The Prowler
Opposing Views: Switching courses - Students must choose courses with careWednesday, March 28, 2012 By Regen Weber
“Choose your alternates with care. You might get stuck with them.” It’s a lesson reiterated year after year during registration, when high schoolers pick their courses for the following year. Well, as of this February, that message is all the more relevant. Starting with the next calendar school year, students won’t be allowed to changes courses after registration. It’s a necessary change, and it’s about time the administration made it. The ability to drop courses can lead to awkward class sizes. No one wants to show up to his/her elective and find out there’s only four other students in it after twenty had signed up, but most of them dropped out. Small classes could also be cancelled, which would lead to different scheduling problems as students are shuffled around into other classes to fill the new gaps in their schedules. The opposition would argue that dropping classes is necessary as a last means of escape from a disliked class. Frankly, if students actually took the time to think about their course choices, they wouldn’t even run into that problem. Nobody would need to drop out of a class they don’t like if they actually did the research before signing up. If they spent the time to ask other students and read the course guide, they would know what classes they were getting into. They wouldn’t sign up for a class they didn’t like in the first place. Someone who hates art shouldn’t sign up for Drawing and Painting. C hanging courses was an unnecessary privilege, especially when it’s so easily avoided. It’s time that high schoolers, who are about to be pushed out into the real world, take accountability for their choices, instead of dropping out the minute things start to look difficult or unpleasant . |