English
History
Other social studies
Science
Foreign language
Art and music
Physical education
Health and wellness
Shop, home economics, personal finance, etc.
A health class in which it is beaten into their heads that antibiotics do not cure viral diseases and in which they are made to watch documentaries about all the vaccine-preventable diseases showing the kids with these illnesses and making them learn all about the symptoms and mortality rates.
In addition, if this election season has taught us anything, high school graduates need to be well versed in history and US politics- constitutional rights, the powers of the president, etc.
I also think anyone who graduates high school should have a basic knowledge of biology- especially as it relates to individual and population health- and elementary statistics.
Honestly, I just think in general high school should be geared more towards “practical” knowledge than it currently is. Yes, there should obviously be a “college-bound” track that teaches students skills needed for college in addition to these basic skills but I think it’s ridiculous that we’re expected to know how to do math proofs in order to graduate but not to know even the most basic constitutional rights.
These are some that I feel are VERY important (critical!):
-Economics and Personal Finance (two different classes - they cannot be the same class!!!)
-some sort of Civics class (Gov/Pol, not pure history)
-American History
-World History (if the class is Euro-centric, it should be recognized as such)
-Computer Literacy (this can be integrated within different parts of the curriculum, so it does not need to necessarily be a class on its own)
-Computer Science (this is NOT the same as computer repair/troubleshooting, network administration, or computer skills/applications)
-Statistics (must include analyzing data, obtaining data (sampling, experimentation, etc.), representing data, patterns, statistical inference, and probability)
-Health, which must include Comprehensive Sexual Education (not abstinence-based, includes education on relationships, consent, STDs/STIs, etc.), First Aid/CPR, Substance Abuse education, and mental health/wellness education
-English classes covering any sort of reading material - involving composition and engaged class discussions which should become peer-led
Bonus (ideal):
All of the above, and:
-Foreign Language (or something like American Sign Language, Latin, Ancient Greek, etc.) - learned to at least working proficiency
-Chemistry
-Biology
-Physics
-Calculus
-English classes including Great American novels, Classical plays/poems (Sophocles, Homer, Virgil, etc.), and/or World literature
I would agree that a good health class is a great idea. Ours was not. It mostly focused on STDs and preventing pregnancy … which is great, but it is mandatory for public high school sophomores. Frankly, for many of them, the horse is already out of the barn at that point. It did have some information on exercise and healthy eating, but even my daughter laughed about the sexuality portion of it as she sat next to two girls who were pregnant their freshman year of high school.
Back in the olden days, I had to take shop, home economics and typing to graduate (over the course of grades 7-12). I use every single one of those classes in some way every day.
I’m not sure that personal finance would be particularly valuable for college-bound high school students. They won’t have to cope with most of it until they graduate from college, at which point they will have forgotten whatever they had learned.
@marian@thumper1 agreeing so much with a personal finance class.
My D is one of 4 in an apartment. She has to be in charge of all the bill paying because she’s the only one with a checking account. She’s the only one who had her own credit card and knows how to do her own taxes. She’s also the only one who knows how student loans and compounding interest work, despite not being one of the ones with a loan.
I wonder what impact it would have on all this student loan insanity if HS kids (and their parents) were required to take a personal finance class and understand how interest rates, compounding, budgets, and repayment plans actually work.
In addition to math, reading, writing, social studies and history, English language arts, and a foreign language–
-Personal finance–budget, basic investing 101, advice on school loans, how to purchase a house or land your first apartment. credit-card debt
-Economics (the hows and whys of how economies work) is a must
Arts and/or basic engineering (using Legos for example) and/or basic home economics such as cooking or sewing and/or basic wood shop--doing and creating in some way, because hands-on problem-solving skills help you solve other problems, practical and intellectual
In our state 4 years of ‘English’ are required to graduate and I would assume that is a pretty standard requirement.
After spending far too much of my time reading comments on internet sites, I really believe they should dedicate at least one of those semesters to a debate course.
Many college students will have to handle personal finance issues like managing the cost of college (including potential student loans); those who live some place other than with their parents tend to have to deal with more of the household budgeting than they do as high school students living with their parents. Also, most will be dealing with their own bank accounts and credit cards for their first time.
I would put the cooking component of home ec into the health curriculum - nutrition and how to cook healthy meals (and the evils of ramen noodles and leftover pizza).
Definitely a personal finance class. And include a chapter on advertising/marketing and how the industry manipulates you into thinking you must have something you really don’t need. As someone who has gone through two house purchases and four vehicle purchases, I am amazed at how some finance company tells me I can “afford” a larger loan that I know will force me into eating hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches for 10 years (but no jelly because I won’t be able to afford it).
My concern about some requirements is that we label something eg. “personal finance” and then pat ourselves on the back that we’ve prepared kids. When we make something a requirement to graduate, it has a way of turning into a kind of joke class. Our school’s personal finance class is mostly useless for actually managing money. I’m not sure, for instance, that they teach anything about inflation. But they do say, if you put your money in the bank and got 8% interest on it, think what a more expensive car you could buy in 5 years. Right.
For people who are suggesting additions to the currently required curriculum: what do you recommend removing? Our state only pays for five high school classes (local levy covers a sixth), so adding economics/personal finance/cooking (anything really) would mean no electives (orchestra, drama, art, PE…) or a reduction in the number of years of History (3.5), English (4), Math (3-4) Science (3-4) Language (2-4), etc. that they are expected/required to take now.
D had to start with French 1, did an IB diploma, and took AP Stats (to get 4 years of math) so that means she only had 3.5 electives during HS (Two years of Drama, one of Drama Tech and half a year of creative writing.) Technically that is 7 semester long classes. But I think it would have been a shame for her to give even one up to learn to balance her checkbook or cook (even though I agree those are really useful skills.) I wish she could have had art and maybe even music…