I am a little confused by all the talk about exploration of interests with regard to high school course selection. Once the student covers all the required core subjects each year, and then adds in the state and school requirements for phys ed, health, the arts, and technology / “21st Century skills,” there aren’t more than one or two slots available over the 4 years…at least at our high school. This is absolutely the case with college bound kids who take AP sciences, since AP Bio, AP Chem and AP Physics require a lab section too, which eats up the chance for an elective. Granted, to fulfill the state arts requirement the student can choose instrumental or vocal music or fine arts, but in general the kids who did band or chorus in middle school continue them, and the rest take drawing art or graphic design or cooking. The high school curriculum is not like community ed classes where you can dabble in bonsai, or jewelry making or flipping houses. I guess your schools are different?
PS. D has AP Bio this year, so she had no room for an elective. To make room, she had to take a personal finance class over the summer, since that is a state graduation requirement that the high school mandates kids take junior year. In addition, she was required to take global studies junior year, so that pre-empted her preferred choice in her field of interest: history. So, only by PLANNING and going out of her way was she able to fit in the course she was interested in, and it’s just AP Euro. Nothing that sounds like it was an exploration of passions or anything.