yeh studying for english would be like such a waste of time..
the marks you get is likeas if the teacher picks your mark out of a hat..
cos everyone interprets your ideas differently, one teacher may mark you correct for backing up your ideas, and another might have totally different ideas to you, thats why i think english shouldnt be compulsory...
english IS important, but the foundations, which we are taught from K - 10 are more important than learning about things like images in film, poetry, etc..
what we learn in Senior Years may extend our interpretational skills, but otherwise, i believe that being good at english is being able to write well, grammer etc.. all the foundational stuff, because if you're not going to do something related with Arts in the future, it may not help out - perhaps only a more thorough and extended vocabulary, but thats about it.
hehe i've ranted on too long.. well just sum thoughts of mine...