...under a proposal from Gov. Jeb Bush that education experts say would make Florida the first state to require incoming high school freshmen to declare a major, just like college students.
Bush said the plan would help prepare students better for the real world and reduce the dropout rate by making school more interesting. Last year, nearly 3 percent of Florida's roughly 800,000 high school students dropped out.
``We don't want them to drop out of school or be unprepared to take on the challenges of the 21st century,'' the governor said. ``It's a really smart way to make high school more relevant and prepare young people for what college will hold.''
As usual, not everybody is in favor of the plan.
Some educators support the plan, while others fear it will deprive students of a broad liberal arts education and put even more pressure on young people.
It seems to me that in a global economic environment where American students are routinely outperformed by students from places like Japan and India depriving our kids of a "broad liberal arts education" is sort of needed.
In fact, I think this may well be exactly what our education system needs. Rather than focusing on an overly broad education the focus would be on preparing students for a career. How many times do we hear people complain about learning things in school they'll never need to use in the "real world?" A focus on training for careers would eliminate a lot of that wasted class time. It would also eliminate a lot of wasted higher-education time as well. Getting kids on a career track early would allow them to approach their college choices with an eye toward getting the education and training they will need for their future jobs rather than spending a lot of money on a general degree that may or may not give them the skills the need to excel in their field.
A concern, though, is whether or not high school kids are capable of determining what it is they want to do with the rest of their lives. Though we should all admit that having our kids drift out of high school and into several years of expensive college education still not knowing what they want to do with their lives isn't exactly a savory idea either.
Jeb Bush is someone who I put a lot of trust in when it comes to education. His vouchers system for under-performing schools in Florida was a rousing success for increasing test scores for students across the board (though especially minority students) before it was, ironically enough, put out of commission by a lawsuit from teachers unions and minority special interest groups. I think this "declare a major" move is another brilliant approach to education in this country, which is sorely in need of new ideas.