot of things that I don't see my own children doing - or the children I've taught doing in the schools I've taught in.
I think it might be because funding for music and the arts has been cut in more recent years.
I already knew how to cook and sew by the time I got to junior high, because my mother and grandmother taught me, but we also did those things in school.
I learned how to play the violin- my school provided the instrument, a teacher and an orchestra to play in.
I learned how to throw pots on a wheel.
I learned how to set a loom
I learned how to develop my own film
I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow and fence in gym class.
I learned how to drive - we had a driving course on the school property.

We had history courses that covered ancient through medieval and up to modern history or current American issues including seminars on gender and sexuality and the vietnam war.
There were an amazing array of humanities and literature courses to choose from , as well as psychology- sociology, etc.
The more I think about it - the more I realize what a stimulating place my highschool was- and unfortunately- what a rarity a school such as the one I went to has become, as kids are molded to fit a set curriculum with the primary aim being a set percentage of the student body passing standardized tests..

I also learned about publice
as well as the mute e at the end of the syllable rule which makes the vowel long - so I know that if I misplaced the unnecessary e at the end of the first syllable instead of at the end of the second I'd have created another new word:
pubelic(k).

I learned all sorts of ways to amuse myself in school.
My friend and I used to have contests in which we'd write poems and every word had to start with the same letter - you should have read my 'S' poem.

My Jr High science teacher smoked a cigarette in front of the class, then exhaled the smoke into a white handkerchief, which in turn produced a dark brown circle each time he did it. He wanted to show us what smoking did to the inside of our lungs, and because it was a science experiment, he never got in trouble for it.

Photography, Using the darkroom was .... educational. So was Sally and Jen and Maureen and..... That wonderful red light meant you could not be disturbed.

Geography, now called SOSE (studies of society and environment) taught me about the world around us, both Australia and a overseas which was important in a small rural school.

Art/metal was interesting. I'd like to do some more jewelry work one day. Pewter, casting, enamled copper, fabrication Although i would probably stick to casting natural objects, like dragonflys and insects.

Most of the stuff i have found essential I taught myself over the years.

Hey, yeah, I learnt black and white photography at school. Sadly it wasn't co-ed so nothing developed....

Boom Boom

COLORBOOK! I suppose you're going to tell us why you've been missing, lo these past several years.