should we take classes we dont need

[thekidwithalongusername]

I don't know about you but at my school (USA, all the way!) I have to take classes that I wont ever need, or care about. so my question is do you have point-less classes and if so what are they?

[under-cover]

No, not really (apart from CAS). What do you mean though? Like I have all my IB subjects and then a few frees and tutor period

[Emmi]

I'm in college/university now and have been for a bit, and I still have to take classes that don't really pertain to my major. While at the time I might hate having to take them and wish I could focus on my engineering classes instead of reading 20 pages about gentrification for geography class or write a 6 page essay for English, it's beneficial in some ways. There are so many engineers in my class (and amongst my friend circle) who cannot write a proper sentence or paper to save their lives, and having them take writing courses in addition to math, physics, engineering, programming, etc. certainly does them a huge favor in life. Also, when you get to pick your general education classes you can take things that sound interesting to you. So far, the general education courses I took were prehistoric anthropology, economic and social geography, and my second writing course was on the U.S. cultural experience, in which you could pick any topic you want and explore it all semester as long as it pertained to the U.S. in some way. I did mine on Southern U.S. stereotypes in 20th and 21st century television and got to watch trashy television shows and write essays on them (and got an A in the process )

[ternopil2]

Should we take classes we dont need? No, we shouldn't! But sometimes we have to. In my school, IB is very limited so im stuck to classes that i very much don't like. If you actually don't need to take the class, then why take it? I think school is a waste of time, even IB seems too easy on me (maybe it's just my school). I take dual enrollment in a university along with school and i personally find those classes much more interesting (because i chose them, duuh). Anyways, if you can avoid taking them without sacrificing them, then go ahead and do so!

[Captain Jeeves]

It's true that there are classes that aren't really necessary and no one really likes them, but sometimes it ends up being worth it in the end. Like PE. Literally no one at my school actually likes PE, but it does keep you healthier. In theory. I think.

I guess the moral of the story is just to suck it up and get them over with. It'll be done quicker than you think.

[eoeoeo3]

Omg, TOK is the most boring subject in this world. I literally hate it. With passion. Hate with capital H. I don't really get the point of taking classes we don't really need and what's more we won't ever need. I'd rather spend my TOK time on something more productive. But my attitude may be caused by my lovely, amazing, charming teacher (hehe, lol, nope- that's sarcasm). Besides this I'm only taking classes of my choice (ok, actually I had to choose math) so they're not boring nor pointless.

[Gaby]

Omg, TOK is the most boring subject in this world. I literally hate it. With passion. Hate with capital H. I don't really get the point of taking classes we don't really need and what's more we won't ever need. I'd rather spend my TOK time on something more productive. But my attitude may be caused by my lovely, amazing, charming teacher (hehe, lol, nope- that's sarcasm). Besides this I'm only taking classes of my choice (ok, actually I had to choose math) so they're not boring nor pointless.

If you're allowed to use your laptop in class, just download some game, or play solitaire. If you're not, do sudokus or something like that. Everyone does that, you just have to survive TOK.

[elaifyanre]

How do you know that you don't need it?

[eoeoeo3]

Omg, TOK is the most boring subject in this world. I literally hate it. With passion. Hate with capital H. I don't really get the point of taking classes we don't really need and what's more we won't ever need. I'd rather spend my TOK time on something more productive. But my attitude may be caused by my lovely, amazing, charming teacher (hehe, lol, nope- that's sarcasm). Besides this I'm only taking classes of my choice (ok, actually I had to choose math) so they're not boring nor pointless.

If you're allowed to use your laptop in class, just download some game, or play solitaire. If you're not, do sudokus or something like that. Everyone does that, you just have to survive TOK.

I'm allowed to use it and I'm watching The Real Housewives of Miami, but our teacher is... well... you know Mr. Tomasz K. (yeah, I figured out who you are after reading your... signature (?) under the post)

And ssy- well, even if I don't need it I still have to attend it

Edited November 16, 2013 by eoeoeo3

[Gaby]

Omg, TOK is the most boring subject in this world. I literally hate it. With passion. Hate with capital H. I don't really get the point of taking classes we don't really need and what's more we won't ever need. I'd rather spend my TOK time on something more productive. But my attitude may be caused by my lovely, amazing, charming teacher (hehe, lol, nope- that's sarcasm). Besides this I'm only taking classes of my choice (ok, actually I had to choose math) so they're not boring nor pointless.

