The Most Important Class You Ever Took?

[iacas]

What's the most important (to your life as a whole) class that you ever took?

It's a tough one for me to answer.

I could say the typing class I took in eighth grade, given how much I type. But I might have figured tis out on my own… or maybe I'd be stubborn and say "I can type fast enough this way" (whatever way I'd come up with given a lot of typing)?

Mr. Freed's fifth grade science class was cool. It may have been the first time I really cared about science.

I took organic chemistry in high school, and that was important for one of my majors in college. It let me slack off for two years of my major classes. :)

A lot of what I learned I've learned on my own.

But again, what's the most important (to your life as a whole) class that you ever took? Why?

[saevel25]

Good question.

Sophomore year of high-school, I had the eccentric physics professor that got me hooked on science and understanding and questioning why things happen. Probably shaped my logic based brain that I realized.

Who ever the teachers were that taught me how to read over my time during pre-highschool. Reading and writing lead to the foundation of all learning.

[geauxforbroke]

Algebra I in high school. I met my wife in that class.

Oh wait, she doesn't read this forum, so...

I'd have to say my most important class was either my college auditing class (I'm an auditor), or an architecture history class I took my sophomore year in college. The auditing class obviously help me in my career, and the architecture history class totally changed the way I looked at architecture, sociological development, and current events.

[boogielicious]

I would say Algebra II and Trig sophomore year.  I had the same HS teacher for that and Calculus.  He was the best teacher I ever had.  Funny, sarcastic, engaging and made each student better.  Algebra is a basis of all higher math, so a good foundation was needed for my chemical engineering degrees.

I also had Organic in HS with another great teacher, which made college Organic easy.

Or maybe finger painting in Kindergarten.  I loved that too.

[dsc123]

I would probably say my microeconomics class in college.  I don't use my economics degree (I'm a lawyer) but it changed the way I think about life.

[Abu3baid]

Good question! Huh, what? You want me to answer that.... Ummmmmm..... Fine, if you are going to hold a gun to my head and make me answer truthfully, then I would have to say..... That "Applied Calculus I" class in my first year of college.. Who would have thought that being in the world of angles, slopes and derivatives would be so influential in my life.. I believe it lead the way for me to go into operations management (which is mostly applied science) and eventually shaped my career into being involved in both plant operations and finance... I was always good at math at young age, but before that it was always bla... This teacher challenged me and showed me that really, math is fun!

[cipher]

Any of the theology courses(I have a minor in Biblical Studies - Haha) - The reason is deconstruction of the perceived for the reconstruction of of a sustainable base.

[saevel25]

Any of the theology courses(I have a minor in Biblical Studies - Haha) - The reason is deconstruction of the perceived for the reconstruction of of a sustainable base.

My opinion of you has completely changed now

[cipher]

My opinion of you has completely changed now

I don't know if that is good or bad but, hey I just threw it out there.  F'ing deal with it. I just answered the question honestly.  It should not be that surprising with my tendency to over think things "slightly".  Philosophy was up there for me as well.  There are not too many Business majors with a minor in biblical studies though.

[nevets88]

The class of hard knocks 101, 201, 301, 401, seminar, etc... ha ha... Nothing I ever learned in class compares to learning from real life and more so, people.

[David in FL]

The leadership classes that I received as a very young, newly commissioned 2d Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

The Marines are a little different than the other services.   After commissioning, whether from an Officer Candidate program, ROTC, or the Naval Academy, every 2d Lieutenant spends 6 months in Quanitco at "The Basic School".  It's 6 months of intensive leadership and tactical infantry training.  It doesn't matter if someone is ultimately going to become an armor officer, pilot, supply officer, or even a JAG lawyer, we all start out with the same basic core training.....the premise being that no matter what else he does, first and foremost every Marine officer is an infantry officer, capable of leading a platoon of Marines in combat.

That particular brand of leadership training knocked a lot of sense into my punk-ass head, and taught me the fundamentals of building and motivating a cohesive team capable of doing amazing things under stressful and adverse conditions.

[saevel25]

I don't know if that is good or bad but, hey I just threw it out there.  F'ing deal with it.    I just answered the question honestly.  It should not be that surprising with my tendency to over think things "slightly".  Philosophy was up there for me as well.  There are not too many Business majors with a minor in biblical studies though.

Probably a good thing, just messing with ya.

[cipher]

Probably a good thing, just messing with ya.

All in good fun.

[nevets88]

The leadership classes that I received as a very young, newly commissioned 2d Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

The Marines are a little different than the other services.   After commissioning, whether from an Officer Candidate program, ROTC, or the Naval Academy, every 2d Lieutenant spends 6 months in Quanitco at "The Basic School".  It's 6 months of intensive leadership and tactical infantry training.  It doesn't matter if someone is ultimately going to become an armor officer, pilot, supply officer, or even a JAG lawyer, we all start out with the same basic core training.....the premise being that no matter what else he does, first and foremost every Marine officer is an infantry officer, capable of leading a platoon of Marines in combat.

That particular brand of leadership training knocked a lot of sense into my punk-ass head, and taught me the fundamentals of building and motivating a cohesive team capable of doing amazing things under stressful and adverse conditions.

I want to take this course! I'm not kidding.  All of the guys I worked with in the corporate world who had a military background - seemed like nothing phased them.

[cipher]

I want to take this course! I'm not kidding.  All of the guys I worked with in the corporate world who had a military background - seemed like nothing phased them.

You can get, well, somewhat close.  I just took a Academy Leadership course in Chicago about a month ago.  It was taught by a West Point graduate, and put together by their graduates.  It was a three day course.  Not exactly cheap but about as close as you can get to what @David in FL mentioned.  Even though it pales in comparison, it was still a huge eye opener for me.

[14ledo81]

Not sure you could count this a "one" class, but I would have to go with my required plumbing class (500hrs).  Had to complete it for state licensing.  This class (in part) enabled me to do what I do for a living (and provide for my family) at a decent wage.

[jamo]

For high school it would be a class called Engineering and Technology. It was my elective course junior year when most students took band or chorus or art. We built spaghetti bridges and did a competition, and me and my partner won by a huge margin. Then we made bottle rockets from a kit, and last we built huge potato cannons and fired them behind the high school using hair spray as the fuel. We ended up getting a few hundred yards just using PVC pipes and a BBQ grill lighter. Me and my partner even managed to crudely rifle our cannon. (There were also a lot of full-class Halo battles since the classroom was a computer lab.) Funny that @iacas mentioned loving a typing class. I always hated typing classes because I could never get used to the home rows method that they made us use. (I think they just didn't get to me early enough. I'd been typing on our home computer well before I ever took a typing class.) Freshman year of college I did so much typing that I can do it without looking at the keyboard now, but still without using home rows. I don't remember particularly liking many middle school or high school core classes until I took a bunch of AP classes senior year, but that was more of a social thing. I always hated English classes because every teacher had a different way they wanted us to format essays, so we had to re-learn it every year. I always did great on grammar or spelling exams, but I sucked at essays. I also wish they would have let us write essays on subjects that weren't shitty books that we all hated (seriously, **** Great Expectations - even the SparkNotes were difficult to understand), which I think is why I loved English 110 in college. We got to pick our own books and topics, so it was something I cared about. I've always enjoyed reading, but I very much prefer non-fiction or at least contemporary fiction, neither of which we ever got to read in middle or high school. As for college, I'm not really sure since I just finished a month ago.

[Ernest Jones]

For me it would have to be English, final year of high school. Not so much for the course content (which I aced) but for the teacher, it was the first time as a quasi-adult that I had a teacher that I actually respected.

Great Expectations

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