Fractured High School Subjects Quiz

Answer: Geography

Each of the main stream courses at the high school I attended had compulsory subjects that needed completing, plus a choice of other optional subjects you needed to select to fill the quota required for each course. The optional geography subject dealt with all the physical features of countries initially.

Then, as one moved up through the higher classes in the ensuing years, the topics grew progressively more sophisticated - weather patterns, formation of land forms, historical patterns and progressions, reading and creating charts and so on.

It could be incredibly boring if the teachers just droned on and on and on. It was a subject frequently chosen though, because it didn't involve much homework.

Answer: History

History is the study of civilisations, events, people or countries from the past. It looks at when, where and why any one event happened, what led up to it, how it unfolded, and the outcomes that were the result. It's a fascinating subject for adults, but, to be honest, many high schoolers back then found it deadly dull because it simply had no relevance to them.

They hadn't even formed their own history yet. I took it as a fill in subject in year 12 because I had a crush on the teacher I'm sorry to say, and not for any nobler learning purposes.

Answer: English

English was a compulsory subject taught through all four main streams at my high school, and still is compulsory today. It deals with the study of literature in all its beautiful forms - short stories, novels, plays and poetry - and teaches writing forms for each, how to address the different categories, and how to conclusively argue your point of view. The importance of this subject cannot be stressed enough. The ability to communicate logically and articulately is of paramount importance in all areas of life. For early high schoolers though, we groaned and moaned our way through various poets and Shakespeare plays and a few books that were considered important for our development by the powers that be, hated the subject, and writhed with embarrassment if we had to read anything out loud in class.

Then in the senior years, a miracle happened. We had a teacher who loved the subject he taught and he brought it alive for us. The words danced in all their seductive beauty and power all around us. It was glorious. His emotional presentation of the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" in "Macbeth" actually made me cry, he made poetry speak to the heart, and he gave vibrant life to every novel. And I've loved the study of English ever since. Each word is a piece of magic, each sentence you speak or write is an act of creation.

Answer: Mathematics

I detested mathematics. According to Wikipedia, this is the study of "quantity, structure, space and change" but then it goes on to say that mathematics "has no generally accepted definition". Typical. They don't even know what it's about. It was a compulsory subject at High School, alas, alas, so years of irrelevance to my life followed. Who cared if it sought to seek out patterns to prove or disprove theories, who cared if we were taught to apply "logic, counting, calculation, measure", who cared if we manipulated "shapes and motions"! None of that had any practical application to a plump teenager with a pimply chin who just wanted to DIE every day because an adored rock star married somebody else instead of waiting for her. I truly detested mathematics.

Answer: Typing

Typing was a subject taught to those students - mostly girls - who wanted to go on and have careers involving administration work. These jobs usually involved being secretary or office clerk to a male manager. Usually, but not always. The girls had to start at the bottom and claw their way up the corporate ladder if they wanted to get ahead. It doesn't mean the work wasn't skilled or worthwhile, just very gender stereotypical. Typing back then also had to be learned on old manual machines. None of this electrical keyboards stuff where you can backspace in an instant if you've made an error. The students were so drilled in typing - wearing what were known as idiot boards around their necks to prevent them peeking at the keys - that they seldom made any mistake. This was because correcting a mistake on an old manual typewriter was a very tedious business - trying to line the truant letter back up again, carefully scratching it out with a razor (erasers didn't work because the ink smudged everywhere) inserting a piece of white correcting paper, and retyping over the top.

If one took typing at school, this usually involved taking other commercial subjects such as shorthand as well.

Answer: Biology

Biology basically is the study of various forms of life, how they evolved, their environments, their interactions with other forms of life, their defence mechanisms, and their reproduction. Biology at High School was one of the subjects for the academic stream of students wishing to enter fields of work relating to the sciences, medicine, nursing and so on. Biology at high school also meant dissecting frogs (it was disgusting) and sniggers from the boys whenever the topic of reproduction arose with any living entity.

Answer: Metalwork

Metalwork is the skill of shaping and moulding metal into various forms, and cutting and joining it with other metals to form small objects (at school) but with the intent of working later in any field from mechanics to joineries and shipbuilding. It, along with woodwork and other hands-on skills, were in the stream of subjects taught to boys (usually) who were planning on getting apprenticeships in any of the manufacturing or construction or electrical organisations.

They usually graduated from high school at the earliest possible opportunity simply because the academic or commercial categories just weren't their thing.

Answer: Dressmaking

Dressmaking was taught to girls (usually) in what was known as the Domestic Science stream of subjects. It was always studied hand in hand with drafting - not as in technical drawing, but drafting all the basic patterns needed in the manufacture of dresses, blouses, shirts, trousers, slacks and jackets. Once the girls got the hang of it, they rather liked that aspect of it. Dressmaking though for young teenagers was pretty ghastly. Zips stuck, material was accidentally torn or cut incorrectly, sleeves were put in back to front, thread was constantly caught up in the sewing machines - and tears were the order of the day.

The Domestic Science stream also included cooking classes, laundry, ironing, how to knit, crochet and make lace, a knowledge of all the different materials, and a study of all the components in products used around a home, such as detergents, butter, jams etc. In spite of the unfortunate name of this course which seemed to indicate its supreme ambition was for students to become efficient wives and mothers, Domestic Science was a course involving real hands-on skills. Many of the girls went on to become teachers of these subjects themselves, or set up their own tailoring and dressmaking businesses and made a fortune.

Answer: Mothercraft

To my great indignation when first starting high school, I found that it was compulsory for the first year entry girls to have to study a subject known as Mothercraft for an entire term. This was where you had to endure week after week of learning how to look after a baby from birth up to the age of two, how to bath it, change it, feed it, put it to sleep, comfort it, the physical changes it should go through, the developmental steps it should have reached in each stage of its young life, the value of the different foods it should be eating, and so on. We then had to produce a huge scrapbook at the conclusion of the term, filled with diagrams and drawings and pictures of babies, food, clothing, nappies, soaps, bottles and anything else relating to the lesson of each week. I'd never been so insulted intellectually in my life! The boys didn't have to learn to be fathers, why did WE have to learn to be mothers? We had only just become teenagers. The idea was positively indecent!

But I kept that huge scrapbook, and have it yet, and drag it out every so often for a good laugh at some of the indignant comments therein. To be honest, also, it turned out to be rather helpful when, years later, I eventually did become a mother after all.

Answer: Bookkeeping

Fitting into the commercial stream of subjects, along with shorthand and typing, bookkeeping was a very intense subject that taught all aspects of keeping the books of a business. It covered double entry, ledgers, bank reconciliations, debit and credit statements, trial balances and balance sheets - everything in fact that introduced students to the world of big business and the possibility of going on to study accountancy at university level. And it went absolutely over the heads of most of its students because it simply didn't have any relevance to their real lives.

The groans of those students as they emerged from each lesson had to be heard to be believed.