While I was studying at the University of Kansas, I majored in education, German, linguistics, journalism, history, English and toyed with the idea of biology. I actually got as far as declaring the first five at one time or another, but ended up with a degree in education and German. And I never did end up a German teacher which was the whole point to begin with.
According to ejournal USA, an online publication of the U.S. Department of State, I am not alone. More than two thirds of all college students change their major at some point during their college career and may consider four or five majors before deciding on one. In fact, a growing number of colleges are recommending that students wait until they are enrolled before declaring a major, and at many institutions, a student may wait until his or her sophomore year to formally declare a major and graduate on time.
And what does your major have to do with life? Within ten years, most people are working in a field outside their major.
With all the relevance switching majors has on real life, it is only natural that the government at some time would take over and recommend the process take place even earlier. Say at age 13. Beginning with the School-To-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (No Child Left Behind’s predecessor), states have been encouraged to adapt their education systems to the needs of the workforce, including choosing a career related major and work toward a skill certificate. As of 1998, all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico had received implementation grants from the federal government to implement the program.
Florida is the first to roll out its plan as part of Governor Jeb Bush’s “A-plus-plus” plan to make schools more relevant to children. (Or maybe to the state). This spring, all Florida eighth graders who will be attending a public school, including charters and alternative schools, will be required to declare a major from the state’s approved list of 138 “major areas of interest.”
Every high school, alternative and charter school that offers grades nine through 12 created majors based on the school’s curriculum, magnet programs and career academies. Each has about a dozen majors or more to choose from. Majors in foreign languages, language arts, science, social studies and mathematics can be found at most schools.
Charters and alternative schools have fewer, with some schools offering only two or three options. — Palm Beach Post
I always thought education was more about enlightening the intellect and broadening one’s horizons, but it seems it is looking more and more like herding children into small boxes approved by the state.
Palm Beach school board member Sandra Richmond has high hopes for the program: “As long as we encourage students to think about it and let them know they have choices, and as long as we keep it flexible, I don’t think it will do too much damage.”
I am sure those words are very comforting to parents who entrust their children to the government schools on a daily basis. They’ll try not to “do too much damage.”
Hat Tip: Spunkyhomeschool, who offers additional insight, links and has been covering these developments for some time.
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nikkiana
Nov 18, 2006
I’m not all together convinced that declaring a concentration in high school is 100% bad thing, I’m just concerned that there will be far too much emphasis on whatever you concentrated in and that your hands would be tied when you go to college.
I think for some kids, this wouldn’t be too bad of a program. Teenagers tend to pay more attention in school if they’re interested in the subject matter in the first place, and more interested kids = better grades and the school looks better as a whole.
But I also think it has the potential to really mess up things too… I was talking to an Australian friend the other day, and I’m not sure how familiar you are with the Australian education system but they have concentrations of study in high school… and she was lamenting the fact that because she had majored in biology in high school, she ended up limiting some of her options of what she could major in right away in college. She’d majored in English and History in college but had been interested in persuing Computer Science but ended up deciding against it despite her interest because of the amount of math classes she’d need to take in order to catch up to transfer to that major, math classes that could have been taken in high school but weren’t because she majored in something different.
Plus there are a lot of other details to having high schoolers major in things that make it sound like too much of a hassle…. For example, say your school for some reason has a ton of kids who want to major in, say… web design services but your school only has the capacity to allow twenty kids to major in any one thing. What’s the fair way to say who gets to major in what? What happens to the kids who don’t get into the classes they want for the major?
It sounds like more hassle than it’s worth…
Dana
Nov 18, 2006
If this were directed by the student and time was made in the day for the child to explore career options, I wouldn’t object. But forcing these decisions at such a young age and connecting them to “skill certificates” which will be used for students nationwide for college or career is going further down the path of limiting choices and personal initiative. My husband is Australian and also felt a little limited by his concentration…especially since he felt forced into it by his father. On the other hand, he was a bit frustrated coming here and realizing that his high school education meant essentially nothing. His certificate could get him a variety of jobs in Australia which are closed to him here because he needs at least an associates degree.
It is similar in Germany. Completing the “Abitur” (state exit exam) gives you something similar to a 2 year degree here. That may seem like a good thing, but you are also forced into the state’s tracking system. You begin your career choices in the fourth grade when you are sorted into one of three levels of school based on ability, to forever be limited either to manual laborer, the service industry, or (if you are lucky enough to make it to the Gymnasium) taking the Abitur and on to college or more highly specialized career fields. Fourth grade is a little young. So is eighth grade. And, according to the statistics I looked up, apparently so is college. I think college is important and I found the work in my majors to be challenging and engaging, but majors seem to mean almost nothing in the long term. So why force it so young?
This is just one step in a much larger plan that goes back to George Bush senior’s education summit and was formalized in the School-to-Work act of 1994. NCLB is another part of that and it is all leading to greater control by the state, less flexibility and choice for the student and nationwide tracking from “cradle to grave.”
local
Nov 19, 2006
I don’t think the program is a great idea, but at the same time, something has to be done in our education system. College is the new high school.
I learned very little from high school. I did well in college, but that was largely in part to the fact that I chose my courses. If public education allowed a little more choice to students, it would be a good thing (not that this program does that, but it could have the potential to do so).
Jeffrey Henderson
Nov 22, 2006
I think all public schools should be abolished.
“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”
– Vladimir Lenin
“Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”
– Joseph Stalin, 1934
Dana
Nov 22, 2006
local, it depends on your point of view. What is the point of education?
Is it to prepare us for the workforce, or is it to prepare us for self-government?
This program only appears to allow choice…it does nothing to actually
further the genuine goals of a true education, nor even to foster choice
within our current, materially driven (socialist) system.
At least one of the President Bush’s speeches on the topic refers to a desire
to return to a system more based on America’s early “apprenticeship”
system. But somehow he leaves out the rest of what education was in the
time he is refering to. Education at our founding had nothing to do with
the material advancement of man. It was about the liberal arts…the
formation of the intellect and of the moral character.
Dana
Nov 22, 2006
Jeffrey,
I have some sympathy with that statement. I do think there is a place
for public education, so long as it is entirely controlled by the various
localities. Our founding fathers emphasized the importance of education
and had debates about the founding of a national university, which
never came to fruition because of constitutional issues. They viewed it
as very noble, but a function of state and local governments. Here’s an
interesting quote from one of our founding documents:
“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them. . . .”
(Article 3 of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787)
Obviously, we drifted far from that…in our relations with the Indians
and in our definition of education.