Switching Schedules

“You won’t know until you try it” a popular phrase used by moms everywhere. I can still remember the countless times I was told this as a kid. It was typically my mom’s response to me when I didn’t want to try one of the new dishes she made for dinner. Although this was a popular phrase used in my childhood I feel like it still rings true today. Sometimes the thing you thought you would love to do isn’t so exciting once you actually try it, and even on the flip side of that; sometimes you end up loving the things you thought you would hate.

Every year around the same time we get those colored sheets of paper where we decide what we want to do for an entire school year.

But what happens when the elective you thought you were going to love ends up not meeting your expectations?

Or what about the rare students who want a class that is more challenging?

Hey you planned your own schedule if you weren’t going to like the class why did you pick it?

If you’re lucky you only have to suffer through for a semester, but if not you're stuck in that class for the entire year.

Many students try to switch but are told: they are not allowed, they shouldn’t, or they waited too long.

Also there seems to be no real consistency between students. Some are able to drop and switch electives as they please; even if it’s just because they got a teacher that they don’t like. But for example, if someone else wanted to move from an elective to an AP course they may be told no.

How can you know if you are going to like or dislike a class until you’ve been in it for a week or two?

We as people are constantly changing and evolving. Someone who scheduled a lot of Math electives last spring might be really into English this fall. Should they be penalized for the classes they chose?

I think as a school we need to more open to kids rescheduling. In college, 80% students will change their major at least once; most change it up to three times. Most of the time this is because they are unsure of what they are passionate about studying. Allowing students to explore more options in high school might help lower that number and ensure that students can feel more confident in their choices.

I understand how hard the guidance department works to schedule all of the students where they are supposed to be. And one may even argue that this would just make their jobs even harder with all the students switching. There could be complications if we just allow students to switch whenever they want for whatever reason they want.

I think the best solution I can offer is giving each student at set amount of times, even if it’s one, they can freely switch to a different elective. Administration could set guidelines to make it easier on everyone.

Setting a deadline of two weeks seems like a fair amount of time. This way students are able to try out the class they originally selected while also finding out more information about their desired class. Also setting the amount of times a student can change from one class to another should be set as well.

This should be fair and advertised to all students to allow everyone the same opportunity to switch and explore new classes.