Position statement: Several changes need to be implemented to the course selection process, such as appointing students to assist in class descriptions and moving back the deadline that students have to choose classes.

What would you do if you were told to choose a cereal to have for breakfast every day for five months starting in September? Not just that, but you have to spend at least 52 minutes a day with this cereal. Sometimes, the cereal is going to tell you what to do and you have to do it otherwise you might not get into college. Also, you’ve never tried this cereal before.

The fact of the matter is that every year students are expected to do this and then be satisfied with it. Class registration for upcoming years has seemed to push closer and closer to the beginning of second semester and it is unacceptable if students want to be able to walk into registration in August, pick up their schedule and still be content.

One of the ways to tackle this issue is to give students better insight on the classes that they’re hearing about. While LT has an academic program guide and counselors to detail as much as they want about a course and its content, neither of those sources have actually taken the class. There is only so much knowledge that a book or an adult can have on a course without actually experiencing the rigor, the homework, the tests, the projects, the day-to-day flow of the class. And so who might? Students. LT has discovered through peer tutoring studies that the best teachers are in fact students, so why on earth are we not having them teach others? A lot of students inquire about courses and what they will actually be like from older ones that have taken the course. However, with the wide variety of classes that LT offers to its students, it sometimes can be hard to get in contact with the older students to get in depth about classes. If every single course were to have a teacher select one or two students who know about the reality of the curriculum volunteer to be available for academic suggestions and course recommendations and guidance, there is no doubt that students would be more pleased and confident in the classes that they will be spending a long 185 days in.

The beginning of a semester is always stressful. Adjusting to class again after break and learning all new material can be very overwhelming for students that have a heavy workload or are involved in a lot of extracurriculars. If registration were to be bumped back to late February or early March, this would present a better option to students who are more in the swing of things, and may have a better idea of what classes they would like to take the following fall.

It’s normal and almost expected to take a follow up class or to enroll in the “next level” of a course if a student likes the prerequisite. Whether it’s taking AP Physics C after AP Physics I, taking Accounting 2 after Accounting 1 or just deciding if you want to stay or move up from the level you’re currently at in a yearly course like English or a foreign language, it can be difficult to decide what classes you want to sign up for immediately after first semester ends. Some students don’t even realize what their favorite classes are and what they’re really interested in until late second semester, and asking them to judge a course solely based on what they did first semester isn’t going to be accurate.

If LT wants its students to be happier and more pleased with their decisions on year long courses that they chose six months prior, changes need to be made to facilitate the process.