NationStates Jolt Archive

I'll post later what I think about this, but first I want to get your impressions: is this good, bad, indifferent, what?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/03/23/highschool.majors.ap/index.html

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- Lila and Andrew Zoghbi are bored five days a week in classes at Chiles High School.

It's not that they are slackers. In fact, they are honor students with high ambitions. Lila, 15, plans to be an engineer, and her brother, 17, wants to design video games. The problem, they say, is that school is not giving them the career preparation they want.

"It's just stuff I don't think I'm really going to need for the job I want," Lila said. "I'd probably like it if I had more things to help me in the future."

Students like the Zoghbis would get an education more tailored to their career plans under a proposal from Gov. Jeb Bush that education experts say would make Florida the first state to require incoming high school freshmen to declare a major, just like college students. The Florida House passed the Republican-sponsored bill Thursday 85-35 on a straight party-line vote. It faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

Bush said the plan would help prepare students better for the real world and reduce the dropout rate by making school more interesting. Last year, nearly 3 percent of Florida's 800,000 high school students dropped out.

"We don't want them to drop out of school or be unprepared to take on the challenges of the 21st century," the governor said. "It's a really smart way to make high school more relevant and prepare young people for what college will hold."

Some educators support the plan, while others fear it will deprive students of a broad liberal arts education and put even more pressure on young people.

"People want to know why college admissions is so frenzied and why kids can't be kids anymore. It's things like this that are at the root of it," said Bari Meltzer Norman, a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and associate director of college counseling at Ben Lipson Hillel Community High School in North Miami Beach.

Under Florida's plan, high school students would be able to major in such subjects as humanities, English, communications, math, science, history, social studies, arts, foreign languages and vocational skills. They would also have to declare a minor.

For example, to prepare for her career, Lila would have to earn four credits in major courses like engineering, space technology and physics, 15 core credits in courses like math, science and English and 5 minor credits in elective courses like drama, zoology and Spanish.

She and her brother approve of the governor's plan.

"It's still a required class -- it's not like it's going to be super-fun -- but at least you're getting stuff out of the way quicker, and getting prepared," Andrew said.

At least 13 other states require schools to offer different study tracks, and most offer vocational training, career preparation classes and the opportunity to earn college credit for some courses.

But none have gone as far as Florida would with majors and minors, said Sunny Deye, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Mary Exum, a Pensacola area science teacher, warned that most high school freshmen may not be mature enough to decide which track they will follow for four years. Most college students change their majors several times, she said.

Under the plan, students could change their majors and still graduate as long as they earned 24 high school credits.

Exum also said the state should look to teachers, and not a new required program, to relieve classroom boredom.

"Schools should provide more vocational and educational opportunities that are missing for students," she said. "But to mandate it for everybody in high school, I don't think that's a good idea."

Meltzer Norman agreed: "Why not encourage internships, and let high school students continue to get the best preparation for a broad-based liberal arts and sciences education while still in high school?"

Even educators who support the plan are worried that school counselors would be overwhelmed in trying to provide the intensive guidance students would need.

Stupid idea. College freshmen shouldn't declare a major much less HIGH SCHOOL freshmen. FFS, they're only 14.

I had no clue of what I wanted to do when I wa 14. I still have no clue what I want to do now.

If Bush approves, I disapprove because he doesn't know what the fuck he is doing.

:D :D I like it. I wouldn't have to take lit!

:D :D I like it. I wouldn't have to take lit!

And thus, a generation of Florida students would go through school without reading Hamlet.

High school majors isn't a new thing. I know some people that went through a high school that had a focus around an area that was more specified.

bad idea. There is a reason why colleges don't make you pick a major untill jr year. When you are 14, you have no idea what you want to do with the next 50 years of your life. Not to mention, if you do swap majors you are behind everyone else by alot, and you miss a chance to maybe take a class that you will love. If you want to pick your major early, go to a vocational high school.

In the UK you have to select your field of study/work/whatever at the age of 16.

I decided to go the science route and studied Maths, Physics, Zoology (I have hayfever and hate plants) and Chemistry.

At 25 I was working in accounting, at 30 I was back in university studying Philosophy and Computing, and I have spent most of the last 10 years teaching English.

