School Days

Today is the first day of school here. All of the local news this morning centered around this event. Listening to the radio I learned that this year, teens entering the 9th grade will be required to choose a "major field of interest" which will determine the electives they take in high school. Maybe I am making too big a deal about this, but that just pisses me off. What exactly is the virtue in forcing young people to limit their educational experiences so early in life? These kids are about 14 years old, they shouldn't be required to "focus" their studies, in fact, I think they should be discouraged from doing so. Most people I know switched majors at some point in college, and I think that is a good thing. Teens should have as much opportunity as possible to explore different things. I even hated the idea that kids who took vocational classes in high school were stuck with those, and kids who chose not to do vocational training in high school got no exposure to any of it. Would it be so terrible for a kid to take a class in auto-mechanics AND a class in psychology? Would they implode? I think it would be good for all students to spend time doing as many different things as they can, so they learn more than their little corner of the world. I even think it's horrible for kids to choose a major in college before their second year. Academia is so obsessed with specialties that students feel inadequate without one. Being "undeclared" is somehow shameful, but I think it's fabulous. As a lawyer, I applaud the law firms that refuse to assign first year associates to a practice group, and instead require that they spend a year rotating in some fashion. You will have plenty of time in life to be narrow-minded, pigeon-holed or "specialized", I think the virtuous path is the one that involves learning as much as you can about the rest of the world while you have the chance. Not only will it make you a more interesting and open-minded person, but it will help you to be sure that the specialty you end up with is the one that fits you best. And that's my two cents on that for today.