J'swife Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 What would you focus on in high school if that were the case? He's my least "know what I want to do kid" which is fine, he's still young, but the other two have known what they wanted to do for a while. I have always tried to plan a study focusing on what they want to do. So I'm trying to get a head start on this for next year. Thanks, Kristine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 A lot of departments require a bachelor's degree, and more are moving to require it, so he'll need a standard 4-year college prep (which is probably a good idea in case he changes his mind). Criminal Justice is a popular major, and Sociology with a CJ minor is also frequently done when a CJ major doesn't exist. Academically: Consider including forensic science as a science. Consider including DE stats as it is required for many CJ majors. Consider extra social science courses in areas such as sociology, psychology, economics, or law (here is an interesting law course -- http://glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/street_law/index.php - would be reasonably suitable as a freshman elective) Consider a course in speech or incorporating oral communication/nonverbal communication into English. Non-academically: Contact your local PD and see if they have job-shadow opportunities for interested high schoolers and what the requirements are. Honestly I'd do this before I did anything with his academic career. Practicing martial arts is a good idea. Many policemen receive little training in this, but it can really help with being able to subdue someone without having to shoot them. Speaking of shooting, learning to be comfortable around guns and fire one, if available in your area. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJosMom Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 I agree with all of the above, but I wanted to highlight the importance of formal education. In order to advance in any good-sized department, one must have at least a bachelor's degree. To make it to upper management, a master's degree is increasingly common. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 If he wants to find out more about the general field, TPS offers a "Criminal Justice Careers" course. I don't know anything about it; I was just browsing their course list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mnemosyne Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 This is finally something I know something about. ;) Definitely plan on going the college route - there are many great CJ programs out there, but this is NOT REQUIRED. In fact... many departments look favorably at different degrees (try communication, psychology, sciences, even business or finance if interested in moving up). Most everything that is taught at a college/university is taught again at the academy, anyways. Many departments have different ways for teens to volunteer with them, which may be a good path to go - look for youth academies and the such. Police/Sheriff explorers, if there is one close by. Search and Rescue is great as well. Even being a cadet at a fire department or volunteering at the hospital - it's all a different world, and you can make great contacts. I haven't homeschooled high school (or at all, lol), but I can tell you what I did: In high school itself, I took business law, criminal law and forensic science. I joined Search and Rescue at 14 via the Sheriff's office as well as started volunteering at the hospital. Sophomore year - local youth academy. My junior year, I joined a Sheriff cadet program (Sheriff's Explorers) in a different county. I also attended the state police youth academy and ended up coming back and helped 'instruct' the local youth academy. Starting my junior year, I took law enforcement classes at the community college (with a bunch of currently active police officers, opening paths for me to volunteer at each of those departments as well as various academies that the CC hosted, which I did). I also focused on learning the languages mostly used in the area that I was looking at working in - Spanish and Russian. Other subjects I focused on were writing (being able to write well is integral), math (surprisingly important) and physical fitness (for obvious reasons: not just the physical fitness requirements, either. I also did 8 years of martial arts and a couple years of police 'defensive tactics'). I transferred to a 4 year university and got a Law and Justice degree, while being a part of the school CJ club. This is actually the only thing I would have done differently. I ended up going with it because it allowed me to graduate early, but for a while I was going the dual major + minor - Communications and Psychology majors + Law and Justice minor - route. I ended up marrying a soldier, so that kinda messed that route up for me, sadly. I'm actually still figuring out how to make it work - I'm young, so I still have at least 6 years or so before it'll be more difficult for me to find a job. EDIT: Hopefully this is useful. I went the obsessive route, which may or may not be your son as well, but I started about the same age. And I absolutely loved it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 In addition to the academic things listed above, skill-wise he'll be well served if he has strong mental math skills and is solid in narration. Police officers write a lot of reports and it's basically all narration. The ability to read a map is important as is a good sense of direction. :0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saja1029 Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 DH has been a police officer for 20 years now. His only regret was not learning Latin. Says it would have been very helpful. Also, possibly being fluent in Spanish, depending on your location. Educational requirements will vary. DH's department requires a 2 year degree in criminal justice to get hired. But, requires a bachelor's degree to become a lieutenant. As the previous poster mentioned, there is a ton of report writing. Writing is very important:) edited to correct - bachelor's degree, not master's degree - sorry! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Oh gosh, yeah, I can't believe I forgot Spanish. Spanish is a great choice for foreign language. If there is a large immigrant population in your area, another language may be more useful -- but Spanish is easy to find resources for and other languages may be far more difficult to find resources for. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 My university has a police academy in the same department with criminal justice. You might look into academies available in your area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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