High School Majors

by Richard Wilk

There comes a time in the career of every student when he asks himself, “Why am I in this pointless class?” This generic pointless class naturally shifts from student to student. Many students find the history and English classes they take to be superfluous and some find the math and science classes to be pointless. Ultimately, the value of each class a student takes is decided by the student, and no one can convince the student that the advanced, but required, math class will be useful to her future. It is for this reason that I propose high school majors be introduced to the students.

The basic idea behind a high school major would be for students to determine an area of study which they would follow through with during their high school career. The majors would be representative of the classes taken by students in the university settings, such as political sciences, computer engineering, performing arts, biology, etc. The courses under each suggested major would naturally be representative of the classes. For instance, if a student chose a philosophy major, the day would focus around English, literature, and history classes. If a student chose physics as a major, than the student’s classes would center on math and science classes.

One of the benefits of having students chose majors while in high school would be the fact that it would prepare them for college far better than any ‘general’ education could. If the students plan to major in a subject in college, then having a corresponding high school major would be greatly beneficial to them, thus allowing them greater chance of success at the university level.

Another benefit of such a plan would be increased performance in school in general. When students take classes they like they tend to do better, and when they take classes that they dislike they tend to struggle. If students were allowed greater freedom to choose what classes they took, chances are that they would do better in general. Why should students have to take advanced math classes when they plan to become a philosopher? Or why should students have to listen to endless lectures on history when they really plan to be a chemist? It basically comes down to the idea that students dislike many of the classes they take because they know that they will have no application for them in the future, and as such, majors would take away that feeling that they are wasting their time in school.

One of the problems with making students pick majors would be the fact that some students do not know what they want to do with their lives. For people who decline to state a major, there should be general education classes much like normal high school, where the students take a myriad of classes that will potentially benefit them in the future. Another issue would be as to when the major would be determined. “A major should be chosen at the end of the Sophomore year,” says Mrs. Moon, “by that time students have an idea of what the school has to offer in way of classes. It also promotes a college like environment since for most students the first two years involve taking general education before the student delves in to their desired major.”

All in all it seems that high school majors would be a way to not only improve the academics of a school, but also to prepare the students for their future positions in institutions of higher learning. In the long run, allowing students to choose majors would also increase the basic freedoms of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By forcing students to take classes that they find purposeless the schools are diminishing the happiness of the students as well as making them look poor in the eyes of universities. Most university acceptances revolve around what grades a student generates. If students do very well overall, they will be accepted, but if they do poorly in any class, their chances of acceptance drop greatly, even if that class would have had nothing to do with their future education. A major would remove that aspect of the application process, where one failed, worthless math or history class, will not end the academic career of the high school students in question.