Middle school electives

[Anonymous]

My older son is starting middle school in the fall and we selected his electives. He doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up - so we just picked the ones that he was interested in. However, I was talking to a group of mom friends and they made more targeted selections for their kids. For example, they had to do a foreign language and stick to science related subjects based on their career goals. Is this what people typically do for middle school? DH and I moved to the US as adults so we may be missing something. I would hate for my kids to miss out because we are not aware of these things. Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older son is starting middle school in the fall and we selected his electives. He doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up - so we just picked the ones that he was interested in. However, I was talking to a group of mom friends and they made more targeted selections for their kids. For example, they had to do a foreign language and stick to science related subjects based on their career goals. Is this what people typically do for middle school? DH and I moved to the US as adults so we may be missing something. I would hate for my kids to miss out because we are not aware of these things. Thank you so much.

I have two kids entering public middle school this year.

They picked electives related to what they enjoy, and what they're good at. If I had to guess what career they'll eventually choose, I wouldn't be surprised if it reflects their talents and interests, which have been pretty consistent since they were younger. But I didn't force choices that went with a specific career.

[Anonymous]

My kid picked electives based on what she liked. She did not do any foreign language in MS. It was art classes, mostly.

[Anonymous]

Career oriented electives? Nah.

We picked based on interests, and pickings were slim. Our rising 7th grader did their first year of a foreign language and one semester-long media elective and one semester-long STEM elective. Next year will do the 2nd year of a language and two more semester-electives (maybe art and another STEM).

We choose based on interest and frankly, perceived level of difficulty to a certain extent, because our child is in a magnet with difficult classes and one extra course.