While students go through high school to graduate, they also try to take the opportunity to challenge themselves as well. Whether it is Advanced Placement (AP) classes, College in High School (CHS) classes or honors classes, students rely on these courses to give themselves a challenge. For many, these courses are meant to set them apart from others and show that they are not only good, but great.

At Freedom, students have an array of classes that they can take during their four years at school. While some students thrive in mathematics, others may be better at writing. Having a multitude of courses allows all students to excel in their field of interest. The problem students run into at Freedom is the lack of high-level classes. While other schools have classes like AP U.S. History or AP Physics, Freedom lacks those courses and falls short when it comes down to it. Even so, Freedom just is not able to have those classes. Being a small school, Freedom does not have enough teachers to teach those classes, causing a lack of rigorous coursing.

“I understand that it is hard to find teachers who can teach high-level courses. Even so, it turns out to be very difficult when I am not able to challenge myself with high-rigor courses,” senior Chase Grable said.

To understand that it is simply not possible to have those classes is okay. Freedom still provides a large chunk of rigorous courses to take in one’s four years. Students can take honors throughout high school, but also CHS Chemistry, CHS Psychology, CHS Biology, CHS Western Civics One and Two, CHS English Composition and Literature, CHS Public Speaking and AP Calculus. These classes give students who find academic classes easy a chance to challenge themselves. While there are more than enough to satisfy many, there is a total of 39 possible AP classes, and Freedom only provides one. This causes students to feel left out of the opportunity to take those courses.

Even with multiple set-backs, Freedom offers an amazing perk for high school students. The aforementioned CHS courses are college courses that take place at the high school. Freedom lets students take college-level classes for one-fourth of the price they would normally be. To many, it may seem insignificant, but in the long run, it can save someone thousands of dollars. With that, students still tend to fall behind and even look inferior to other students who take higher-level classes. With colleges looking into classes taken in high school, it becomes difficult when a school does not offer many high-rigor courses.

In the end, students lack the chances to take high-level classes, and it sets them apart from others. Furthermore, it makes it harder for them to challenge themselves, ultimately causing them to feel like other classes are useless.

“I honestly just wish that we had more AP classes. It gets hard to challenge myself and set me apart from others,” sophomore Helena Buli said. “Taking honors is hard but not hard enough. With the intent to challenge myself the school’s size makes it very hard.”