By Brendan Raleigh
Round Table editor
As state budgets around the country are being cut, so is the number of classes which high schools like Middletown can afford to offer. Numerous creative arts and language courses are among those on the chopping block.
While I recognize the need to reduce the number of classes to create a more financially viable education budget, those selected– the foreign languages in particular– are not expendable.
French and Latin may present more of a challenge than Team Sports or Weight Training, but the point of High School is to prepare students for college, not to show them that there is always a way out of doing hard work. Someone who takes an inordinate number of P.E. classes almost guarantees that he or she will be completely overwhelmed when faced with a college workload.
This is not to say that P.E. classes have no value; they do. The problem is that students are using them to avoid taking more difficult or homework-heavy classes. The fact that so many students would rather take blow-off classes is a waste of the school’s, as well as the state’s, resources. If students were more willing to exit their comfort zone and challenge themselves, then not only would they be better prepared for their futures, but Maryland’s taxpayers would see their money spent more efficiently.
Students should be encouraged to diversify and intensify their schedules. The requirement of certain credits before graduation does a mediocre job of this, as, once the requisites have been met, there is little to no incentive to schedule more difficult classes (at least for those who aren’t aiming for selective colleges).
The mere meeting of the graduation requirement does not fulfill the potential in most students; meeting it is not an achievement, it is an expectation, and a low one at that. Allowing students to stop at the bare minimum tells them that it is acceptable to aim for the easy way out. College may be labeled the “time of self-discovery” for young adults, but it’s never too early for them to start broadening their horizons.
