My honest opinion is that in high school, people do need to take some science classes for sure, history is always good to know, math is a must, but english... eh.
I really couldn't care less about english. I honestly haven't learned anything useful in my 4 years at high school. I've taken the most advanced english classes possible, but I want to be an engineer, and I do not need to know how to interpret the meaning in a poem/novel/etc. It's a complete waste of time; it's like they ran out of stuff to teach us in middle school so they decided to come up with some bullcrap to keep us busy for the next 4 years.
Another thing...
http://progressiveboink.com/nick/images/calvinandhobbes/CH940127.JPG
Do I really need to know stuff like that? No, not really. That's why I think that some history is good, but we don't really -need- to know exact dates for all the information we're given; I don't remember half the dates I learned in my AP US History class last year because it was pointless.
EDIT: Looks like the link isn't working, so look at the third comic from the top.
http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm
