posted
My friend wrote this in response to what our school system is now doing. They want us to earn two dimplomas and choose a major in around 8th grade. If anyone can help me understand why this is a good idea, that would be greatly appreciated.
quote:Ah yes, I see I'm not the only one who has to complain about the five year plan. Personally, i think it is a waste of time and instead of helping us with our future, I believe that it only limits our dreams and inspirations. Some people aspire to be two completely different things. In addition, how is this plan going to help us if we need to take 6 classes according to that major and we have to keep the major till junior for it to count? There are so many better ways this goal could be met. Plus, in the end, I doubt this plan would really work because people might not choose what they really want to major in, only choose the major with the most classes they have already taken. Sure, there may be some who will take it seriously, but if you think about it, who really knows what they want to be when they are 12, 13, or 14 yrs old? There are people who are in there last years of college who still don't know what they want to become. Here's a website for those who haven't read the article yet,
posted
Pick a major in eighth grade? That's ridiculous. I'd probably be majoring in visual art right now and missing out on the joys of the English language. I still liked English back then, but I was still more set on being a cartoonist or an illustrator or maybe a writer, but not an editor or professor.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
So the second diploma option and the major requirment are two seperate things?
The requirement to take six related courses in a single field is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Officials apparantly say it's to help the student explore career options, but it seems to me the best way to explore career options would be to take six completely unrelated courses in six different fields.
How is a high school going to be able to offer that many elective courses in so many different fields in addition to other basic required courses anyway?
The second diploma option doesn't seem too bad, though I'm not sure what good it would really do the student. Any student ambitious enough could take the extra classes anyway. And last I checked, employers didn't want a full listing of classes you took in high school.
Posts: 4292 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
What bothers me about it, is that all of the parents find it a great idea whiel students and (some teachers) don't. So we get yelled at for "complaining". Yet, there is no use in complaining cuz the students voice never matters. Posts: 4628 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
dude, mae, don't say the student voice doesn't matter. You arent in uniforms are you? EVERY other school in the city is. You know WHY you were exempted? student voice. Parents too, but students did a lot of the screaming.
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Heck, I remember a week where the entire middle school boycotted school by going to lunch, and staying there, and basically chanting, because the new prinicipal was taking a hardline on the no shorts from October to April policy. I think they ended up changing it to end of October and beginning of March...
I mean, if the kids in my school could have gotten away with idiotic stuff like that (no one was given detention or suspensions, I believe), I think you kids could do just as well on this issue (which seems silly to me).
Plus I'd like to think I helped foment a mini-revolution
posted
I didn't read the links, I'm sleepy, so I'm just jumping in.
I have to agree with Patrick's minion. I mean, how many of us in 8th grade really knew what we wanted? And if we had narrowed our choices by focusing on one thing, what would we have missed?
Eighth grade is too young to begin trying to make career decisions. That's crazy. Heck I was still unsure what I wanted to do when I was a college freshman.
Come to think of it, I'm still unsure.....
I'm going to bed now, and lie there and think about what I want to be when I grow up.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I'm one of the most undecided people ever. I'm a freshman in college right now, and I still have no idea what I want to do with my life. I resented it every time people tried to get me to tell them what I wanted to do with my life. All the "career development" education and career compatibility testing I got in high school didn't help me decide what I wanted to do.
I'm convinced that the only way that I'm going to find out what I want to do as far as a major goes is by trying things out. Currently I'm taking a Geography course and enjoying it a lot, so maybe I'll do something with that. Maybe A Physical Geography/Journalism double major with an English minor.. (but that's just dreaming) I've never been able to answer when somebody asks me what I want to do. And I'm okay with that. The University of Oregon has over two thousand undeclared majors, and I like that.
I think requiring students to pick majors early isn't a good idea for a lot of people. I don't like it when decisions like that are forced on me.
So, write letters, circulate petitions among the student body. Get parents involved too. In my high school, we got a whole lot of small issues resolved by showing the administration what students wanted. I imagine it's a lot harder for big things that come down from the legislature, but if you don't do anything, it'll look like you agree.
I guess the politicians think they look responsible by forcing students to focus on long-term goals and everything, but I don't think it's helpful for everybody and shouldn't be mandatory.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:how many of us in 8th grade really knew what we wanted?
I did, until she kneed me in the nuts.
On the issue itself, I think this is another example of ignoring the actual principles of good education in favor of a flashy accountability scheme.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
That makes me so glad I only moved here for college...wow.
Of course, when I was in eighth grade, there were kids who had their entire high school careers planned out, including what university they wanted to go to...but the very idea of having that much of one's life planned out already really scared me. Besides, I didn't figure out what I wanted to do until the end of my junior year or thereabouts.
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