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As long as I've been out of school I can't help but look back at how some things were kinda cool and other things were just stupid.

When I was in middle school you had to take 2 English courses. There was English which pretty much taught you how to build sentences and paragraphs as well as diagramming sentences which made no sense to me anyway. What really sucked about the English course is about 80% of what you learn they repeat the next year so it's not very productive. On the other hand they had word building which broadened your vocabulary. At 8th grade Word Building becomes Etymology where you learn various prefixes, roots, and suffixes. I've forgotten most of them by now, but with the ones I remember it really helps me understand words I hear for the first time. It would have been far more productive to integrate that into the English class rather than to make it into 2 courses.

Also this was a Christian school with Christian curriculum. The etymology teachings got a bit redundant half way through the year. Mythology would have been interesting to teach. Even if the mythological stories contradict Christian teachings it would have helped explain certain words. Narcissism for example the -ism reflects a belief or condition. Aside from that you would have no idea what it is with just the etymology course. Telling the story of Narcissus and his fate helps the student understand what the term means.