Remember your school days? Can you recall a skill that you had to learn, yet soon forgot because you had no need for it?

I went through primary school in the days when it was legal to hit a child, hard. I recall, as an eight year old, having to memorise the entire William Wordsworth poem 'Daffodils' for homework, or get the cane. As an emerging critical thinker I queried the teacher "Why do we have to memorise this? What is the point?"

I got the cane for being 'insolent'.

The following week's homework was to memorise all the rivers of the eastern seaboard, in order from north to south, or get the cane. I recited the whole list in front of the class - but got the Bellinger and Hastings rivers around the wrong way. (Talk about test anxiety!)

Fortunately, those useless 20th century curriculum requirements, and the cane, are long gone.

What about you? What skills or knowledge did you learn back in your school days that had no point or served no purpose?

And teachers... are there any skills or knowledge being taught in schools today that you think have a limited life-span? In other words, can you predict what skills/knowledge being taught now will be pushing up daises (or daffodils!) in the not-too-distant future?

Please contribute, or share your 'back in the day' anecdote.

James Phelps