And it seems like the budget cuts just keep affecting everything around me I knew our economy sucked , but things are just getting out of control on all levels of education.
So as usually this is the time of year where all the students are registering. And of course there is no need for me to go on and on about how stupid and pointless “myku” is. I have no idea why administration would decide to change it mid-semester, nor do I understand the meaning of having a “shopping cart” for classes. But I guess I need to accept the fact that technology is changing. My point isn’t to rant and rave about this new problem, but to talk about how the selection of teachers has diminished. Usually there are so many teachers and times to pick from when registering. Usually there are about 6-7 different teachers, but this time around I have noticed that something had changed. Every section has only about 3-4 teachers, with the exception of biology. Have our budget cuts already been in effect? Does no one care that I can’t register for sociology because every section is filled? Guess that’s my personal problem.
State schools aren’t the only place where budgets are being cut. My old high school has been hit with a huge budget cut. They are losing about 8 billion dollars. You can only imagine all the positions that are going to be eliminated. I started to look into more of what was changing at my high school and when I started reading about what positions are being eliminated of course it was the electives. As we all know electives are the subjects that force students to be the most creative.
My high school has a very different style of teaching. The school is divided into what we call “small learning communities”. Each community is like what a major might be in college. For example we have a School of Media Studies, which is designed to teach you how to use all aspects of media, and the effects that media has on our generation. We also have a program for people who want to be nurses, and even small learning community that geared toward strengthening your college skills, such as essay writing and communication skill, called College Prep. Every SLC (small learning community) has their own geared curriculum, outside of what is required to graduate by the state. Each SLC offers different electives that broaden your skills.
So of course, with the budget cut in place it is no surprise that the school is trying to take away SLC’s and go back to a traditional setting, where you have four core classes and a limited of electives. This takes me back to my Project 2 paper in English when I had to research different people in their take on creativity. One still remains strong in mind, and that is the words of Sir Ken Robinson that the arts and electives always get eliminated first because they are not viewed as important.
In my high school’s case our electives are very important and the base of the whole curriculum. It’s sad to think that they are even considering cutting electives off, and hindering creativity throughout the school. I wish the school board could recognize how important our electives are, but with no money there is nothing they can do. I guess slowly but surely creativity will keep getting cut from more schools, and I can only image the effects it is going to have on the future of our communities.
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