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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I appreciate and understand that. Which is why I think it is terrific to study languages if that is your thing. My point was more that there is a workaround if necessary.

I just think the US is so darned prescriptive. It has become boring to me to see all these high schoolers on the same path. We were just willing to let our son take a risk.

I have no idea how this will end. And that’s okay. [/quote]

What a joke.  Which major country on this planet isn’t “prescriptive” when it comes to elite college admissions?  China?  Japan?  The UK?  Germany?  Australia?  For most of these countries a kid’s university selection, major and often career are dictated by what decisions were made since they were, what, 10 or 12 years old?  Do you really think the US is unique in having particular and sometimes perplexing university admissions requirements.  If you do, then you don’t get out much.

The real difference is that American parents all think their own kid deserves special treatment and shouldn’t have to play by the rules,[/quote]

You are incorrect. High standards for elite schools are fine. But subject selection is indeed overly prescriptive in the US system.

Use Australia as an example. To earn your HSC, you test in English and four other subjects of your choosing. A polyglot can test in four additional languages. A future doctor can take four sciences. There is a math/econ/commerce track. Or a mix if the student prefers. But any of these paths will get you to a great university if you do well. Rigorous, broad General Ed requirements end at the end of Year 10.

Those kids are not tying themselves in knots trying to figure out how to be a well rounded yet extraordinarily pointy varsity athlete who founded a faux charity while paying a consultant $10k to polish the essay their mother wrote for them while they were busy paying to play at building mud huts in a random Central American country to which they have no connection. While speaking French.

I don’t think any kid should play by those rules. They need to be rewritten. 
[/quote]

Did you read what I actually wrote?  I said that one of the biggest problems with approaches like the one in Australia is that it effectively forces you to pick a career track years earlier than the US education system does.  And you’ve just confirmed my point.

I have a very good Australian friend whose son, for example, did exactly what you have just described to get himself into the engineering track, only to discover while in college that he really wasn’t interested.  It was very difficult after so many years invested in that track to get himself out of it.  Switching majors / retooling is much more difficult there than here.  [/quote]

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