High School Students Forced To Declare A Major

i_like_spam writes "As reported in the NYTimes, high school freshmen at many high schools across the nation are now being forced to pick a major. Starting this Fall, 9th graders in Florida will have to choose to major from among a set of state-approved subjects, while some students in Mississippi will have to follow one of nine designated career paths. High school administrators hope that having students declare majors will lead to greater student interest in school until graduation. College administrators think otherwise: 'youngsters should instead concentrate on developing a broad range of critical thinking and communication skills,' says Debra Humphreys from the Association of American Colleges and Universities."

Comments

Re:This is stupid.

[SimonGhent]

Agreed.

I'm 37 and haven't decided on a career yet... just waiting to see if these computer things catch on.

Now Bobby!

[lottameez]

You said you wanted to be a marine biologist! Now go up to your room and dissect that shark! What else are you going to do with your life? Sales?

Re:This is stupid.

[jimstapleton]

pfft,

they are just a fad, like color tvs, cars, and refrigerators

damn refrigerators.

On a serious note, it would have been nice to have an actual functional major in high school, (i.e. general science, foreign languages, humanities, general studies, art), but I think that students either shouldn't have to choose a major, or if they do, make one major akin to normal high school - a general range of subjects and topics.

Best. Troll. Ever.

[aquatone282]

Nice job. That post took a lot of work.

My favorite part:

Really, it makes me so mad when people say "oh, he's doing a humanities degree, that's easy". I have to read *3* *books* *a* *week* on average. Not picture books either I assue you. It is a lot of work, but the upshot is improved grammer and spelling skills that are lacking in the technical. As for those that say "you will be working at mcdonalds" , I'm going on to so a PhD in socialolgy where I'll be line for tenure where I have a much more rewarding job then beeing a science freak or an engineer.

Again, congratulations.

Re:Best. Troll. Ever.

[xmarkd400x]

He puts the LOL in socialolgy

Re:Umm...

[Hognoxious]

College students changes majors like they change their socks

You mean twice in four years?

Students Confused by options

[chinard]

Many accidently selected Pat Buchanan as their major.

Re:This is stupid.

[BoberFett]

1.00000000 mm is far too strict, I'm sure a 1.000 mm tolerance would suffice.

Career Test

[Plocmstart]

Remember those tests you would fill out with a bunch of random questions and then you would end up with a bunch of potential "best fit" jobs? If I remember right, my two top jobs were something like rocket scientist and garbage man. I'm glad I wasn't made to decide that day what my future was... I managed to take the middle road and become a EE.

Good idea

[Floritard]

The earlier students choose a major the better. Get them used to the whole cycle of repeatedly switching majors like proper college students.

Re:The majors suck

[brian.stinar]

My high school would have offered the following majors (ranked in order of popularity):

1. Impregnation and the Basics of the Welfare State
2. Fundamental Tenants of Alcoholism
3. High School Sports - The Glory Days
4. Existentialism and the role of Art and Hallucinogenics

I do have to say that "Thug Life 101" would not have been a major at my high school. I am grateful for that.

-Brian-

That's how they did it at my high school.

[objekt]

I went to a technical high school where we had to declare a major and would concentrate our study on that area for our last 3 years. My major was commercial art. When I got to college, I wasn't required to continue in that area, but I did.

So of course now my career is in computer programming.