The national security train comes to a high school curriculum near D.C.

If you have not lived under a rock, you know that American high schools can be interesting security challenges.

From a kid with a homemade digital clock which is promptly diagnosed as a bomb by an English major - a teacher, not a major major - to the idiot cop caught on camera obviously harassing a student who is doing some quiet siting in a chair to metal detectors - you must have seen one of these.

Then there is the curriculum in some Washington D.C. area high schools.

According to a report on NPR this week, a number of schools have begun to incorporate national security topics in the curriculum.

To many Europeans this may sound odd, but please remember that American high schools have much greater freedom in establishing a curriculum than most European counterparts.

So, there is no sinister government sponsored political agenda there although the U.S. government has been prompting language skills in "rare languages" for over a decade and the Department of Homeland Security has an effort geared towards cyber security.

In the D.C. area, it is about jobs and money, as the NPR interviewee explained.

There are many well paid jobs in national security in the greater D.C. area. Parents in the industry are attracted by offerings that enhance career prospects in the field for their offspring.

The approach reminds the blogster of the proliferation of criminal justice college degrees in the early days of the tough on crime creation of the American Gulag in the 1980s and 1990s.

On the bright side, more Americans will soon be able to find places like North Korea or Iran on a map, and more will speak a foreign language.