Options: Then And Now

My youngest nephew starts studying for his GCSEs next year, so he is currently in the process of choosing his options for the next stage of his high school life.

I've been assisting him with getting on the school website to make his three picks (four counting a substitute selection in case of clashes). I thought it would be worthwhile for him to look at each subject and then rank them in three categories 'Yes', 'No' and 'Maybe'.

We have whittled them down.

The reason why the options is on my mind as I write today's post is because of how amazed I am with nearly all the subjects that are on offer nowadays.

Back in my school days (it would actually be thirty years this year), my options were somewhat limited. 

Going by memory: the first thing I had to choose was a head-to-head between geography and history. I chose the latter.

Next, there was a handful of subjects listed and I had to choose one. I recall GCSE Physical Education was on this list and I did consider it because my friends were going for it. I eventually realised that was going to be a crazy decision because I have two left feet when it came to football and other sports. I went for Business and Information Studies. I made the right choice with that one.

Anyway, back to modern day schooling, there were twenty-six subjects to choose from. They were:

1. Art and Design
2. Drama
3. Engineering
4. French
5. Geography
6. Global Business 
7. Health and Social Care
8. Mandarin (!)
9. Music
10. Hospitality and Catering
11. Religious Studies
12. Photography
13. Textile Arts
14. Tourism
15. Retail Business
16. Spanish
17. Wales, Europe and the World
18. Design and Technology
19. Digital Technology
20. History
21. Information Technology (Vocational Level)
22. Physical Education
23. Wood Skills
24. Computer Science
25. Home Cooking Skills
26. Wood Skills

I would have had a hard, long, think about choosing some of those. What an abundance of interesting subjects to choose from.

Mandarin stood out immediately to me. I doubt I would have picked it, had I been given the choice, but it's something that could potentially compliment the students looking to take on the other subjects like tourism, retail business and global business.

I often find myself thinking I had it good during my school days. I still do. However, I would have loved to have been able to take up some of these subjects back then.