Remembering the ‘useless’ school lessons of the past

Times sure have changed in the past few decades, and while homemaking and sewing aren’t big in school curriculums anymore, they’re still burned into the minds of Baby Boomers educated throughout the 50s and 6os. 

One woman sparked a lively conversation on Gransnet recently when she recalled learning how to iron sheets at school and put the callout to other grandparents, asking them what “useless” lessons they remembered from their schooling days. 

“Ironing pillowcases this morning brought back a memory of being taught how to do this in a Domestic Science lesson at my all girls’ Grammar school,” she wrote. “Whilst being able to iron pillowcases is a good thing to be able to do, it seems a waste of a whole lesson in school.”

She also recalled being taught how to wash a hairbrush – as if that would come in handy later in life! 

Commenters were quick to share there own seemingly useless classroom lessons, with many recalling tedious hours of ironing and binding. 

“We did ‘domestic science’ in the first year – making a pinny, sewing a ghastly nightdress by hand and learning how to do scrambled eggs,” one commenter reminisced. “I’ve forgotten everything else!”

Another said: “I had to put blue bias binding all around the edges of an apron before I was allowed to learn to cook anything at my grammar school. I have never bias binded anything since.”

One woman remembered learning how to iron a handkerchief: “How the teacher stretched that double domestic science period out for 90 minutes I have no idea.”

Domestic duties were high on the list, with one grandmother saying she was “taught to starch mens collars, press sheets and pillow cases … And clean the grate and light the fire”. 

Another said she learned to smock, but joked she had “no idea why and none of my sons have ever required anything smocked”.

It seems schools in the 50s and 60s were also filled with some pretty freaky science lessons. 

“Learning the reproductive cycle of the fruit fly – that has never really come in handy at all,” wrote one woman. “I think we were meant to somehow extrapolate from that to human reproduction. It is a wonder I did not produce wee flies!”

It wasn’t all a waste of time though and some women said they’d put the skills they learned in the classroom to good use.  

“Looking back, our domestic science lessons were actually very good,” one woman wrote. “We learnt to bake, make bread, Christmas cakes, pies and stews; basic cookery skills that have lasted me a lifetime.”

What are some ‘useless’ skills you were taught in school? Do you think some of these old-school skills should be brought back into classrooms? 

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