This is a tension that should decrease as you advance in the system and declare a major. By your senior year, and into graduate school, ALL your classes will be dedicated to a single subject.

The University offers — and demands — a broad cross-section of general courses under the philosophy that an educated person has a wide range of general interests and knowledge, but also that discovering one’s passions is a question of delving into a variety of subjects.

High schools draw from some of that philosophy and structure, but are not Universities either. A university student can usually choose among a vast array of different options, and once a major is chosen it all gets focussed pretty quickly. High school is a strange marriage of elementary school — which is dedicated to laying a foundation of fundamental skills and knowledge needed to become an adult — and college — which is dedicated to the professional ambitions and cares of independent adults not needing childcare. High school simultaneously treats its charges like children, but models its class content on the university, which is intended for adults (more or less).