If you're allowed to use your laptop in class, just download some game, or play solitaire. If you're not, do sudokus or something like that. Everyone does that, you just have to survive TOK.

I'm allowed to use it and I'm watching The Real Housewives of Miami, but our teacher is... well... you know Mr. Tomasz K. (yeah, I figured out who you are after reading your... signature (?) under the post)

And ssy- well, even if I don't need it I still have to attend it

I had Philosophy with him for a year. TOK is just a bad class, designed to mess with your brain. Just go every second time, or something.

[elaifyanre]

Omg, TOK is the most boring subject in this world. I literally hate it. With passion. Hate with capital H. I don't really get the point of taking classes we don't really need and what's more we won't ever need. I'd rather spend my TOK time on something more productive. But my attitude may be caused by my lovely, amazing, charming teacher (hehe, lol, nope- that's sarcasm). Besides this I'm only taking classes of my choice (ok, actually I had to choose math) so they're not boring nor pointless.

If you're allowed to use your laptop in class, just download some game, or play solitaire. If you're not, do sudokus or something like that. Everyone does that, you just have to survive TOK.

I'm allowed to use it and I'm watching The Real Housewives of Miami, but our teacher is... well... you know Mr. Tomasz K. (yeah, I figured out who you are after reading your... signature (?) under the post)

And ssy- well, even if I don't need it I still have to attend it

I'm starting to feel that every class has its own purpose or use (Except messing your brain up).

I don't know if that's because IB brainwashed me or what, but I feel that even TOK and English Lit are useful in some ways. It's just that universities don't care much (or do they?) about them.

That's why I said that...

[Intuition]

I ended up with English LangLit HL, Norwegian HL and Spanish AB initio SL - and I really can't stand "literature". My school only offers HL A-languages (no English SL or Norwegian SL), and regulations in Norway force me to take both Norwegian and Spanish (I have to continue the language I started on in Norway, in case I want to return after one year).

Having 2 HL "A-languages" (mainly consisting of literature) and one SL language is something I really don't need, or want.

We also have TOEFL and SAT classes for the first semester - even though we don't need them, I like them, especially the SAT.

TOK... I haven't had it yet, but I guess it depends on the teacher. If I get my advisor as teacher, Ill probably hate it as much as I hate my language subjects.

[IB*Dropout]

Well, prior to dropping the IBDP, I took so many courses that I have already taken during my previous years in high school. Our school had exactly seven courses. We had Biology, Math, Chemistry, Theory of Knowledge, History of the Americas, Spanish and English. Out of all of those courses, IB Math 11 SL would have actually been the only course that would have been a benefit to me in regards to what I would like to work toward in college, however, since I live in the United States, colleges are going to want you to finish their requirements in regards to their core-oriented courses. Those classes, therefore, would have been beneficial due to the fact that it could have potentially given something, such as CH or CC. Still, PSEOP would have given a better chance at CC. Honestly, to answer your question, I would have to say that I believe that we should take a variety of courses from primary school that would go through to the point in which you would enter the beginning of high school. After that, you should work on the courses that are geared toward what you would like to do with your life after high school. It actually almost already works in that way, however, it is not the perfect method due to the fact that many individuals change their thoughts throughout becoming an adult. Those are just a bag of my thoughts in regards to that situation.

[Garrett !?]

I don't believe students should be forced to take the nonsense classes and living in the United States there are plenty of them, like PE, government, speech, health, etc. These classes will not help in any way in the future, thus I think they're pointless and study time should be focused elsewhere as these pointless courses take up a lot of time.

[The Master]

To be honest no subject is ever useless. However, I do at times feel that TOK can be useless. One minute I find TOK kind of interesting but the next minute I find myself asking "What in the hell..." TOK is managable though I only have 2 classes a week. That also goes for Math and Physics. I really don't like either of them and I won't be studying them at University level but I have to bite the bullet on this one and score as highly as possible.

[Emmi]

I don't believe students should be forced to take the nonsense classes and living in the United States there are plenty of them, like PE, government, speech, health, etc. These classes will not help in any way in the future, thus I think they're pointless and study time should be focused elsewhere as these pointless courses take up a lot of time.

It's pointless to learn how your country's government works and learn really important pieces of legislation that have shaped the country to this day? It's pointless to have a short break in your academic studies to blow off steam which is good for mental and physical health? It's pointless to have a class that teaches you about your body and how to care for it? Okay.

[Garrett !?]

I don't believe students should be forced to take the nonsense classes and living in the United States there are plenty of them, like PE, government, speech, health, etc. These classes will not help in any way in the future, thus I think they're pointless and study time should be focused elsewhere as these pointless courses take up a lot of time.

