That's sort of vestigial when you compare it to the old Industrial Arts track in Ontario high schools. As I recall, Grade 9 Electricity was a common course requ

That's sort of vestigial when you compare it to the old Industrial Arts track in Ontario high schools. As I recall, Grade 9 Electricity was a common course required for both the Electricity (what you'd need to know as an apprentice electrician) and Electronics (prep for a technician/technologist program at a College of Applied Arts and Technology) courses in grades 10-12, and both programs required additional courses in drafting and the basics in sheet metal, wordworking and machine shops as well (things you'd need to practically apply what you were taking in your core courses). Unfortunately, the way things were arranged meant that opting for the IA track in Grade 9 pretty much meant giving up university as an option since you'd have to give up the credits in things like history, geography and CanLit that were required at the grade 9 and 10 level for an OSSHGD (Grade 13 diploma). And there was a big gender divide as well, at least at the time. It's a damned shame that the only approach considered for fixing the system was to (mostly) dump it.