Last year, my older sister graduated FHC and is now attending Central Michigan University to study social work. Now that my older sister has a plan for the rest of her life, my extended family now expects the same for me.  At every family gathering, I am constantly bombarded with questions of where I want to attend college and what I want to major in. Frankly, I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have no idea where I want to go to school or what I want to major in. But, I’ve realized part of that issue lies within FHC. At FHC, most of our schedule is filled with the basic core classes. In order to ensure success for all students, we should have more freedom in picking the types of classes we want to take and have more options for classes.

As a junior, I have no idea what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. I wish that I could take more classes that give me experience and put me into different situations to see what I enjoy. Sadly, I have very little space in my schedule to take these classes. If there was more space for different academic electives, students could explore many different options for their future. Almost three quarters of my schedule is occupied with classes that I am not passionate about. In order to explore more options, I chose to drop a language class to gain more space in my schedule. While I filled the requirement, I believed that it would be better to have time in my schedule to explore different classes. This is my first year taking classes that are not a requirement. I am very glad that I have been able to explore a few different options, but I still do not believe that I have enough time to explore other classes. There are simply too many requirements that restrict students from exploring classes that could lead to a possible career.

Since middle school, we are shown through a website what career a certain student should pursue. While taking a survey online is helpful in choosing down a possible career path, a set of questions answered online is simply not enough to chose what we want to pursue the rest of our life. Classes that simulate work experience would be the best in determining someone’s future. KCTC is a great option for some students; however, leaving school for half the day is not ideal for all students. Students should be able to be educated in what they are passionate about within on school grounds.  Students are limited on the types of classes they can take. While there are many options in the arts and business departments, other major career clusters are lacking representation in classes. There are some careers that can not be taught in a class, but there should be a larger effort to have more variety in electives.

FHC should make more of an effort to prepare students for life in college and beyond. The purpose of school is to prepare students for college, their careers, and their future–not to fulfill meaningless prerequisite classes.