Declaring a Major in High School
It’s hard enough for a 14-year-old to decide what music to listen to on any given day. But now, in many school districts around the country, ninth-graders will be forced to pick a major. This idea is an outgrowth of the popular “career academies” that add a few career-centric courses to a broad core curriculum. Starting this month, FloridaSouth Carolina enacted a similar law last year, designating 16 career clusters, including architecture, government, and agriculture. In Mississippi, a $5 million pilot program in 14 districts this fall will have ninth graders following one of seven career paths, such as construction and manufacturing or science, technology, engineering, and math. Having a major may be an asset in terms of college applications because colleges tend to favor students with expertise in particular areas since it demonstrates commitment and passion. districts will require every ninth grader to major in one of more than 400 state-approved subjects, ranging from world cultures to fashion design to family and consumer sciences.
Protect Your Active Teen
High school students with a history of a sports injury are almost twice as likely to be re-injured as their peers who haven't been hurt before, finds a study from the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Research Institute in California. The researchers analyzed data from 100 North Carolina public high schools for 12 sports over a 3-year period, during which time more than 2,500 out of 15,000 high-school varsity athletes were injured. Usually, it was the same body part that was re-injured among these teen athletes. Boys were about one third more likely to be hurt than girls, and football was the sport with the highest rate of injuries. The investigators speculate that many injured students may re-enter games before allowing proper healing time. More than half of all high school students participate in interscholastic athletics. The study shows how important it is for high schools to have a certified athletic trainer on hand to treat injuries immediately, work with athletes on rehabilitation, and follow up with them later on, say researchers. The study found that less than half of U.S. high schools have a trainer on staff. For sport injury prevention tips, see the Kids’ Health fitness page.
Marie J. 09/13/07
Well, they do it in Europe and have a lot fewer accidents. Kids drink watered wine and not much of that—they don’t drink to get drunk but because it’s something the family does. I don’t know that Americans get that idea of moderation.
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