high school majors

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
ups.com...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/ed...n/16major.html
By Winnie Hu
New York Times August 16, 2007
Englewood, N.J. - Ninth graders often have trouble selecting what
clothes to wear to school each morning or what to have for lunch. But
starting this fall, freshmen at Dwight Morrow High School here in
Bergen County must declare a major that will determine what electives
they take for four years and be noted on their diplomas.

For Dwight Morrow, a school that has struggled with low test scores
and racial tensions for years, establishing majors is a way to make
their students stay interested until graduation and stand out in the
hypercompetitive college admissions process.

...

Despite such naysayers, a number of school districts around the
country are experimenting with high school majors, an outgrowth of the
popular "career academies" that have become commonplace nationally,
and in New York City, over the past decade. But while many career
academies simply add a few courses to a broad core curriculum, majors
require individual students to make a more serious commitment to a
particular educational path.

Starting this month, Florida districts will require every ninth grader
to major in one of more than 400 state-approved subjects, ranging from
world cultures to fashion design to family and consumer sciences.
South Carolina enacted a similar law last year, designating 16 career
clusters, including architecture, government and agriculture.

************************************************** ********************************

I think this is a bad idea, especially if students in certain majors
are not allowed to take core academic subjects. Many people will work
in fields and/or major in subjects in college that they had not heard
of in 9th grade.

I went through an academically focused math/science high school program
(because it was the most intensive thing available to me, and the most
interesting), while taking a lot of college music classes and working
heavily on music outside the school day (although I did take what was
offered at my high school, that was pretty much band, Jazz ensemble, and one
music theory class).

If I'd had the chance to focus on music only at 9th grade, I probably would
have jumped on it-but would I then have been given the option of taking two
years each of Biology, chemistry and Physics or been offered multiple levels
of Calculus and Analysis classes? Or would I then have sacrificed academics
in favor of more involved fine arts? Especially given that music theory and
literature are often classes where strong programs do not allow AP credit
and strongly limit transfer credit for majors due to sequencing?

What's more, because I did the academically intensive program in high
school, in college I was able to really focus on my major, while taking
college level classes in subject that interested me (I had published
research in what was theoretically my minor field while still an
undergraduate).

I can see offering vocational clusters and pre-vocational programs for
students who are interested in it, but that's very different from a college
major.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/ed...n/16major.html
By Winnie Hu
New York Times August 16, 2007
Englewood, N.J. - Ninth graders often have trouble selecting what
clothes to wear to school each morning or what to have for lunch. But
starting this fall, freshmen at Dwight Morrow High School here in
Bergen County must declare a major that will determine what electives
they take for four years and be noted on their diplomas.

For Dwight Morrow, a school that has struggled with low test scores
and racial tensions for years, establishing majors is a way to make
their students stay interested until graduation and stand out in the
hypercompetitive college admissions process.

....

Despite such naysayers, a number of school districts around the
country are experimenting with high school majors, an outgrowth of the
popular "career academies" that have become commonplace nationally,
and in New York City, over the past decade. But while many career
academies simply add a few courses to a broad core curriculum, majors
require individual students to make a more serious commitment to a
particular educational path.

Starting this month, Florida districts will require every ninth grader
to major in one of more than 400 state-approved subjects, ranging from
world cultures to fashion design to family and consumer sciences.
South Carolina enacted a similar law last year, designating 16 career
clusters, including architecture, government and agriculture.

************************************************** ********************************

I think this is a bad idea, especially if students in certain majors
are not allowed to take core academic subjects. Many people will work
in fields and/or major in subjects in college that they had not heard
of in 9th grade.

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
ups.com...
************************************************** ********************************

I think this is a bad idea, especially if students in certain majors
are not allowed to take core academic subjects. Many people will work
in fields and/or major in subjects in college that they had not heard
of in 9th grade.


Starting this year, iirc, all students entering high school in Florida must
select a major. New state law. I think its a bad idea for much the same
reasons you do. I went through five choices in one year in college, and
that is not uncommon. Our kids are supposed to know what they want to do
with their life at age 13 - 14 now? Well, then again, Grandma Moses was
living on her own at age 12 and earning a living, according to her own diary
on display at the Bennington [vt] museum.

-Aula

Beliavsky wrote:
Starting this month, Florida districts will require every ninth grader
to major in one of more than 400 state-approved subjects, ranging from
world cultures to fashion design to family and consumer sciences.
South Carolina enacted a similar law last year, designating 16 career
clusters, including architecture, government and agriculture.

************************************************* *********************************

I think this is a bad idea, especially if students in certain majors
are not allowed to take core academic subjects. Many people will work
in fields and/or major in subjects in college that they had not heard
of in 9th grade.

The Florida law requires that students pass four classes in their
chosen major in order to graduate in addition to the 20 credits of
core classes required. There are a total of 8 elective credits, so
this still leaves 4 pure electives (or alternatively allows a double
major).
http://www.fldoe.org/APlusPlus/pdf/M...uation2007.pdf
(the cite indicates that Florida also offers a 3 year accelerated
college-prep program that does not requires such a major and 3-year
career-prep programs that require a specific career focus instead of a
"major"; those programs presumably have almost no electives)

The positive is that their elective classes are taken with some sort
of focus. The negative is that they don't have as much freedom to
explore various subjects without that focus. It is hard to change
their mind if they develop a new interest during their high school
career.

Our state (Virginia) has for several years required that electives
include at least one 2-year sequence of courses. I guess one could
call this a "minor", if the Florida program is a "major". The student
isn't obliged to pick this sequence as a freshman, though.

lojbab

I will preface this with the disclaimer that if I erred in posting my
reply to both groups, someone please tell me before I post again.

On 2007-08-16, Bob LeChevalier wrote:
Beliavsky wrote:
I think this is a bad idea, especially if students in certain majors
are not allowed to take core academic subjects. Many people will work
in fields and/or major in subjects in college that they had not heard
of in 9th grade.

My own high school had something similar, although we only offered seven
tracks and everyone took four years of math and humanities. Depending on
track, though, sciences could get abridged rather sharply. The general
science majors took three years each of chemistry and physics, and two
years of biology, and were invited to take one more year at or above AP
level in each of the three. On the other hand, the telecommunications
track was scheduled for only one year each of chemistry, physics, and
biology, and the AP-level classes if they so wished.

The positive is that their elective classes are taken with some sort
of focus. The negative is that they don't have as much freedom to
explore various subjects without that focus. It is hard to change
their mind if they develop a new interest during their high school
career.

I guess it depends on how focused your major is. The tracks at my school
gave a decent idea what the subject was like, but did not try to
railroad anyone into a job. Even if you were a general-science major,
you didn't really take that many science classes, and our school day was
slightly extended so there was time for a few electives in any
department you liked. One of my classmates in the science track, for
example, took some theatre classes and ended up the stage manager.

You make a good point, though, about being unable to change tracks. I do
know several in the science track whose four years taught them exactly
how much they hated science, and those in the business program, who had
to complete the full International Baccalaureate Diploma curriculum (the
rest of us just took Certificate classes, thank goodness), complained
well-nigh continuously. Can you think of any solution to that, though,
that would not also allow vacillating students to scatter themselves
across ten departments and meet the graduation requirements in none?

-nP