Time for a change

Required classes don't prepare students for real world

Over the course of an entire high school career, students are allowed 32 classes. 32 classes and four years to complete every graduation requirement and whatever courses administration demands. Sixteen core credits, an art, a physical education, a technology, a design and numerous other constraints on your schedule.

Students may feel as though the classes they are required to take in order to graduate are unnecessary or a waste of time. It’s been questioned by myself, and a plethora of other students, why physical education or art is a requirement instead of a home economics class or something more applicable to the real world.

In theory, as physical education goes, it is beneficial for students to know how to take care of their bodies, exercise and spark interest that is needed to live happy, healthy and productive lives. Though in reality, it’s not so simple. PE classes on campus consist of one “timed” mile per six weeks, and not much learning actually occurs for the remainder of the course.

Physical education is not necessarily a wasted credit but an opportunity to learn more about one’s health, body and overall fitness if executed correctly. Understanding your body and even the fine arts contribute to achieving healthy lives, but it could potentially be substituted with a class that will benefit students after graduation, such as health science or sexual education.

Offering an array of fine art classes is also potentially beneficial to every student, for it inspires creativity that can be useful for a healthy life. Although, I wouldn't consider it essential over a life preparation class.

In fact, for some students art is completely worthless; it is senseless for students who don’t participate in art engaging careers or extracurriculars to have to forfeit a credit they will never apply to their lives beyond their high school years. I don’t suggest the administration utterly just eliminate art courses as a whole, but perhaps make them solely an elective rather than a graduation requirement.

This is why, instead of art or PE, schools should require coding or computer science. Technology is growing exponentially quicker than you may think, and a class such as financial planning, computer science or coding would prepare students for life more efficiently than an art class might.

It's more questioned why driver’s education or home economics classes aren't offered, but art and graphic design classes are imperative. Non-school related driver’s education courses now can cost up to $500, which is far from affordable for a large portion of high school students. Offering, or even requiring, driver’s ed in order to graduate would benefit students rather than restrict them with a business class they'll probably never use.

Certain advisers agree with the idea of offering a driver’s course to their students at Texas High; in fact, it was available some odd years ago, but was recalled for an unknown reason. Offering classes like these benefits every student, and not just the fraction that plans to participate in higher education.

Higher education isn’t exclusive to a four year bachelor's degree program, it includes trade schools and career training programs as well. By the year 2030, 60% of jobs in the nation will require some form of certification along with a high school diploma, but this loose statistic doesn’t mean the other 40% who can’t afford secondary learning, or perhaps plans to enlist in the military, deserve to be discarded.

Administration would be more proactive to focus on life preparation rather than a misleading and hollow “well rounded” education.