Well, it's a couple of weeks into school, and if you haven't noticed differences in your scheduling or graduation requirements, you probably will.
Over the past several years, a trend has been growing. This trend is one of increased graduation requirements.
One branch of this trend is the increased "core" workload. Apparently, Health, PE, and computer science, (among other classes) are now essential to a successful school career and life. They have been added to the core cirriculum. Why, pray tell, are these so important?
Health (and sex ed.) should be the domain of responsible parents, not schools, since health has nothing to do with academics. The same goes for PE. As for computer science, when have you ever learned anything from computer science that you used even once afterwards? In this generation, computer literacy is something that nearly all of us know before high school.
However, these courses are now "core" because school has become about "socialization" and "nurturing young minds" rather than its core purpose: ed-u-ca-tion!
The required taking of these courses, along with extended math and science requirements, takes away from the overall educational experiance as well. With all these so- called "necessary" requirements being tacked on, there is no time for students to take classes in the areas that their interests lie, or even for them to find out what those interests are.
The educational establishment's answer to this quandry is the all-mighty Trimester. Instead of having two semesters, many schools are switching over to three trimesters. The argument for this is that it provides more space in students' schedules for extra classes and more learning.
With this system, a previously two semester course becomes a two trimester course instead. Of course, this means that they will then be trying to squash a year's worth of learning into two-thirds of a year, but to the beuarocrats, this physical impossibility is a minor detail. In other words, there would be more classes, but less learning.
As a last note, think about this: what does it say about our school system, when community service trips and PE are mandatory activities, but critical thinking and logic, which we will all use for the rest of our lives, are absent?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
I propose the creation of a New School....
no extended math or science as our kind blogger has so correctly spoke out against.
no Physical or health education as well as community service because our writer above has accurately noted them as ridiculous.
The New School will focus on only the most important needs of today's society. There will be no mandatory classes, but possibilities are as follows,
ESPN watching...which will include a strict regiment of all ESPN networks and testing on the most minute of statical details.
Video Playing....students will once be forced to handle a difficult schedule of Halo and Madden, and A's will only be given to those with the most grotesque thumb blisters.
Junk Food Eating...this course, similar to our current lunch, will allow students to partake in a wide array of tantalizing food choices from our best manufactures (McDonald's, Frito Lay, and Coke). This course will combine with the equally challenging schedule of Sitting 101 (detailed course description still in the works).
Because our course schedule can be rather challenging, the New School will offer one extremely long term, in which ample time will be allowed for Holiday Parties and Film days.
Sex Education will no longer be offered either, because we at the New School realize that young people are able to access a wide range of sexual materials on their own time via the internet. Any further explanation into these matters would be entirely overkill.
The New School,
where students can learn critical thinking and logic where it's needed most.
School systems are designed the way they are. I hope you were being sarcastic in your example of this new school otherwise i'm gonna sound like a fool. But the reason schools have been adding all those new core classes is b/c America sucks at school. We suck at math and science, and as a country, we are ranked 19th in the world in education, that is pathetic. Health maybe should be more a parent thing, b/c by the time they are in high school, the type of food you eat has been determined since childhood. But sex ed. definitley should be taught in schools for no other reason than parents don't want to talk to their kids about sex. How awkward was it when your parents had "the talk" with you? PE should be required longer than it is in my case, what is so bad about students running laps and doing exercise? Not to mention playing sports or w/e PE classes do now. Computer education should be an elective class b/c ur right most americans no how to use a computer but it should be offered to anyone who doesn't. In my opinion school(classroom time at least) is meant to be work not fun. You prolly won't like a lot of what you are doing and that's the way it should be. You get to experiment with whatever you want in college or can travel abroad after high school.
Silent enim leges inter arma
I'm glad my school has only done some of those things. It's been horrible, but I survived, and I have a few classes I'm interested in, and I am completely sure of my interests and where I want to go in life. I feel sorry for those people who needed just that extra exploration, and were denied it by their school. Our education system is so messed up, it's ridiculous.