High School Already?!?
Tonight we attended a “very important meeting regarding 9th grade course registration.” I’m still trying to deal with the fact that Justis is now a teenager and no longer a toddler and here the school is discussing class registration for high school.
Where did all the time go?
Apparently it’s been quite some time since I was in high school. When I was in high school we got to chose between about three different English classes, none of which sounded even remotely fun. We had a keyboarding class…where we typed on a typewriter. It was an electric typewriter, but a typewriter nonetheless. We did have Yearbook and a school newspaper [neither of which I participated in], but that was about it for the “fun” classes.
It’s totally different now. Now it’s more like college courses. They even have “pathways” where the kids can kind of choose a “major” and take classes on that path. Kids can, of course, take classes from many different pathways if they choose. They can also change pathways whenever they’d like. Justis is currently undecided [aren't we all? :)].
They choose classes from pathways such as Agriscience & Natural Resources, Arts & Communications, Business, IT, Marketing, Family & Human Services and Engineering.
They have art classes that range from pencil drawing to ceramics, photograpy to digital drawing. And there are classes on Illustrator and Photoshop too.
There are business classes like accounting, personal finance and entrepreneurship.
Industrial Technology classes include Introduction to Engineering Design, Drawing/CAD, Automotive Technology, Home Construction and Manufacturing.
And there are tons of IT classes. I remember when I was in elementary school we had our first experience with a computer. We created a “Hello World” program in Basic. In DOS. Now kids can take Web Design, Oracle Databse Programming, PC Hardware, Networking, Video Production and Broadcasting.
Plus many of these classe are dual credit classes. That means the kids will get high school credit and college credit. In fact some of the classes are taken at the community college. Successfully completing the networking classes in the IT program satisfies some of the requirements for the LAN Management degree that Lee is working towards. There is a Creative Foods course that satisfies a requirement in the Culinary Arts program at the community college.
We never had choices like this when I was in high school.
I, of course, am way more excited about these opportunities then Justis is. He just has no idea how great this is. These aren’t your basic “how will this stupid class help me in the future” classes. These classes really will teach them real life skills that they will use every day in the real world.
On one hand I’m scared about some of the decisions Justis will make as an “almost” adult. I still remember my high school years pretty well. And I remember some of the decisions I made that I thought were such good, grown up decisions then that I wish I could just slap my sixteen year old self about now. I’m a little worried about being on the parent side of this relationship.
Then on the other hand I’m so excited about the possiblities. Justis has the opportunity to have some really great experiences. Make some really great friends. Learn so much. And really prepare himself for living on his own.
During the meeting I told Justis there were some really cute girls in his class. He agreed.
He pointed out one girl and I said “yeah she’s really cute. You should ask her out.” He said, “Yeah, right. She’s like the most popular girl in school.”
And then I actually heard myself turn in to an old person. I heard the cracking of my bones, the chatter of my old lady teeth and I could feel the gray hairs growing. I actually said, “So. You should give it a try. You never know until you try.”
I knew I had overstepped my cool mom boundries with that comment. With that one statement I made it blatantly obvious that I have completely forgotten all about my two years of middle school and four years of high school teenage angst. I had just removed my cute hip teenager facade and put on my old lady mom cap.
I needed to cover quickly. “Quick! Look over there. Pretty girl.”
Luckily boys are easily thrown off by the sight of a pretty girl.
