What goes in high school?

I can't pin down what I learned in high school that I retained. I suspect it was much more than I imagine, because I had a "'satiable curtiosity" about so many different things that I built on the classroom info (never mind the things I learned outside of class). Most of the historical dates and names slipped away.

I remember some of the things we tried to make sure we taught our kids. I saw/see notable gaps in current high-school grads' knowledge. And I recall some things I should have been shown or refused to be interested in that in retrospect were a lot more important than I thought.

"One size fits all" is probably not the best way to go, but "fits many" has its attraction. The following isn't as random as it looks...

Not everybody should go to college, and Vocational Education is far too small a program in the places I've seen. I think most of us already know this. But as the comments in AVI's link above remind us, just being academics-smart isn't good prep for life, or even for college.

I took drafting and shop in Middle-School/Junior High. Any kind of graphics art would have probably had the same effect as drafting. Shop, however interrupted by malaria, was useful. I had the equivalent of a course in power tools while working at the maintenance shop at Ricks--albeit with some safety shortcuts. Yes, it was also useful to have it very clear that on some things I wasn't the smartest person in the room.

Some schools teach what I'd call "Survival Skills": money management and cooking and sewing and health. I'd add a few more--including some simple woodworking, engine diagnosis (these days you can barely repair them), and keyboarding.

Add a couple more short courses for surviving in a culture of lies: statistics and how to spot propaganda and how to read a news story and figure out what got left out.

I'm not 100% sure that Algebra II is worth a year, and trig is just a month's worth of material.

I don't know that I learned much more in later English classes than the earlier ones, though more exposure to good writing and speaking is a good thing. To be blunt, though, I'm not overwhelmed with confidence that the teachers/school boards are picking good examples.

The student should have at least a little exposure to energy and chemistry and biology--more is better, but I get it that some kids aren't going to master the fields. Still, they need enough to recognize the concepts in the wild.

History: There's more than you can cover in a few years, and more dates than anybody will ever remember. The history of the West, history of the US, with a sketchier parallel history of the MidEast and East, and Africa and the Americas.

Social Studies: Why is our government designed as it is, and how is it supposed to work? How do societies work? How do economies work? What is the role of religion? Unfortunately these questions are currently largely answered by ideologues, for a kind of negative learning.

A foreign language would be good, but I'd schedule that a lot earlier than high school, when it isn't nearly so hard. Maybe some followup courses...

I can't expect to pack into less than half a dozen years what I learned in decades and which my mental foreshortening imagines happened in the week between 7'th grade and yesterday. But some things could maybe be squeezed in.

If only: some of the kids could tackle some of the important questions, and learn about the old debates, like "What is freedom?"

And then one has the classes I hated the most: PE and music. I wasn't much good in either, and resisted practicing for either. My foolishness; both are important. Dance would be a good compromise--not that I cared for that either. Regular team sports are part of PE.

Hmm. There isn't much room for electives in this. Maybe with a 5-year program, scheduling some of the shop and whatnot in Middle School... there's some elasticity in the programming; some courses don't need a full semester.

What would you put in? Or take out...