Dropping a class to be yourself

Editor’s note: Shulman is a Herald student columnist from Kennedy High School, which has students from Bellmore and Merrick.

From the time that we are children, we are told to be ourselves –– to be unique. Students show their unique natures daily. How they dress, how they act and how they learn are all different. But there is one part of school where most students do not try to be themselves: their schedule. Why does this happen? Students constantly ask their guidance counselors the question, “What looks good for college?” instead of the asking themselves the obvious question, “What do I actually enjoy?”

This leads to a bad chain-reaction. Students do not want to sit through a class that they hate. Because they dislike the class, they do not try as hard and are ultimately unsuccessful. So why is it that students often chose to take a class that bores them instead of a class that interests them? Because they are told by their peers, parents and sometimes school officials that if they do not take a certain class, it looks bad for college.

Instead of this, students should take classes that appeal to them. If they do, they will probably like the class more, and therefore pay attention better, perform better and gain more out of the class. There’s just no reason 12th-graders should think it is required that they take a math class when they would rather learn a second foreign language. On the other hand, why should students be told that they need to take a foreign-language class that they dislike when they could take an equally acceptable class, like Advanced Placement biology?

The problem is that students’ minds are filled with the idea that there is little leeway in their core classes. We have a few periods of electives, but when it comes to core classes, every student basically takes the same class at Regents or Honors level in every subject. But students know the difference between dropping a core class (beside English and social studies, which must be taken all four years of high school) for a challenging class and dropping a core class for an easy class, which, of course, “looks bad for college.”