What electives were available in high school?

Wow, Principles of Technology and stained glass sounds great! I went to high school between 2002 and 2006, in a public high school in a rich county in the U.S. We had electives including painting/drawing, home ec, sculpture, drama, woodshop, drafting, and business typing/business systems. My senior year, the school added some career academies so students could also elect to take classes such as carpentry/construction, cooking, auto tech, things like that.

In the public school in my small community, the electives have dwindled down to just very few.
Band
Choir
Art
CAD
Two different Phys Ed classes
Drama
Business Technology
Agriculture Communications and Leadership
Vocational Education
It is very hard for a student to work out a schedule with so few choices. Most of the classes are only offered for one class time.

Dude, all of that sounds so awesome. Learning to do some of that is on my bucket list. Wish we had had that in high school. Not that I had time for it or anything.

I did have CAD. That was one of my favorite classes I took in high school. I could have taken a shop class, but didn’t. I was in the band, which counted as an elective, and there was also the orchestra and chorus and a music theory class. There were studio art classes, but nothing awesome like stained glass, just drawing classes. There was a class called computer programming, networking, and repair, which for some reason had so little interest that it stopped being offered by the time I had room for it in my schedule, so I took it as an independent study. I can’t think of much else. I’m jealous!

I was in high school from 1879 to 1983 and our choices were Home Economics, Textiles, Typing, Woodwork, Metalwork and Technical Drawing. The subjects were strictly gender-separated; girls were allowed to choose only the first three and boys were allowed only the second three. This really upset the boy who wanted to be a chef and the girl who wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but they wouldn’t relax that rule.

There were music classes (e.g. guitar, band), some computer programming like intro to Java, art (Photography, Sculpting). I distinctly remember a “journalism” class, but that just seemed like a huge joke. Then there were “college” level classes that you can get credit for community college. It was completely different than AP classes, but equally worthless.

The only interesting elective was the forensics science class because it was the only class you can dissect animals.

There were probably a lot more, but we didn’t have the wood/metalworking and auto classes because the garages were converted into classrooms to accommodate the growing size of the student population. Plus, there are a lot of trade schools in the area.

Music, metal, wood, home economy, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Medical Terminology and some other stuff. This was in 2004. In Multnomah county.

When I was in high school, girls were offered typing and home economics and boys were offered wood working and metal working. In my senior year, 1961 there was a revolution that allowed both boys and girls in those classes.

My school seemed to be more technologically “inclined” I guess. My high school offered more classes on computer programming and graphic arts (different levels and everything, way too many for one person to take) and even classes on how to use computers and programs like Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. There were also a lot of social studies classes like economics, geography, sociology, contemporary history, things like that. Not too many math electives, and no workshop classes, but typical fine arts and performing arts classes as well (band, chorus, studio art, etc). I can’t quite remember how the fine arts classes were structured, but the fine arts department definitely had a kiln and a dark room and sculpting materials. It was more of a “21st-century” school in general, with an “incline” towards getting people ready for college.