If you could take any class in the whole world, what would it be? Maybe it’s a current interest or what you want to do for the rest of your life.
High schools should offer a lot of classes for students about future careers since it could make or break their lives. This could be the career you take on for the rest of your life, especially if you’re in high school and you are the type of person to change your outfit twice before you leave for school because you can’t decide what to wear. There will always be someone who can’t even make up their mind about a partner and change them out weekly.
However, even if a class is not offered at Doherty, you can take classes at another school. Doherty will offer transportation to the school so that you can take the class that you want. This has happened many times and is very beneficial for both the school and the students. This shows how even without the classes offered on site that Doherty cares about the students and their education. With many high schools not offering this, the students at Doherty have an amazing opportunity.
Walking around hearing from Spartans about classes, there was a smorgasbord of opinions. While we had a lot of different opinions from the students, many teachers mentioned a class that revolves around how to get through in the real world.
Andy Storm said, “I wish I would’ve learned that in high school, taxes, investing, and how to buy a house.” Many teachers think that a class on how to do taxes would be beneficial and could have a large impact on our future. Some teachers also mentioned that an investing class would be helpful. With inflation high and looking to keep going up, classes dealing with money and taxes would be extremely helpful. It has also been a problem for an extremely long time of kids getting out of high school and not knowing how to survive in the real world.
Looking at the students, we had a variety of students mention career paths such as body piercings, tattooing, and cosmetology (hair, skin, and nails). These were brought up repeatedly among students. Having these classes would be very beneficial for students to know if that’s what they want to do with the rest of their lives. With the use of needles and dye, there might need to be a contract about needles and their use and the dye that will stain hands and clothes. With wigs, dye, needles, ink, and practice skin pads the students can learn what they need to and these classes could even be considered college credit, since these classes can be job professions.
Looking at both teachers and students the most popular option that came up was an agriculture class. With a love of growing plants or “cows and plows” by Jeff Neumeyer, everyone can appreciate a pretty flower. Gardening is a great hobby and can be very calming and beneficial to someone’s mental health. In the words of Karin Rose,”Plants are fabulous!”
Gardening also provides a good connection with nature in a calming moment. According to PennState Extension,”Gardening is a great hands-on experience with nature. Working with the soil, smelling the plants and dirt, feeling the different textures, and seeing all the green foliage and flowers can help relax the mind and ground yourself. When you ground yourself, you reduce stress, anxiety, and even built-up anger.” Many people will also get a sense of pride by being able to watch their work pay off day by day while they watch their plant grow.
While there have been a lot of classes revolving around careers there have also been classes revolving around hobbies. For example we had a few people state that they would like a fiber arts class. A class to work on crocheting, knitting, punch needle, sewing, quilt making, cross stitch, and many more options to choose from. While this class would be calming, it would also have students learning with a new life skill. These classes could also end up to be a money saver with being able to make your own things (clothes, blankets, etc.). With many of these hobbies picking back up, they are making them more of a popular option. Even though most of these hobbies are considered older hobbies, Ashley Weitzel said,”Keeping old traditions alive and keeping old skills”.
