i know that you asked aobut high school but i must say that if they first and foremost need to be properly prepared for high school. the most crucial ages are 0-3 then K, 3, 6......

foreign lang. the brain and the ability to pickup sentence structure, lexicons, phonetic transcription etc...... is when the child is a toddler. waiting to teach a child a foreign lang. in high school is counterproductive.

critical thinking, needs to start at an early age as well.

little things like if a child doesn't know how to spell a word, start them looking the word up in the dictionary at an early age.

computers, although we are in a technological age. i think that computers have become a hindrance for young minds and that they should not be heavily relied upon.

history, all kids need to know the TRUE history of this country.

test taking skills, start preparing kids for taking standardized tests at an early age. there is a method to the madness of standarized test.

man, i can go on and on but i will stop here. i apologize if i went back to k-8 but i think that the foundation is needed here first. and though baltimore is trying to make improvement k-8 there is a long way to go.
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