At Schreiber, students are required to take at least one year of an art or music course to fulfill their graduation requirements.  Schreiber has many classes to take in order to fulfill this requirement.  Photo, drawing and design production, band, orchestra, and so many more.  However, some students are not interested in this sort of education.  They enjoy an academic path like economics and law, something not involving arts and music.  It would deem unnecessary to make students take classes that don’t interest them in any way.  If students are required to take music or art classes for over one year, this would take away classes that they could enjoy. This could also lead to them not having a clear idea of what they want to do in the future. If students are forced to take a music class for more than two years, this results in a student having more than one elective of their choice, out of the picture. High school is meant for students to go outside their comfort zone and choose classes that they think will interest them the most. If they are forced to take a certain class in which they don’t have any interest, the purpose of high school disappears. 

“It would negatively impact the school body because it’ll take away from other classes that students want to take. Not everybody likes either art or music, so we shouldn’t be forced to do more than a year of it in high school. Instead, students can take classes they actually like and enjoy,” says junior, Mehar Walia.

Not only does this take away from a student’s enjoyment, but it also limits them to taking classes with higher weights on their GPA.  For example, a music class will have less effect on your GPA than an AP or honours class would have.  This limits the student’s maximum potential of retaining the highest possible GPA.  I know for a fact that students definitely would not like the thought of their GPA not reaching its fullest potential thanks to this new policy. 

 “Forcing students to take an Additional year of art or music class will negatively impact us because we will then not be able to take other classes that might have more significant value, such as AP classes,” says junior, Parikshith Hebbar.

Music and art classes don’t interest many students in Schreiber.  When students take a class that they don’t enjoy or find interesting, they usually don’t put effort and time into it.   It’s human nature, if someone does an activity which they don’t find interesting or enjoyable, they will not put effort or time into perfecting that activity.  From this, we can conclude that increasing the requirement for music/art classes for over a year, will backfire and bring down a student’s GPA.  This will cause unhappiness to the student and result in them not enjoying school.  They won’t find it necessary to pay attention in class and wander off to do other things that seem more appealing to them at the time. Instead, we can give students a choice of electives after one year, and give them the choice to pick which electives will suit them best. 

“In my opinion, it would take away the freedom students have to pick what electives they want to take. High school provides students with different electives to take in order to satisfy their needs, and by increasing the music elective by more than a year, takes away the whole purpose of electives,” says junior, Joseph Pascucci.

Schreiber has made electives available to students for a reason.  For them to experiment with different areas and pick which ones they enjoy the most.  This will guide them to choose what to study in college and lead to choosing their career in the future. Adding a music/elective for over a year, removes the freedom students have to experiment with their interests and goals, and eventually a career that best suits them.