Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors get ready to pick out next years classes with Course Selection.
Photo by Autumn Hughes
The English department is buzzing about next year’s new courses. Teen Reads, Breaking the Glass Ceiling, and Diversity in Contemporary Literature are new classes being offered to the students.
Each class is half of a credit and follows on a six day cycle, making them one semester classes. In order to attend one of these classes, students have to pass English I at any level, except for Glass Ceiling, which requires students to pass I and II.
On the other hand, Abigail Arbetman, a freshman, disagrees. She said, “As an honors English student, frankly that would be too much work for me with the English class I have already, so it might be better to allow only sophomores, juniors, and seniors to take these classes.”
Teen Reads is a class where students will read contemporary books such as The Fault in our Stars and Divergent. Sorresso said she would consider taking this class because it sounds like something she would enjoy.
Sivan Menache, a sophomore, said she would enjoy taking this class because she loves reading mainstream books, but it is hard for her to find time to read on her own.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling is a class for Juniors and Seniors only. The class offers an exploration of female voices in both fiction and nonfiction.
Although freshman Abigail Miller can’t take this class for another two years, she said she is excited and interested in women’s roles in literature.
Menache said she was very interested in this class because she is “proud of the contributions of various women in world history” and she plans on working for the UN someday. She wants young women looking up to her as a role model just as she looks up to famous women.
History teacher Sarah Rodenburgh teaches women studies and is excited for another class to be wrapped around hers.“I don’t know how it could possibly be a bad thing to have more courses that include women and other minority groups so under represented in school curriculum,” she said.
The third new class is Diversity in Contemporary Literature. The class will study world literature and current events.
Miller said she probably would not end up taking this class because she is not interested in the curriculum, while Sorresso said she thinks “learning about diversity might be interesting and it’s always good to expand your knowledge.”
As for classes that students wish would be offered, there are many. Sorresso said she would enjoy taking a class on media studies while Arbetman said she wishes students were taught more about people’s differences and how people shouldn’t judge others for these differences. However, Arbetman doesn’t think many would take such a class seriously, and Miller wishes that that school would offer more language and art classes.