A ‘Major’ Mistake

If you think the end of freshman year seems too early to pick a major, how does ninth grade sound? Fourteen-year-old Floridians will have to make that decision if Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida House get their way. But like a rosy pharmaceutical commercial in which the narrator speaks a bit too fast, the prescription of high school majors—in Florida or anywhere else—relies on a dangerous misdiagnosis and comes with several unnoticed side effects.

Specialization in high school neglects the primary role of secondary school: molding well-rounded students with a strong and stable intellectual, practical, and civic foundation. Indeed, Horace Mann, the “father of American education,” famously said that “a human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated.” This is why the core of a secondary education is comprised of a set of highly specified academically rigorous courses in math, science, history, and English. Any system of majors that encroaches on this educational core would undermine this critical foundation, increasing intellectual stagnation and paralyzing both academic and all-around growth.

In addition, carving a concentration system out of electives, as Florida has proposed, subverts the supposed objective of making high school more interesting. Electives are, by definition, optional courses designed to sweeten high school’s somewhat bitter cake with a refreshing break from the usual grind. Replacing electives with an academically intensive major transforms these invigorating breaks into further academic hoops to jump through, making the overall educational experience less stimulating for many students.

Furthermore, a system of high school majors also mischaracterizes the central purpose of a concentration, which is to provide a deep and sophisticated understanding of a subject. Just as one must learn to swim before one begins to dive, one must master the basics of academic analysis and inquiry before majoring. High school provides this foundation of lexical, mathematical, and analytical tools necessary for sustained and intensive inquiry in almost any field. Specialization in high school, before these skills are fully acquired, would be superficial at best.

Aside from these pedagogical concerns, forcing children to choose concentrations so early has practical pitfalls. The selection of a specialty is a watershed decision that profoundly affects one’s future, career, and interests. Although this system will force students to start thinking about these critical choices early on, it is absurd to assert that a 14-year-old is prepared to make this decision. Indeed, many college students and adults have difficulty making such decisions and switch between fields repeatedly before finding their true calling.

Even if students were mature enough to select a major, they would not be sufficiently informed. High school is the first opportunity to sample many of the dishes on the intellectual menu. Without a tasting, students would have only a dim idea of their options. For instance, a student might select history as a major based on the stories they learned about George Washington in fifth grade—clearly an inadequate basis for choosing a major.

Additionally, at such a young age students have not sufficiently accumulated advice that could improve their decisions. This is a particularly acute problem in public schools, which in many cases have astronomical student to adviser ratios. Without an infusion of resources and a revolution in adviser training, students will be left to sink or swim without a coach or lifeguard.

But beyond these harmful side effects, Bush’s educational prescription is based on a misdiagnosis. First, the plan is supposed to stop the bleeding of high school dropouts by making class more stimulating so that more will stay in school. The alarming dropout rate is a complex puzzle, and scholars attribute the phenomenon to a variety of social, academic, and institutional factors. It is simplistic to assert that refocusing a few courses on a major will have a large effect on the dropout rate. The claim that a high school major will make school more exciting for poor students is also dubious as the only way to implement such a system without destroying a student’s general education is by taking away electives, which are often the most interesting courses.

Second, the plan is supposed to provide both vocational training for students going directly into the work force and advanced course tracks for college-bound students. These students, however, already have the option of creating de facto specializations by focusing electives on one area if they so choose. Furthermore, shoving a specified menu of additional courses down students’ throats is not the best way to improve work and college preparation for the masses, even though it may work at “science magnets” for select gifted and motivated students. Instead, educators should focus on reducing class size, improving teaching, redesigning curricula, and providing internships and after-school programs that will truly enrich a student’s experience.



Though noble in its intent, the Florida plan is an ill-conceived attempt to apply a simple, cheap, and ultimately harmful, medication to cure an epidemic. If Florida, or any state for that matter, is serious about improving public education, it should stop playing with fire by rejecting high school majors and instead get out its checkbook.



Adam M. Guren ’08, a Crimson associate editorial chair, is an economics concentrator in Eliot House.