Any Texas DUers who can answer this for me?

[Coventina]

This is regarding the education system in Texas.

I was in a meeting on Thursday when a person said that all Texas school children are required to express a career preference before they start high school.

Is this true?

I just wanted to verify this and see if any Texans can confirm this.

I think it's appalling if true. At 13 I wanted to be a ballerina. How are kids that young supposed to make an informed choice? And even if they are not technically held to it, I am disturbed that it might start to limit their thinking of what they can be.

Thanks for any help or information you may have.

[DFW]

1. This is the first I have heard of this

My elder daughter was the last one to spend any time in the Texas public school system, and she certainly never was told anything of the sort.

[Coventina]

3. I was under the impression that this is fairly recent.

I don't know when your daughters graduated, but it sounded like something that was done in the last 5 years or so.

[DFW]

10. My daughters graduated way before that

And neither of them ended up graduating from high school in Texas (one on Germany, the other literally on the other side of the world in Hawaii, as a matter of fact). However, the children of friends of mine in back in Dallas who graduated way later (within the last 5 years) still never were required to state anything of the sort. My friends had the means to bring their children to schools out of state if they wanted, and would have done so if their children had been required to do that.

[Coventina]

12. Please see my link below. n/t

[DFW]

15. I did

It is still crazy, but it is non-binding, and somewhat vague. As usual: a bunch of bureaucrats in offices somewhere dreaming up rules for someone else (never themselves) to follow. That could just as easily have been here in Germany or next door in France.

It makes no sense at all, but it is nowhere near as drastic as it sounded at first. Even when I graduated college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. A year later, I was recruited by the same outfit I still work for today (43 years later!). Now I'm station chief for Europe, get to travel a lot to nice countries, and take as much vacation as I want. If you had asked me in the 8th grade, I probably would have said that my current job "sounds nice," but there's no way I could have figured out how to get it (they called me, I didn't call them).

For all this, both of our children were giving indications as far back as the 8th grade as to which directions their eventual careers would take them. However, if we had FORCED them to make a choice at the time, they both would have stepped in front of the first bus they could find.

[marlakay]

2. My daughter lives in Texas

Never mentioned it to me about grandkids they are 10 & 12 though.

[Coventina]

5. I just posted a link. n/t

[marlakay]

9. Thats crazy!

No way do you definitely know what you want to do in 8th grade. I changed my mind a ton of times.

[Coventina]

13. Personally, I find it horrific.

And yes, I also changed constantly.

[Coventina]

4. Here is a link:

http://keranews.org/post/texas-students-choose-career-paths-eighth-grade-and-thats-creating-anxiety

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. In New Mexico they're trying to have students declare

what they will do after high school as part of the requirements for graduation.

Most 17 and 18 year olds don't really know what they want to do in life. Most college students change majors at least once, often more.

I can see a certain sense in asking graduating seniors to think about life after high school, but incoming freshman?

There are people out there who knew at a very early age what they wanted to do or be, and while I think that is wonderful for them, it's not realistic for most people. I did notice when my kids were looking at college, that parents who were doctors expected their kids to know exactly what they would major in and what career they'd have, because most doctors decide on that at the beginning of college if not before.

[BigMin28]

7. I have

a sophmore in public school here. It wasn't required of him.

[Igel]

8. Yes, no, and maybe.

Several years ago the legislature passed a law changing graduation requirements, called HB 5.

It sets up a basic graduation requirement + "endorsements". There are maybe half a dozen of them, from STEM to fine arts to public service. Think of them as pathways to graduation.

Each student still needs 4 years each of math, science, English, and social studies. The choice of those + electives constitute the endorsement. There's a lot of overlap between a lot of them, so with a little planning you can keep your options open. But officially you need to pick an endorsement in 8th grade. My kid just did this. He spent hours agonizing over it and was offended when we laughed and told him his choice was inconsequential. I'll get to that in a minute.

For STEM, for instance, you need a cluster of courses in technology (engineering or robotics, for example), or science (physics, advanced sciences like AP chem or Physics AP 1). I think there's a mixed option.

For fine arts you can do visual arts or dose up intensively on music. Public service also lets you miss physics, but it's one of the few so most school districts (I think) still push kids to take physics. I think they also miss algebra II.

For most juniors I've met their "endorsement" is still mostly hypothetical. They've picked one, but if they kept to a fairly rigorous academic schedule they have fulfilled the requirements for maybe 4 of them and can really make their final selection just about now in their junior year. Those who commit early to public service or fine arts and really are science and math averse could find themselves firmly slotted in those endorsement pathways and be stuck. Counselors cajole students to courses that keep options open, but if a kid's really committed then the counselor loses.

The degree of overlap between endorsement pathways really depends on the courses a school offers. There are "physics-like" courses that don't qualify as physics for STEM credit but do qualify as physics for others.

[Coventina]

14. I understand that it might not be locked in, but I still think it can be very damaging.

Why start to put the blinders on at such a young age?

[TexasProgresive]

11. Some where buried in HB5 2014

https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB5/id/805207

[Trueblue Texan]

16. I don't think so...

..But when I was in high school that's what they taught us about Russian kids. Maybe that's how it's going to be when we're all speakin' Russian?

[cpamomfromtexas]

17. My 8th grader said she was told she needed to declare

A “major”. She had a special term for it but I forgot what they call it.