Recently, there has been an issue with scheduling as new courses are being selected for the 2017-2018 school year. The area being largely affected? The electives areas As many high school sophomores/juniors continue on with their education, many students feel inclined to take AP (advanced placement) courses, which generally carry a heavier course load and take up more credits in their block schedule requirements. Due to this heavy emphasis on AP courses from teachers, administration, and parents, many students are being faced with the decision of dropping their music, art, preschool, lab, tech, language, and other elective classes.

Many individuals and even groups of students have attempted to address this issue, with little success. A sophomore student states, “It’s really sad because I love band but can’t fit it anywhere in my schedule if I’m taking 4 APs.”

Personally, I believe this extreme push on APs can be very damaging to the lives of students, who are often times already met with a great deal of stress. Such a rigorous course load, with no creative elective classes can be extremely draining and detrimental to the health of the students. This being said, the race to college is extremely competitive, and I myself nearly dropped my chorus class in order to take 4 AP courses. However, I avoided this by considering the effects on my mental health and deciding that I wanted to have a course I enjoyed while experiencing what are supposed to be the best four years of one’s life. The pressure to take APs definitely needs to be significantly reduced, as many students believe going to college is impossible unless you cram your schedule with these classes, when in fact, many universities seek well-rounded students that are involved in a myriad of activities outside of academics.

By Anastasia Mavrakis