It's pointless to learn how your country's government works and learn really important pieces of legislation that have shaped the country to this day? It's pointless to have a short break in your academic studies to blow off steam which is good for mental and physical health? It's pointless to have a class that teaches you about your body and how to care for it? Okay.

The issue is the workload classes plus the workload of your core classes, there's a reason I've taken most of them over summer school because they require too much work to thoroughly learn along with six or seven other classes. And most of the stuff you have to do is busy work, which for a hard-working student can be a lot, but since most students are just in it because the class is required, they won't do the work. Many flaws in the American public education system.

[Rigel]

I don't believe students should be forced to take the nonsense classes and living in the United States there are plenty of them, like PE, government, speech, health, etc. These classes will not help in any way in the future, thus I think they're pointless and study time should be focused elsewhere as these pointless courses take up a lot of time.

It's pointless to learn how your country's government works and learn really important pieces of legislation that have shaped the country to this day? It's pointless to have a short break in your academic studies to blow off steam which is good for mental and physical health? It's pointless to have a class that teaches you about your body and how to care for it? Okay.

The issue is the workload classes plus the workload of your core classes, there's a reason I've taken most of them over summer school because they require too much work to thoroughly learn along with six or seven other classes. And most of the stuff you have to do is busy work, which for a hard-working student can be a lot, but since most students are just in it because the class is required, they won't do the work. Many flaws in the American public education system.

So you are saying that we should only learn only what we "need to know"? So pretty much, disregard the social sciences for science majors or math/science for art majors. You then won't have a general knowledge of how your own society works, or how the world moves around; just simply what you need to know for major. This "useless knowledge" might appear to be useless (excuse me for my redundancy), but is in fact what makes us more valuable persons as we have a life outside our careers or fields of study. On the other hand, if you are on the IB (obviously time is tight), those classes could just be taken as "soft courses" in which you don't have to put much effort in order to finish the course (however, it still gives virtue of knowing something about that discipline).

[Captain Jeeves]

I actually rather like TOK. I also like philosophy in general as well, which has a lot to do with it, and my teacher is lovely so maybe I'm just lucky!

As for PE, health, and that lot, I agree with both sides of the argument. The US school system is flawed, definitely, and I often wish I could take A levels. It sounds like the main argument against them is that other people take such subjects as a joke, and that's true. It's a drag when no one else in the class is up to your level or even bothers to try, which was one of the reasons I hate my English LangLit HL class despite it being one of my favourite topics outside school.

And yet at the same time, they can be helpful in a pessimistic way. The perspective I've chosen to take on classes like PE and health is that they're training for all the times in the future where I'm going to have to put a smile on my face and BS and/or act my way through an unpalatable situation. Yes, the classes may be longer, but we've all got to do it. There are a million things I'd rather be doing but sometimes it's even nice to have a class that doesn't require the mental stamina that IB courses do. I've actually got my elective at the moment, and while it's hardly a class I'd rather not take, it's nice to have a quiet and peaceful class that doesn't require too much of me.

I don't know. That's my two cents.

[Garrett !?]

I actually rather like TOK. I also like philosophy in general as well, which has a lot to do with it, and my teacher is lovely so maybe I'm just lucky!

As for PE, health, and that lot, I agree with both sides of the argument. The US school system is flawed, definitely, and I often wish I could take A levels. It sounds like the main argument against them is that other people take such subjects as a joke, and that's true. It's a drag when no one else in the class is up to your level or even bothers to try, which was one of the reasons I hate my English LangLit HL class despite it being one of my favourite topics outside school.

And yet at the same time, they can be helpful in a pessimistic way. The perspective I've chosen to take on classes like PE and health is that they're training for all the times in the future where I'm going to have to put a smile on my face and BS and/or act my way through an unpalatable situation. Yes, the classes may be longer, but we've all got to do it. There are a million things I'd rather be doing but sometimes it's even nice to have a class that doesn't require the mental stamina that IB courses do. I've actually got my elective at the moment, and while it's hardly a class I'd rather not take, it's nice to have a quiet and peaceful class that doesn't require too much of me.

I don't know. That's my two cents.

Definite pluses here, and my issue with these classes is that you can't choose to take them; they are just forced upon you. So for IB students you have to take the time out of your Summer because there isn't enough room in your schedule to fit these classes. And then you're in these classes with mainly kids who already took the class, but couldn't even pass the first time around.