Specialising too early does not help anyone. You can not know what life is going to throw at you. It has a doozy of a knuckle ball. So the best bet is to delay specialising as long as possible.

It's a bad idea I think. You're probably not really ready to deceide what to do with your life until you've lived it a little, at grade 9, I would hardly say you've really done much living.

If Bush approves, I disapprove because he doesn't know what the fuck he is doing.

..... Are you serious? Jeb Bush is a competant governor. It is his brother that has trouble.

And thus, a generation of Florida students would go through school without reading Hamlet.

*Wipes away a small tear for the prince*

...necroposting is bad, mmkay?

Lots of people are bored in school, for many different reasons. I don't see why they need to freak everybody out just to accommodate a couple of assholey kids who think they know what they want to do as a career. What the hell do they know?

...necroposting is bad, mmkay?

Necroposting on my threads is hereby given official sanction, especially if few people have seen it.

My own view is that this is a foolish idea, but not for the reasons already listed. Rather, I don't like it because it's a perversion of the purpose of high school. A high school's first and foremost function is to manufacture good citizens of the republic, and to do so, you need to educate them in a wide variety of different subjects. They need to know music, they need to know geometry, they need to know biology, both because it makes them more informed voters and because it makes them better human beings. To select a major, then, only detracts from this variability in experience. Taking a load on human relations may make you a better Wal-Mart greeter, but only a fool thinks the purpose of our high schools is expressly to make cogs for the engine of the economy.

I went to school in India for a couple years, and they sort of had this system there. I felt as though it hurt more students. A lot just kind of went with their first pick, even though they hated it. "Well, I already did a couple years of Science...might as well go with it" Everyone is different, I guess. Some people know what they want to do, but most don't. Hell, I didn't till my second year of university.

A system like that would have screwed me over, I think. I was into the whole Physics/Math deal in high school - but now I'm working on a double major in History and Politics. Go figure.

I /do/ think that they typical broad subjects provided in high school are fairly impractical, but having kids declare a major is going to hurt most of them. Barely even know what the hell we're doing in the world then. (secretly: even now) I think, ideally, it would be best if schools could provide more subjects that cater to different fields rather than have them declare majors. But of course, there has to be enough of an interest, more knowledgeable staff, more funding, etc. So I don't know how realistic that option is - after all, the US can't be wasting money on education now! They have to save the world from terrorists.

Wait ... you can major in High School?

Awesome ... I bet that curriculum is full of classes like "Making vain attempts to get laid" 1301 and "Hate anyone who doesn't look like you" electives.

Kick ass.

what is high school and what is a major i live in England........

We have primary school (age 4 -11)
You learn to read/write/add etc....

We have Secondary School (11-16).

At 14 you must choose what to study for your GCSE'S!, after studying these until you are 16 you can leave school but everyone has to science, maths, english. I do ICT, Tech, Spanish and History

Some less able students though aim to leave at 16 and have no hope of passing thier exams so they study courses on bricklaying, plumbing etc....

Then we can go to work or have 6th Form College (16-18)
You do 1 year (AS Level) and another year (A2 level). AS+A2 = an A level
I plan to do programming course, english lit, chemistry and biology

Then we can have University where you can get like a degree or a PHD
(Have to pay for this)

Is a High school major like our GCSE'S?

Its good, in spite of being proposed by Jeb "Votes'r'us" Bush. 14 is a bit young to do this, but I'd say that at 16 (11th grade) students should be able to declare a major and a minor. For many students, there's no value in Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, or Litterature courses, because they'll never use them outside of school. The only courses that ought to be required for students of every stripe are writing and history courses (preparing students to function in a Democracy being the actual purpose of the school system in America).

For many students, being able to declare "I want to major in History and minor in Music" would be a boon, if for no reason other than letting them think they have control over their lives. The American School system is badly out of date and is losing students who feel as though they are being run through four years of classes they don't need, don't want, and won't ever use. I expect that with a system that let students chase their interests dropout numbers would drop, average GPAs would rise, and other symptoms of hating school would drop as well.

We already do this. Its called tech school. I made a life decision to be a carpenter for the rest of my existence about, oh, a month ago. Trust me, picking majors is not that big a deal for freshmen.