Favourite/non favourite school subjects.

I enjoyed English, Biology and History. I have Secondary School to thank for my love of history, as I had no interest in the subject beforehand, but at Secondary School I was lucky enough to fall under the spell of a very inspirational history teacher (a Mr Petter) who had a wonderful way of making history come alive through his deliberate use of anachronisms and irreverent asides on historical characters. Today, I rate my interest in history as second only to my interest in wildlife/zoos, and in my various writings about animals usually manage to introduce some aspect of history, such as the history of certain zoos.
The subject at school I hated above all others was P.E. I have no absolutely interest in sport and deplored being made to participate in it. (Well, I say "participate", but my "participation" usually involved skulking at the back of the field trying to avoid contact with the ball at all costs).
I was no good at "practical" subjects, such as woodwork, metalwork and pottery. I never did finish anything in woodwork, and the least said about my metalwork and pottery creations, the better. But, unlike P.E. which was compulsory for the entire duration of my school career (why?), at least I was able to give up woodwork, metalwork, pottery, etc., at about the age of 14.
 
@cleusk- may I ask what kind of grades you got in school?

The classes that I'm currently taking are English II, Spanish II, World History II, Biology, Geometry, Construction Technology, and Gym. I like all of those classes except Geometry and English II. I've just always found math hard so the subject is difficult for me. In the case of English II, it's not so much the class but the teacher. It's that teacher that picks favorites and decides early in the year that you're a A-student, B-student, C-student, ect. She also refuses to actually explain the assignment so the students are forced to try and guess what she wants us to do and this results in very poor grades. Actually, currently 80-90% of my class has below a C and about half have below a 50% with two having below a 10% which is virtually unheard of. She also doesn't actually grade and for over half the marking period, before I complained, I got nothing but 3.75 out of 5 on everything even if other students got grades out of 10! Also there are several groups of students that get the same exact grades on tests every time!

Now, with my rant over, my favorite classes-
I really like Biology, I have a very good grade, a nice teacher, and I think it's simply fascinating! I also love history! I find it very interesting although my teacher doesn't really get into events. We actually spend a little of a week learning about WWI and even then only went over how it started and how it ended/aftermath. And we spent so little time on the Korean War, that I didn't know we actually "learned" about it until the following week (meaning he assigned us to read a chapter on it and that's all we did). I do really well in Spanish although it's not my favorite subject. Gym is probably my favorite subject because we do what cleusk said he got to do- play Basketball!:D Being 6'5" it's a fun sport for me!

~Thylo:cool:
 
ThylacineAlive said:
@cleusk- may I ask what kind of grades you got in school?
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I made A's with the occasional B, though I did get a few C's. It wasn't easy because I participated in Band during elementary and middle school, then got involved in Drama during high school. During my last year of high school, I got involved in journalism, writing stories surrounding the debate team.
 
zooman64 said:
I have Secondary School to thank for my love of history, as I had no interest in the subject beforehand, but at Secondary School I was lucky enough to fall under the spell of a very inspirational history teacher
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We share a similar experience. I used to hate history. Then I took World History during my Senior Year. Mr. Densmore presented history as a big story with main characters, minor characters, and many subplots. He also presented the material in an informal format instead of stiff, monotonous facts; and he did so without looking at the textbook. We had discussions as well as lectures, and most activities were done in groups. Thanks to Densmore, I developed a love for history, though not on the level of an affectionado.
 
These classes that I really enjoyed when I was in High School:

Zoology (Especially this one)
Horticulture
Health
Physics
Economics
Civics
American history
World history

These classes were not that great and just ok but bearable:

English
Home economics

These classes I either really hated or disliked and those classes were:

Mathematics
Spanish
Gym (Especially this one)
Art
 
I would have to agree that Algebra is incredibly important - one of the most used "high" school subjects I use in everyday life.

In high school I always enjoyed art, band, world history, and math. I would say my least favorite subject in high school was english.... mostly due to the teachers I had and not the subject matter (which, like algebra, is extremely important in my everyday life). To the many high school students on the site I would encourage you to take college level courses in high school if possible. I was able to take many of my core classes required for my college degree in high school which allowed me to take additional classes I was truly interested in that I otherwise would not have had time to take.

In college my landscape architecture classes, geography, history and anthropology classes were by far my favorites. The only class I really struggled with was philosophy, and I think it was mostly because it took so much time away from the classes I enjoyed.

Regarding P.E., I always liked it but think the traditional P.E. class curriculum was a joke and needs re-thinking. I do think physical activity is extremely important. My long runs during my time in college gave me opportunity to take in the outdoors, clear my mind and come up with some pretty inspired ideas for projects. I still run often and hopefully always will be able to.
 
I was lucky that my high school offered environmental science as a subject because it was easily my favourite then and it's what I'm studying at university now. Other subjects that I liked through high school were biology, outdoor ed, P.E., and maths. For VCE (I guess it's the equivalent of GCSE's in Britain or HSC in other parts of Australia) I did those five subjects and English Literature.
 
Of the subject I took in College, Educational Psychology was probably my favorite (other than the Elective Coaching Softball)
 
PAT said:
I was lucky that my high school offered environmental science as a subject because it was easily my favourite then and it's what I'm studying at university now. Other subjects that I liked through high school were biology, outdoor ed, P.E., and maths. For VCE (I guess it's the equivalent of GCSE's in Britain or HSC in other parts of Australia) I did those five subjects and English Literature.
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Are those like graduation exams? I'm curious. I am a secondary teacher and I am always interested in seeing what our differences and similarities are with our British and Australian cousins.
 
tschandler71 said:
Are those like graduation exams? I'm curious. I am a secondary teacher and I am always interested in seeing what our differences and similarities are with our British and Australian cousins.
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They're the subjects you choose to study in your last year of school and then get assessed on so maybe they're similar to graduation exams.
 
My favourite subjects at school were always the Sciences, in particular Biology. I was pretty bad at the more English/Arts based subjects and was never really interested in them. And so on that note my worse class was either English lit or language or Spanish! Thank god I was able to drop Spanish at 14; although I still know enough to get by when I go on my hols... "Uno cerveza, por favor."

I can't believe everyone seems to be moaning about PE! Granted PE wasnt always the best but I always found doing a cross country run or playing netball was far more enjoyable than reading Shakespeare!
 
It's probably not that surprising that I really liked Biology. It was just so much easier to get to grips with than Chemistry, which sometimes felt a bit obtuse.

English and Irish were the ones I was best at, though. I won a "Best at English in the Year" prize and got 99% on my Leaving certificate English exam. And I enjoyed them both, even though the Irish course was a bit dumbed-down and just kind of... stupid.
 
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