Florida high schoolers now have to pick a major

[wdw4us2]

Fine. In the county I was in- Broward/Dade- all the schools, except two that I can think of- WERE bad. (I'm talking about PUBLIC schools, not private.) Please realize, that I was talking about my specific area, the Miami/Ft.Lauderdale districts. I think you got the point I was trying to make- that South Florida needs a better situation for their students. We don't need to go tit-for-tat here. Sorry if I offended you- that wasn't the point of my post- but if you went down to Ft.Lauderdale/Miami you would agree with me. Something needs to change.

Thanks for responding. I didn't mean to sound so defensive, but I've seen many posts here where people are convinced all Florida public schools are terrible and far inferior to those in other states.

I do agree that something needs to be done Dade/Broward. I think the biggest problem is that they didn't plan for their growth correctly and the schools were shortchanged by the lack of funds. They do have bigger problems to take care of then making sure their HS students pick a major.

I guess we should be happy that the state is trying to help students who have some idea of what career they want after high school.

 

[hellokitty86]

Thanks for responding. I didn't mean to sound so defensive, but I've seen many posts here where people are convinced all Florida public schools are terrible and far inferior to those in other states.

I do agree that something needs to be done Dade/Broward. I think the biggest problem is that they didn't plan for their growth correctly and the schools were shortchanged by the lack of funds. They do have bigger problems to take care of then making sure their HS students pick a major.

I guess we should be happy that the state is trying to help students who have some idea of what career they want after high school.

Well, I'm glad your school district is doing so well!! Lets hope they all take after yours, and get this whole thing straightened out.


I hope these problems are worked out before my kids got to high school.

 

[MrsPete]

I don't think it's completely ridiculous. No one has said, "Choose the exact career you want for the rest of your life -- no trade backs." Instead, they're asking kids to say, "I like math -- I'm going to take lots of math classes", or "Art is my thing."

Furthermore, the kids are still taking a well-rounded curriculum: all the basic English, math, science, etc. that we all took -- they're just focusing their elective courses on an area in which they like and excel.

Around here we have magnet schools at the elementary school: schools in which kids receive extra attention in a certain field: My nieces attend a science/math magnet. We have a couple foreign language magnets in which elementary kids are immersed for a period of the day in a certain language. In these cases, the "major" is being picked even earlier by the parents, and people are clamboring to get into these schools.

Focusing on a career path is just asking kids to consider what they plan to do after graduation. The college-minded parents have always done this with their kids when planning schedules: they've always stopped to think out, "Okay, if you don't go ahead and take [insert class here] your freshman year, you won't have the pre-reqs to get into [insert advanced class here] by your senior year. Since you're probably going to do something science/math related, you really need that [advanced class]" On the other hand, the kids whose parents barely remember that they go to school don't do this for them, and the counselors just make suggestions -- these kids often sign up for the easier classes, or funsie electives instead of the hard-core classes -- then suddenly they're seniors, and there's no time to squeeze in Physics, which is required to get into [insert major here] at [insert college here].

 

[caitycaity]

I don't think it's completely ridiculous. No one has said, "Choose the exact career you want for the rest of your life -- no trade backs." Instead, they're asking kids to say, "I like math -- I'm going to take lots of math classes", or "Art is my thing."

Furthermore, the kids are still taking a well-rounded curriculum: all the basic English, math, science, etc. that we all took -- they're just focusing their elective courses on an area in which they like and excel.

Around here we have magnet schools at the elementary school: schools in which kids receive extra attention in a certain field: My nieces attend a science/math magnet. We have a couple foreign language magnets in which elementary kids are immersed for a period of the day in a certain language. In these cases, the "major" is being picked even earlier by the parents, and people are clamboring to get into these schools.

Focusing on a career path is just asking kids to consider what they plan to do after graduation. The college-minded parents have always done this with their kids when planning schedules: they've always stopped to think out, "Okay, if you don't go ahead and take [insert class here] your freshman year, you won't have the pre-reqs to get into [insert advanced class here] by your senior year. Since you're probably going to do something science/math related, you really need that [advanced class]" On the other hand, the kids whose parents barely remember that they go to school don't do this for them, and the counselors just make suggestions -- these kids often sign up for the easier classes, or funsie electives instead of the hard-core classes -- then suddenly they're seniors, and there's no time to squeeze in Physics, which is required to get into [insert major here] at [insert college here].

i agree completely! i don't get what the uproar is - it sounds exactly like what they were doing in my high school 15+ years ago.

 

[taximomfor4]

i agree completely! i don't get what the uproar is - it sounds exactly like what they were doing in my high school 15+ years ago.

I am FINALLY seeing people agreeing with what I posted back on page 1. I don't get the uproar about something without trying it out. I see many possible pros, and not many cons.

 

[Just2554]

There are requirements to getting into college. 2 years of a language, certain maths, sciences, Language Arts/English etc... Without taking certain electives and staying on the academic route, no college in the nation will have you. IMO, that's a big difference than having to choose a major.

I do think it's silly that your son had to choose computers in 9th grade though. Heck, many spend the first 2 years of college just getting the required courses in without deciding on their major.

This is how it was at my high school as well. We didn't have to choose a major per se, but we did have to take electives. We were also required 4 years of English, and 3 years of Math, Science, and History/Social Sciences. My high school had tons of electives though and you could basically take whatever you wanted- things such as psychology/sociology, criminology, economics, journalism, band, art, computer science, French, Spanish, family & consumer sciences (or home ec), parenting, etc. Our maths and sciences were also all broken up so you had your choice of things such as Calculus, College Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, etc.

IMO, I think it's good to take all these kinds of courses in high school so you are more focused toward a major when you start college. I can't even tell you how many people I know personally who are at least a semester behind or have credits that won't even count toward their degree because they were unfocused freshman year of college.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

When I was in high school you had to pick "college prep" or "career prep" (tech school), but that is as specific as it got. Choosing majors in high school is similar to the way they do it in Germany. If the program is similar to what caity, taxi, and MrsPete described, then I don't think it's that big of a deal. My youngest brother will start his senior year down in S. Florida this fall, so I don't think it will affect him.

 

[Skylarr29]

Both of my sisters had to do this and it began after they had already started highschool. Neither one of them want to do what they chose but at this point they don't have a choice. I think they should be able to explore their options.... and asking a 15 yr old what they want to do for the rest of their lives is a joke.