Each year, students flock to the culinary arts, so much so that many students don’t get in to these classes. This has prompted the administration to add another culinary arts class. Our gripe isn’t with people’s interest in cooking; by all means keep making our dreaded trips to the fourth floor smell better. But do all these students really have an interest in the art of cooking crepes? We are not trying to single out culinary classes so stop writing that much appreciated letter to the editor. It’s just that, well, the whole elective system is flawed.
Because of state or New Trier graduation requirements, every student here has to take both fine or practical art and a business education course, not to mention 1 semester of Drivers Education, and Kinetic Wellness for 4 years. With most students taking five majors, fitting all of these classes plus electives into the stressful four years of New Trier can be difficult. Often, making room for New Trier required electives means students must sacrifice am elective in which they have a genuine interest.
Take, oh, how about journalism? Of the two available courses, neither fulfills the graduation requirement of a practical or fine art. This means that each student in a journalism class is simply taking the class because, spoiler alert, that student is interested in the subject. (Or wants to impress colleges; we can’t be sure about some of these folks.) But isn’t that how it should be though? Shouldn’t each student in an elective course actually have a real interest in the subject and want to take that class?
Elective is defined as an optional course of study. The key word there is “optional”. Our school’s graduation requirements mentioned above—all of which fall in the “elective” category—contradicts this very definition. We already have to take English each year. We are strongly advised, if not forced, to take math through senior year. And we are pushed to immerse ourselves in a language for forty minutes a day for at least three years of our high school career. So why regulate our fun and supposed “optional” courses?
It doesn’t add to the environment of the class. Disinterested students surely aren’t the type of students teachers hope to have in class. It is highly doubtful that each student in a cooking course really wants to learn the art of cooking. Sure, many do, but a large number probably realized in February of their junior year that they hadn’t completed their practical arts requirement and cooking sounded like the least stressful class. Again, this isn’t a jab at cooking, just a timely reference to the spike in curricular interest over the last couple of years. And it isn’t likely that each student in sculpture or sports marketing is jumping with joy in taking such a class. These classes fulfill an unfortunate requirement for those who would rather be taking another course during the supposed lighter periods.
So what is a possible solution? Because getting rid of the graduation requirements for a fine or practical art is farfetched, and as likely to happen as the reopening of the Smoking Corner, we propose a compromise. If a course is practical or artistic in any sense (as cooking, journalism, sculpture, and financial management are), it should count as an elective fulfilling the graduation requirement of a practical or fine art. When you try to weigh the practicality or artfulness of one course against another that involves critical thinking, expression, and creativity, nobody wins.