Last summer, right before we all left for college, one of my friends had a little get together to say goodbye. A lot of us got to reminiscing about high school and the comment was made that we were headed to college, not because of, but in spite of our time in high school. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my time at Keene High School and Middleborough High before that. I had some amazing teachers and made some amazing friends, but sometimes, it feels that it didn’t really prepare me like it should have. I took plenty of classes, including four APs and only one free block. I had tons of classes pertaining to a wide range of subjects. But often, I have to think hard before I remember what the class was on, never mind any of the information I learned. Many of my classes were taught by overworked and underpaid teachers trying hard to motivate their students and to prove that their students were learning. They were not teaching what they loved; they were teaching what the school/state/country wanted them to. One of my favorite quotes of all time is about how pretty people are when they talk about something they are passionate about. I rarely saw this in high school. Teachers and students alike had no passion for the material being taught.
Throughout my short 19 years on the planet, I’ve always assumed that when I have children, I’d send them to public school. It’s kind of an idle thought considering I probably won’t have children anytime soon, but it's always been in the back of mind. However, recently I’m starting to rethink it. There are so many aspects of my time in public school that I would hate to deprive my children of, but I’m just not sure it's worth it.
During my first semester of college, I realized that there has been one class I took in high school that was not only worth taking, was also the most valuable class I ever took. As a science major, one would expect that it was a science class, but it wasn’t. My senior year of high school, I got to pick which English class I wanted to take. I chose the Humanities option. I spent the class reading, discussing and debating ethics, love, human nature, religion and law. This class has been, without a doubt, the most useful and most memorable class from high school. I have referenced things I learned in this class in my sociology, chemistry, biology and English classes, as well as my freshman intro class and my day-to-day life. It was not my highest grade or my easiest class, but it was my favorite by far. In all nine classes I took my senior year, it was the one that I have come back to the most.
There are a few things about this class that made it so memorable and, in my mind, successful. My teacher was passionate about the material. She was teaching things that she loved. It was also a class she had been teaching for years, giving her time to figure out how best to approach everything. The other class I took my senior year that was memorable was taught by another person who had years of experience with the material and the class. This makes a difference. Students can tell when a teacher is prepared and comfortable with what they are teaching.
The second thing is that she was not trying to teach to a test or a specific curriculum. She had designed the class herself, covering everything she felt was necessary, and she was in control. I know that there are reasons to have a standardized curriculum, but from my experience, it is not always the most beneficial thing in the world. Sophomore year, I took a general world history class. At that point in my life, history was one of my favorite classes; my mother had majored in history and I fully believed I would, too. Unfortunately, the class was almost an exact repeat of the class I had taken my freshman year at a different high school (One of the unfortunate side effects of moving while in high school). The class was taught by a lovely teacher who was trying her best to engage a rowdy first block class in the history of Europe, Asia and the Americas. The material was interesting, but she was limited by time. There were snow days and hurricane days that caused us to end up skipping through the industrial revolution and the French revolution. Many times, she was racing through PowerPoint slides trying to get through the optimistically long department-wide curriculum. We never had the time to dive into the material enough to be engaged in it.
The third thing was that she bothered to grade our work, hold us accountable and teach us skills. Her class was the first class in which, I skipped reading a book and it actually affected my grade. This is baffling to me. I made it through three years of honors English classes skipping at least one book a year with no consequences. It was also in her class that I finally learned how to write a research paper. It was a steep learning curve that involved an almost-failed first draft and an all-nighter in the 24 hour Dunkin Donuts to complete the final draft. I’m sure there are hundreds of more things that I could learn about research papers, but know I’m at least approaching it properly. To be completely honest, I think I would have failed my freshmen English class in college if it wasn’t for everything I learned while writing that paper.
This class, unlike so many of the classes I sat through in high school, was exactly what I needed and wanted. I only wish that more teachers and schools had the resources to offer more engaging classes. I wonder how my perception of high school would have changed if I was half as engaged in my other classes as I was in that one?
