What's Your Major?

Sounds like a bad pick up line, doesn't it? Well, now kids in Florida highschools will have a basis for such a question.

In an article written by Written by Nancy Steinbach in Voices of America there are pros and cons to this concept that Florida Governor Jeb Bush supported as part of an education reform plan. Pros include encouraging students to plan for the future and have more students graduate high school due to having the opportunity to learn a job skill while getting educated. Cons of this new requirement are having students limited in their schooling experience, coupled with the known fact that very few fourteen-year-olds know what they want to do with the rest of their life.

The Associated Press article in the New York Times focuses on the same issues, stating that the opponents of the bill say the requirement would put "too much pressure" on students to decide their future, while supporters say they hope the state's dropout rate will fall and that classroom achievement will rise if students can pick out on subjects they are interested in.

I found the Florida Department of Education's Graduation Options. It looks interesting, and it reminds me a bit of college requirements.

The fact of the matter lies within the students themselves. We can, as a State and a Nation, think what we will about this Legislature, but it's going to remain up to the individual students to make this a positive change within the schools.

My interest lies in the students who think they know what they want to do in the future as far as career choices go. When I was fourteen I wanted to be a famous actress or a horse trainer. Now, at 31, I'm a wife, mother, real estate agent, and Forensic Specialist with the local mental health center. Do I think that what ever I could have experienced in high school may have helped me find the way to where I am now? No. However, I'm not single-minded enough to think that there isn't the possibility that the road taken to get here may have been a bit easier to travel if I'd had the chance to dive into certain subjects prior to my college years!