is it me, or is this a dumb idea?

[hammercock]

Florida votes to require high school majors: TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- The Florida Legislature gave final approval to a bill Thursday that requires high school students to declare a major, similar to college students. The measure now goes to Governor Jeb Bush, who pushed the requirement as part of a sweeping education overhaul approved by the

Comments

[lillibet]

I think that this idea of a major as being what you're going to do with the rest of your life is misleading. I mean, how many of us are working professionally at what we majored in? Some, sure, but it doesn't seem like an especially common thing. I think whether or not this plan would be a good thing would depend a lot on how it is implemented and presented to the students.

[vvalkyri]

From what the linked article says I tend to agree with you. It talks about essentially vocational concentration for those who do not plan on college, and about letting kids choose classes they like better. We essentially had that where I went to school, without the nomenclature. There were state (county?) mandated 4 years English, 3 years Math, 3 years Social Sciences, 2 years Science (3?), 1.5 years gym, 1 year fine arts, recommended 2 years language, etc. Note that not all subjects would fill up 7 periods for 4 years. I knew someone who senior year was taking 4 history classes.

[hammercock]

In my school system, we only got 6 periods each year, and by the time I'd graduated, our system was moving to increase required classes to the point where you really only got one true elective class per year. Sure, they talked about choice, but we had almost no room for real flexibility. That's what I'm afraid will happen, that they'll end up with less flexibility instead of more. I hope I'm wrong.

[alcinoe]

My daughter has many different dreams, and I think that highschool and college are a time to figure out which dreams you want to go after. I can't imagine a kid being forced to decide when they are so young. Cat is 15 and a sophmore, so they would have been asking this of 13 and 14 year olds. Geesh.

[donnad]

I agree with you, When I was 13 or 14 I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. When I started college, I changed majors five times as I changed my mind about what I wanted to do.

I am considered a failure by my mother because I didn't have a career in place by the time I was 25, even if it was in retail it would have been a career and I would have health insurance and life insurance and such.

Peh, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of my life and I'm 44.

I think making HS students choose majors is a dumb idea.

[vvalkyri]

Hm. Then again it's not unusual in other countries to have concentrations in high school. In Israel one chooses a tech or liberal arts high school (or at least one did when I was there back in '90)* and in England school is optional at 16, and they call those last couple years 'college'. One chooses what one will study for one's A-levels in college- - it's not necessarily a major per se, but it is a concentration.

In England a lot of what we would have to wait for grad school for would be done in undergrad. I dated someone who was getting a law degree.

I see your point, but I also wonder whether we're going too far in delaying adulthood over here. I have colleagues only a few years older than I am who have teenagers, and I'm starting to wonder why I don't quite yet feel grown up.

*Of course, in Israel college is much more an option than an assumption, and since one's usually had a couple years in Army before deciding on college, people don't often end up going to college without already knowing what they want.

[noveldevice]

Our educational system is supposed to provide the breadth and balance that is often lacking in systems where people must choose their specialization at 14 and just get narrower and narrower. The reason we have the option to work at something different from what we majored in at school is because some generality is mandated. When you lose that, you lose the advantages from which those people who studied political science and became programmers, or studied English and became contract managers in construction, were able to benefit.

[aelf]

I'm 33, and I distinctly recall in the 6th grade having to map out my junior high and high school education in order to achieve my goals. This was something we did in school. They made it very clear that if we didn't start planning *now* we would likely not get into college if that's what we wanted, or we wouldn't be prepared for trade school, or whatever it is we wanted to do after high school. It was a bit surreal, because it is difficult for an 11-13 yr old to think so far ahead, but I don't at all think it's a bad habit to get into

[koshmom]

I agree with aelf. I'm in my 40's, and when I was in high school I had to choose whether or not I wanted to go the "college route" or the "vocational route". I chose college because the "losers" and "lowlifes" chose vocational. And I had no desire to hang with the bullies in school any more than I was already forced to in classes like gym or Health or lunchtime.

The realizing what your doing now having an effect on the future is a good thing. How many times have you sat in class thinking "I'll never use this in my lifetime". At least in high school you can say "At least I'll have to know trigonometry to get thru my college class later in life". (Of course in college when you were taking advanced calculus you couldn't say the same, except "if I learn this I can get my degree, then never use it again".)

[ailsaek]

I chose college because the "losers" and "lowlifes" chose vocational.

This is the thing that really bugs me. The assumption that vocational-track kids are somehow inferior hurts them and the college-track kids. Being bright, and even being good at academics, doesn't mean that one necessarily has the aptitude for the sort of jobs that a college degree gets you. One of the reasons that I'm pushing Adam to keep Haverhill as a possibility is that they have the best adult ed vo-tech program I've ever seen, and I am dying to go take courses from them. Wish I could have done this as a youngster instead of being brainwashed into thinking that college was the only respectable choice, but better late than never.