STOP PRESSURING STUDENTS TO TAKE A FOURTH YEAR OF MATH
Updated: Sep 8, 2022
Some, like our school counselors, argue that students need to take a fourth year of mathematics, but the fact is that students should not be pressured to take another year of math if that is not what they want.
Students should not be pressured to take a fourth year of math for two reasons:
According to the A-G requirements, students only need three years of math so we shouldn’t be forced to take a course that won’t benefit us or that we don’t want. As students, we need to have our own rights to pick the classes we want, as long as graduation requirements are being met. It clearly says in the requirements that we only need three years, shouldn’t we be able to follow that? Why do counselors spend so much time reviewing the requirements, but then go directly against them, in the case of math? Forcing a student to take the unwanted math course is setting some up to fail. If they don’t want the class and then don’t pass with a good enough grade, it will affect their transcript, which is just hurting students.
As seniors, we should be able to enjoy our last year of high school by taking classes that we will actually enjoy. As a senior, I would like to have four electives my senior year. Though I know senior year is my last year and it is also still a very important chapter of my life, I feel like it should still be fun. For example, many seniors want to focus on other courses that actually interest them and can possibly benefit them for future majors or even careers. Taking different courses or the courses that we plan on studying in our future careers can help us with our path and find what we actually like doing in life. Not only that, we should enjoy being teens and not stress so much in our last year of high school before the real-world is upon us. We should choose our own classes and spend time with our friends because all of us are going our separate ways soon.