Schreiber’s freshmen are given limited choices when it comes to choosing electives: music, art, foreign language, and STEM. Nothing more. Nothing less. This practice directly contradicts the idea that Schreiber High School has repeatedly embraced: high school being a time for students to discover their interests and passions. With such a small collection of electives for freshmen to take, how can they truly explore all that Schreiber has to offer?

Schreiber’s freshman class should have the opportunity to take more electives than the ones that are currently offered.

Due to Schreiber’s block schedule, upperclassmen are urged to take advantage of every opportunity they are presented with by indulging in electives such as Psychology, Computer Science, Sociology, Zoology, and Accounting–to name a few. Why should underclassmen be deprived of this opportunity?

If students were given the intellectual freedom and trusted to explore different disciplines, they would quickly find out their true passions, allowing them to build upon their knowledge of that subject area throughout their four years at Schreiber. Additionally, being introduced to a new school that you know little about can be intimidating, and not having a big say in what classes you take certainly does not help.

Freshmen should be able to enroll in any elective course in which they choose, as long as class sizes remain relatively small, in order to teach them that high school is about learning, more specifically, learning about yourself and what interests you.

Allowing freshmen to take more elective courses solely increases the probability of them finding something that they love, or learning more about something that they already love. If a student finds a field that they have a deep interest in during their first year of high school, they have three years after to learn more about said topic or learn about other subjects in hopes they find another interest.

As a result of the current system, many upperclassmen who have found a subject that has multiple elective courses available will not be able to take every course. Why should students be forced to limit their time exploring a topic to two years?

If they were allowed to start as freshmen, it would allow each student to develop their own passions and knowledge more thoroughly. Every single elective should be open to every single student.