Readers share the classes that have been most helpful in careers, daily lives

Hudson Warm / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Students glean an enormous array of knowledge in college. They might learn how to understand microscopic chemical structures, derive calculus expressions or apply theoretical literary perspectives to a text. 

But filing taxes? Budgeting? Life skills? Those are often the classes that people say they wished they took in their academic careers. 

We asked our readers on social media: What were the most useful classes you took after high school or in college?

Many found that universities and post-high school training programs endowed them with skills that proved useful for adulthood. Here’s what readers had to say:

Math

While daily adult life might not require solving complex integrals, readers agree that math classes equip students with skills useful for adulthood — whether it’s budgeting or mentally calculating a restaurant tip.

Both users Jacquelyn Dalton and Patti Ludwig shared math as a most useful course, the latter calling the subject “very important!”

Career Readiness

Sandy Giordano, 76, of Aliquippa, took a Career Readiness course at the Community College of Beaver County in the early 2000s. Ms. Giordano currently serves as a news correspondent for Beaver County Radio, but her career has spanned industries and workplaces, from the Hampton Inn to Central Blood Bank to the Beaver County Times. The Career Readiness course guided her in finding a job through a senior employment initiative.

“That was so great,” she said. “It really, really helped me with my computer skills.”

Accounting

Thirty years earlier in the 1970-71 academic year, Ms. Giordano learned through courses at night school at the University of Pittsburgh as part of a special employee program sponsored by the Central Blood Bank (now Vitalint). The two courses were biology and accounting, which she said enhanced her skill sets for her job as the bank’s administrative assistant.

Facebook user Jennine Price echoed this emphasis, also mentioning an accounting course.

Senior memoir writing

More recently, Ms. Giordano enrolled in a senior memoir writing course, which she said has unfortunately been discontinued. An exercise in both memory and writing, the course tasked seniors with recalling and recording formative moments and segments of their lives.

“I learned so many things in my lifetime,” Ms. Giordano said. “That’s why I'm still working. I refuse to quit.”

Pa. State Police course

A non-academic but important course, Ms. Giordano said, was a class she and her husband took through the State Police in Beaver County. The course, which she took in 2003, is no longer offered, but she said the class focused on domestic violence and how to report. The class, she said, unwittingly helped prepare her for her current career.

“Now I cover the Aliquippa area and anything that needs to be covered — charges, events, police reports,” she said.

Psychology and stress management

Two social media respondents cited courses that related to understanding others’ actions and attitudes, and moderating one’s own.

Sandi Flowers wrote that learning psychology “helped [her] analyze people’s behaviors & motives.”

Another Facebook user, George Sivak, studied at PennWest California. He wrote that a stress management class “showed [him] how to live and cope with life problems.”

Nursing

Facebook user Jennifer Legler of Oakmont is now retired, but she previously worked as a research associate at Human Engineering Research Laboratories and as an adjunct faculty member and editorial consultant at the University of Pittsburgh.

Ms. Legler commented that, “As a Pitt nursing student, I learned too much to list, to include how to save a life.”

A nationally top-rated program, University of Pittsburgh’s School of Nursing is renowned for preparing nurses to deliver high quality care guided by “research, intellect, and passion,” per the school’s website.

Don’t forget about high school

Meanwhile, some users find that the most important skills are obtained before college or post-high school educational opportunities.

“College?!?!? HIGH SCHOOL!!!!” Janet Burt wrote on Facebook. “Never would have survived college if I hadn't learned budgeting, financial responsibility and balancing a budget from home and high school!!”

Further, another user suggested that certain life skills can only be gleaned through practice.

Pat O’Malley, writer of online political column Community Matters, commented on Facebook that she has “never seen any kind of school that taught such stuff. It's life skills, like cooking, laundry, driving, etc. Schools aren't supposed to teach that stuff.”

But even if not everything can be learned in a classroom, several readers shared how their post-high school education taught them skills they use on a quotidian basis — whether that is in their professional careers or in their daily lives.