<p>Parents of public school high school students are no doubt aware of the State-mandated 1/2 credit courses in Health and Economics required in order to graduate. These are bare-bones courses as they are taught at many schools. Economics students learn about the stock market, how to balance a check book, how to fill out a 1040EZ, etc. The Health course focuses on STDs, stress management, nutrition, drug education and how to shop for health insurance.</p>
<p>The courses present knowledge that all students should have before they graduate, no argument there. But the fact is, for many students the content in these courses of what they already learned in middle school or at home. The average student generally passes with a high 90 and the courses are designed and graded so that even a child in the bottom 5% of the class should pass with minimal effort.</p>
<p>In order to get these required courses out of the way so that they could focus on academic electives, stronger students used to take the courses in summer school. The problem is, with drastic cuts in school budgets coming this year summer school is being eliminated in many districts including ours.</p>
<p>So my question to NYS parents is what alternatives have your districts employed to help good students get these nuisance courses out of the way so that they can take an academically challenging and varied curriculum during the regular school year? Or do you just accept that that's the way thing are in NYS and tell your kids to relax and enjoy the easy "A"?</p>
<p>Our school has a really sophisticated economics course that taught real economic theory ad is a good basis for an intro economic course in college. The AP gov’t. course is squeezed into one semester and paired with the economics course and the most gifted teacher teaches it.</p>
<p>Can’t help with the health course. It’s not much, but alternating w/study hall gives a bit of breather to work on AP Calc or AP Chem or Physics.</p>
<p>My health course was quite boring, though my teacher was really nice. I still studied for AP Lang. in that class, though. I’m taking the required Econ course now, but my school offers regular, honors and AP, so I took honors. It’s still very boring (and honestly, I’d rather take the Shakespeare class offered at the same time, but I need to graduate ): ), but not as bad as I imagined.</p>
<p>Well, mythmom, I think with daughter #2 we’re talking a music theory or film studies elective. Calc and physics were more D1’s style. But I get where you are coming from. Don’t think a study hall is in order. These classes serve more or less as holding pens for the kids who don’t really want to be in school in our neck of the woods.</p>
<p>As far as I know you can’t get out of health. And honestly they cover a lot. I occasionally remember to ask what they are up to and its a good jumping off point for conversations we ought to have but don’t. Our school allows you to test out of economics and government (for government you also have to do 10 hours of approved community service.) That latter requirement turned out to be the basis of a very nice essay. Anyway my younger son tested out of both. Health isn’t too onerous in that it alternates with his extra orchestra class that he takes zero period.</p>
<p>My older son took a different route. Our school also bundles the Gov requirement into AP Econ and the Econ requirement into AP Gov. So if you take one or the other you are covered for both. As I recall my son wrote a paper about voting machines for the gov part of econ. I think they also covered most of the material after the AP - there’s at least a month of school left after all.</p>
<p>All kids in our HS are required to take the health course. I don’t know any who tested out of it, or took it at another time.</p>
<p>For the state required economics course, our school district allows kids to self-study and test out of the course. Most of the kids who do this take AP Gov…so that must cover the Government part of the requirement. This process must somehow be allowed by the state…here’s what I found about the state requirement for graduation and a regents diploma:</p>
<p>"1/2 unit of credit in Economics and 1/2 unit of credit in Participation in Government or their equivalent as approved by the local public school superintendent or his or her designee or by the chief administrative officer of a registered non-public high school. "</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, there is absolutely nothing you can do to get out of health in our district - no testing, no nothing - but it’s not tied to Econ here. Health has to be taken freshman or sophomore year, then a semester of PIG and a semester of econ are required senior year. The PIG/econ requirement is actually not that bad; the teachers are energetic and interesting, and the PIG element forces the kids to go to school board, village board, and/or town board meetings, among other things.</p>
<p>Occasionally kids get out of the PIG semester by interning with local pols. </p>
<p>The serious students I know rolled their eyes a little about it, but basically welcomed the change of pace from their APs/science research/etc. And if they got ahead of the rest of the class, they could work on their massive piles of homework.</p>
<p>hudsonvalley, does your district not have PIG?</p>
<p>D2 did not take that economics course, maybe her AP Government course got her out of it, per these other posts. Or maybe because she transferred in from out of state? Don’t know. She took health though. S hasn’ registered for senior year classes yet, I saw that economics class in his catalog, not sure what the deal is yet.</p>
<p>1) Community colleges offer online health courses which some schools may take for the health credit. They may need to take the high school’s final exam, but that isn’t standard in NYS. </p>
