What was your favorite high school elective

Tom Suddard said:

I really, really enjoyed Theory of Knowledge (TOK):

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/theory-of-knowledge/what-is-tok/
 

I'd also recommend taking as much science as possible now, while it's free. HL Biology was free in high school or thousands of dollars in college, so I took it even though I had no plans to be a biology major. I still use it all the time, as it's just enough info to understand the basics of the natural world. If nothing else, HL bio means I know what doctors are talking about when I'm making decisions. 

I second Tom's opinion about advanced STEM courses but in terms of electives, ceramics was my favorite. It was extremely satisfying to have a break from pens and paper to get my hands dirty (clay-y?) and create useful physical objects. I have a set of tiny bowls that I made in high school that I still use every day, and thousands of years from now if humanity is still extant and curious, some archeologist may find the things I made and note them as evidence of unskilled craftsmanship from turn-of-the-Millenium Homo sapiens sapiens. And that's kind of neat.

Agricultural Mechanics - Gas/Arc/MIG welding. Plasma cutting. Blacksmithing. I loved it.

Small engine / Auto 1 / Auto 2 - Almost got me interested enough to head to WyoTech for a life as a auto mechanic. 

Art -  Drawing. Glass etching. Lost wax casting. 

Computer technology - Unix OS. Word processor. Spreadsheets. Etc. 

Photo - I missed this one and wish I hadn't. It was 20 years after HS before I really learned about photography.

In reply to SpeedwayFan :

Not sure I had electives.

If you have the option to do philosophy/theory of knowledge/epistemology/critical thinking, jump on it. 

It's basically a black belt in BS detection.

While I loved my shop classes, I'd say my favorite elective was physics. It was only offered as an advanced class to seniors. I remember thinking at the time that everyone needed to take that class. It made math "real" for me. 

Jazz Stage Band, because the chicks dug musicians and I could kind of play the saxophone.

Plus we where always getting excused absences to go play somewhere.

Very few electives at my very rural HS a long time ago.

My favorite was typing. My first true love was a year behind me in school but we shared that class.

Tom Suddard said:

I really, really enjoyed Theory of Knowledge (TOK):

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/theory-of-knowledge/what-is-tok/
 

I'd also recommend taking as much science as possible now, while it's free. HL Biology was free in high school or thousands of dollars in college, so I took it even though I had no plans to be a biology major. I still use it all the time, as it's just enough info to understand the basics of the natural world. If nothing else, HL bio means I know what doctors are talking about when I'm making decisions. 

Tom, I teach at an IB high school in Vermont (it's the only fully IB district, k-12, in the country). Were you a DP diploma candidate? What school was it? I'd love to quote you about this to my colleagues and students. Thanks, George

My senior year calculus class. Just came to me. The teacher noticed it too. Whenever anyone or the class couldn't get the answer he'd turn to me and say, "Rooney?" 

And all my art classes. Plus the mechanical drawing class. Still have the plates I drew some 35 years later.

Regarding social life drama club (backstage tech/manager) was a great time too.

Band, for sure - still playing sax 58 years later.  Most useful was typing (way before computers).  Most enjoyable was Earth Science, which led to my degrees and career in geology.

My dad was born in 1935 in Chicago and started high school in 1949.  I have all his report cards and it's amazing for a non-college bound kid what classes he took.  

Full semester of "Foundry".  Every machine shop class along with every drafting and architectural drawing class he could take.  

Since WWII had ended a mere 4 years earlier they were preparing these boys to work in factories and make stuff.   

Definitely physics, I took it as a junior and still remember the labs. Earth science, chemistry and biology never really interested me much, but the science of moving E36 M3 absolutely did and still does. Its one of the pivotal classes that helped steer me towards me mechanical engineering in college.

At the high school level it was really well balanced between theoretical and experimental, where there could be a demonstration of most the principles with every lesson.

I liked FFA. I took that and shop class freshman year, shop spend like seven months on reading and drawing prints. FFA had us welding and using a cutting torch in the first few weeks. 

4 years of art.

Brotus7 said:

Definitely physics, I took it as a junior and still remember the labs. Earth science, chemistry and biology never really interested me much, but the science of moving E36 M3 absolutely did and still does. Its one of the pivotal classes that helped steer me towards me mechanical engineering in college.

At the high school level it was really well balanced between theoretical and experimental, where there could be a demonstration of most the principles with every lesson.

Would agree with this as well. We had the same teacher for Honors Chem 1 and 2, and Honors Physics. Those classes were a ton of fun and interesting.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Tom is in the shop today and might not be able to answer, but we were both IB class of 2012 at Spruce Creek High School (Volusia County, FL school district). It was a great experience and our teachers did a great job of preparing us (some might say over-preparing, but I'm not complaining about it) for college and life in general :) 

High school for me could best be described as a brief moment in time.  I took all the shop classes, but that was just business as usual as my Dad always had a shop and by high school I was already working on cars and maintaining my own motocross bikes.

But it was the 70's in very liberal Canada and we had a lot of foo foo courses like Man in society, and my favourite, futures, where we discussed and completed projects on the future of society in our country. There was a lot of talk of the population explosion, starvation, alternative foods, and energy, and what at that time was a sure thing, our transition to a leisure society with three and four day work weeks, and hanging out in lawn chairs wearing leisure suits.

It was a fun course where we mostly hung out with a young and very cool teacher and talked about what our future's would be like, and of course we were wrong about almost everything

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Nicole, thanks for the reply. It's been a tough sell here in VT cause we went full IB at all levels at one time. And oh yeah, there was a pandemic in the middle of it all.

Physics.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

I'll put another vote in for the IB program, having an IB diploma made my college life easy. I already knew how to work in a discussion class, and how to write a good paper, so I could focus on actually learning stuff. 

As for the original question, my favorite electives were drama and ceramics. 

Drama was a chance to unwind, read some interesting plays, and get out of a desk. It got me comfortable talking in front of people, and helped me find a niche of people who made being my weird self feel okay. I actually went on to get a theatre degree in college.

Ceramics was just awesome. I love making things, and like Nicole said you get to KEEP the things (all my stuff sucked but that's beside the point). It's also something you aren't likely to be able to do outside of school, since you need a pottery kiln, wheels, etc.  

Beer Baron said:

Theater / Drama club.

Really good and disparate people. I made friends for life. Girls are cute.

Not only was it fun and satisfying in the moment, it built some incredible skills and experience for the future. Talking in front of people, woodworking, electrical work, running a light/sound board, dealing with different types of people, doing all the work to make a show happen.

This. All this. 
 

(It was my major in college)

Chemistry 2; we learned how to make moonshine.  For lots of reasons it's good my Chemistry teacher is no longer in a state run school.  

I went to a classical school for my last two years of HS, and learning about philosophy, logic, literature, and the like were life-changing experiences for me. However, if we're talking exclusively about electives, I would say theater and drafting were definitely two of my favorites from my public HS days. I also took autotech classes at the local community college in the evenings my junior and senior years, I loved those and they really helped me get started working on my own cars.

Lunch.  
 

HS sucked. Had to travel to another district to take calculus. Rush back to take physics. 

SpeedwayFan said:

I just started school and in forensics we get to go on a field trip later in the semester to a firing range and we'll get to disassemble an M4. 

Forensics like mortuary science?  How doe an M4 fit in?