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Freedom High School has undergone many changes, especially in student class offerings, in recent years. Within the course of four years, we’ve seen classes like Home Economics, Lit to Film, AP Chemistry and Academic Psychology all be cut as offered classes.
The school has made these changes based on a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to; teacher availability, lack of student interest and budget concerns.
“When Home Ec was taken away, I felt that the school lost a great opportunity to learn basic life skills that some people may not learn at home,” Senior Shianna Metzgar said.
Home Economics is a class that was offered at Freedom until three years ago. The class was cut when Ms. Tiffany Beckwith, who was the teacher of the class, was moved to the middle school. The class’s purpose was to teach students life skills, including how to cook, clean and balance a checkbook.
“I believe that the students would have a greater possibility of learning life skills with this class, but it is possible to learn these skills without [Home Economics]… I just think it would be better to learn it while you’re still in high school,” Metzgar said.
On the other end of the spectrum, the addition of new classes have provided fresh opportunities to interested students. We’ve also seen the addition of Creative Writing, Communications and, this year, Calculus II. Calculus II is providing students, who wish to advance their mathematical skills, a chance to do so earlier than they would’ve been able to in years past.
“[Calculus II] provides the opportunity for us to get ahead in our college careers and incur less debt,” Senior Aaron Scheider said.
Communications, as a class, has experienced both ends of the spectrum. Having been added to the courses list as a mandatory class for sophomores during the 2015-2016 school year, it has been cut and brought back in the course of just a year.
As part of the changes made to institute the initial version of Freshmen Academy, the ninth-grade English class became more communications-based. Due to this, they eliminated the class when the Class of 2017 were sophomores because they already had the basics of the class in English their freshmen year. This year, Communications is being offered to students again; the class will be required for the Class of 2018 and above.
Not all of the cut classes have shared Communications’ good fortune. For the time being, classes like Academic Psychology, AP Chemistry, Lit to Film, Myths, Legends and Folklore and Wood Shop are not being offered within the high school.
Overall, the ever-changing courses at Freedom come from numerous factors and can bring their fair share of positive and negative reactions. Either way, as evident with a few of the classes that have seen both sides, classes cut still have the opportunity to be offered again in the future.