<p>2) Some schools offer a early morning or after-school health class (0 period or 10th period) to give an option other than summer school. Talk to your school’s head of curriculum and development and/or the department chair. They may be willing if there is enough interest. Generally, the teacher who teaches that class has an altered schedule: they can leave a period early or can come in a period later than the teachers on the regular schedule.</p>
<p>Same here, you can not get out of health. If your school offers Virtual enterprise as a double period. VE 1 covers economic theories and students can obtain a credit for economics. Students cannot get econ credits in VE 2, 3 or 4.</p>
<p>Health in our school covers a vast array of topics from STDs, to sexiling in college.</p>
<p>When D1 was in high school she was able to take Health as an independent study, but that option was only extended to a couple top students over the years and is is no longer available.</p>
<p>Thanks to all who responded. I’ve got some interesting ideas to explore further. It is always interesting to me to hear how differently things are done at public schools in NYS when we are known for a fairly centralized, Albany-controlled curriculum.</p>
<p>Our school offers dual enrollment for the Gov’t and Economics courses. D says the intro econ course was not easy…it had nothing to do with personal finance (which she also took as a sr year elective). Health is what it is, we’re on block scheduling so it’s usually fit in opposite some other one period elective. Would she have learned very much about designer drugs and STD’s at home? Probably not…seems like they also covered a variety of wellness topics.</p>
<p>Wow - I never knew Economics was a half year course. It’s a full year in our school with an AP option that was fascinating last year, when my older daughter took it, given what was happening in the market. Nothing bare bones about either Economics class in our high school.</p>
<p>Health is another story. All the kids take it, most during Sophomore year. The teacher has a lot of creative ways of presenting it and the kids don’t mind it too much. Rarely does a student take it over summer school. If you can’t fit it in Sophomore year you can take it during Junior year like my daughter did. She took it with a few other Juniors and one Senior (Which the guidance counselors try to dissuade since it is required to graduate and a Senior may run into some problems waiting until then.) My younger daughter has it now, finds it less than exciting but does enjoy the projects she works on.</p>
<p>I don’t think either class is a waste of time for the general NYS population of teens. Many kids have no idea of how to write a check or balance a checkbook and the stock market is a complete puzzle to many as well. We, as parents, hope these are skills they will need once they are out in the world after graduation. Maybe if more kids paid attention in Economics they wouldn’t have run up all those credit card debts and kept remortgaging their homes until they lost everything!</p>
<p>As far as Health is concerned, you can’t hit a kid over the head often enough for them to maybe understand that there’s nothing funny about an STD or drunk driving or poor eating habits.</p>
<p>Economics and health courses have their place - everything should be a teachable moment.</p>
<p>There have been many references to children nowadays not fully understanding the impact and meaning of money.</p>
<p>I’ve known plenty of really book smart people who are in poor health because of bad decisions or live paycheck to paycheck on an enormous salary.</p>
<p>P.S. - NY mom of freshman honors student and senior honors student who have both complied with the requirement - it’s a breather from the rest of their tough schedule</p>
<p>New York is not the only state with those requirements. Missouri also requires one semester of health and one semester of personal finance.</p>
<p>In our district, health is not an option for summer school. Everyone takes it sophomore year. The quality of the class depends on the teacher (usually a coach) who teaches it.</p>
<p>Personal finance is usually taken junior year. Right now it is still offered during summer school. Our son ranks third in his class of 410 and knows no one in his personal finance class. None of them have taken any honors, AP or IB classes. Most are considered the “stoners” by the student body. Several are seniors taking the class for the third semester in order to graduate. One assignment required the students to apply for a job that interested them. Our son searched for nuclear engineering openings to “pretend” to apply for; the stoners all downloaded the Pizza Hut application.</p>
<p>It’s an eye-opening experience that makes him grateful for his family and the opportunity he will have to attend college.</p>
<p>If your school has 8 blocks, I’d say just chill out and let your student endure the health class. It’s a high school rite of passage. 32 blocks over 4 years should allow plenty of time for advanced course. If you can only take 7 courses semester, then I understand your concerns.</p>
<p>I’m a senior in high school who’s taking a second health class right now in order to satisfy the schoo/NYS health requirement and graduate (we are actually required to take two semesters of health instead of just one). The class itself is really not that bad at all, but the problem is that it’s hard to fit health into an otherwise full schedule. I ended up taking three classes as independent studies, so if your child has the option of taking health at a community college, you should definitely take advantage of it.</p>
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<p>Lol, I wish my school can be so thoughtful! But a school can definitely make health a fun class rather than a burden… Right now I know that my health class will be taking a field trip to a state prison in the spring, which sounds extremely exciting and is something that everybody has been looking forward to. And like olderwisermom said, taking an elective allows you to meet people from other grades and classes, people that you will never otherwise get to know.</p>