Self-taught Education

I occasionally stagger one of my colleagues with my ignorance - and he inevitably asks "Weren't you listening at school?"


Here's what my school taught me:

English

Nearly nothing. I learnt how to write essays very badly, and read a whole bunch of books I'd never have touched on my own - like Waiting For Godot. That's about it.

I did not learn anything about grammar, or language. That was picked up by
a) reading the Usborne Word Detectives series at home
b) sitting in on English classes when I was in Germany


Other Languages

I learnt how to write the names of six common household pets in Mandarin Chinese, and how to say "Hi! How are you?"

I learnt German for six years - and when I wrote letters in German to my exchange student, she confessed that she couldn't understand most of them. She then came to Australia and told me I was the best at German in my class...


History

Well, there's this. (And a fair amount of that I picked up by reading newspapers.)

And... that's about all.

I also learnt that people started off in Sumer (I think?) and what a "keep" was in medieval castles.


Geography

How to invent a fake town and fool my teacher into thinking it's real so he'll give me a good mark on the exam and not realise that I haven't done any homework all year.

Other notable geography classes included
a) walking around some play equipment and drawing diagrams of it
b) going on the internet so we'd develop computer skills


Home Economics

None. My classmates were expected to have people to cook and clean for them; I was a scholarship student, and didn't really count.


Maths, Physics, Chemistry, etc

Lots! Heaps and heaps of really really useful stuff! Really!

This was something I actually got taught!



...did I mention that I went to a REALLY GOOD high school?

*sighs* Education round these parts really sucks.