Arguement

There are many students that work very hard throughout their entire schooling career in order to prepare themselves for college and to eventually get a degree in a field of their choice. However, until college choices are limited as far as scheduling in high school and are non-existent in this aspect in elementary school. The only two classes designated to be taken all four years of one’s college education are English and physical education. Insisting that these two subjects are taken throughout one’s high school education is insinuating that these subjects are more important than others such as math, science, and history, which all have much broader aspects for students to learn. Electives can end up giving a student more knowledge in a field they specifically are interested in, yet other classes are held as more important. Although all students should have knowledge in the four main subjects throughout high school, students should not be forced to take more years of one subject in order to get a diploma.

English, a very important subject and necessary in almost all aspects of life, is a class must be taken all four years of high school. However, students are not forced to increase their levels of study. One can take a modified English class throughout high school, coasting their way through, not learning new things each year. Unless one increases their level of education to an honors or AP class they are missing out on useful information, such as fallacies, rhetorical devices, ect. This space allotted to these English classes could be used to further one’s development in another subject, such as history, where new things are learned each year and there are many more ways to expand without increasing difficulty. Physical education classes are also required each year of high school, in an effort to reduce the obesity in teenagers. This is a very noble attempt, but that is a period everyday that one could use to further their education of knowledge, rather than to exercise. These classes are necessary in order to facilitate labs for science courses but there are students already forced to take a lab out of other courses due to scheduling issue so it can be done. One does not learn new things every year in physical education the way one can learn something in history or math.

There are many different electives that can be taken in order to help a student focus on a field of their choice, however most of these electives are not considered core courses so they do not count to fulfill graduation requirements. One example of this is in the science field. A class such as forensic science does not count as a year, even though it has a lab period and students do just as much work as in other science classes. The requirements to graduate do not apply to this course, thus depriving a student of taking it if a required class conflicts with it. There are many other electives rich in educational value that students may overlook because they are too busy taking required classes that many not be as beneficial to that particular student.

One may say that not requiring a certain number of years in the core classes would cause students to take easy classes to attempt to not do any work during high school. This would be prevented by the consideration of colleges, which will commonly not take students unless they take a certain number of classes in certain subjects of study. This new way of organizing a student’s schedule would allow for more freedom for the student and a focused path to their future instead of a generic path their peers are on. Putting more responsibility on the student would force them to plan ahead and better prepare them for college.

Mark Twain once said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." In forcing students to take classes they are not interested in, the system is trying to control a student’s schooling, not thinking about the effect it will have on their future education. Maintaining a rigorous schedule should not be based on specific classes but rather helpful classes to enhance a student’s knowledge. Students have many things to worry about throughout their school lives, trying to schedule classes they have interest and a requirement in should not be one of them.