It’s first period of my senior year and I’m slouching lazily on a stool in a classroom filled with power tools and dust. I look around at the young faces of my peers as they play around with Popsicle sticks and paper, chatting away about their silly underclassmen homework assignments. In the Foundations of Technology curriculum, this activity supposedly spurs “innovation.”
I’m pretty sure I did these types of activities, like building a cart out of scrap materials or making a spin top, in kindergarten and elementary level art class. The class is run for students with high amounts of hormones and low amounts of common sense, I feel like I’m treated like a kindergartener. The activities are childish, the rules are simplistic and yet this is a requirement to graduate. Out of all the subjects to require for graduation, “woodshop” is not the most useful of skills for post-graduation, especially for many students like me who plan on persuing careers in the humanities, arts, science, law, or medicine.
I understand the need for basic requirements for graduation. One fine arts credit, one semester of health education and one technology credit are all necessary electives for graduation in Montgomery County, and rightfully so, because these requirements enforce a diverse and eclectic course load. The limitations of what classes fulfill those requirements, however, have proved to be detrimental to the education system as a whole.
A year ago, students in the class of 2011 were able to take a variety of classes to satisfy their tech credit. Classes included Food Trends and Child Development in addition to the current classes of Foundations of Technology, Intro to Engineering Design and Designing Technology Solutions. Once upon a time, writing for the school newspaper was a technology and an art credit. In contrast to the limited opportunities for a technology credit, there are myriad of different classes that satisfy the art credit. A student can take up to three levels of Photography, Studio Art, Digital Art, Ceramics, Guitar, three options for Band and four options for Chorus.
The class choices are so disproportionate! It doesn’t make sense to limit the technology credit options when the current most basic class doesn’t necessarily enrich the students. As fun as carving your name out of wood and building egg-carts is, these activities provide little educational merit other than students interested in architecture, construction, or engineering.
As a senior, I would rather take AP Economics than Foundations of Tech. Unfortunately, I must remain in this on-level class, sitting in that dusty classroom as the teacher merely babysits the kids until the beautiful tones of the bell ring. Welcome to my purgatory.
