Every year students have to fill out enrollment forms and decide semi-independently to determine how their educational lives will look next year as well as what exactly they wish to be educated on in order to achieve their goals. The variety of classes, their level of difficulty, and the skills that they specialize in are important to the development and formation of not only a student’s education but of many aspects of their life. Decisions like these will be taken by freshmen very soon, as they are every year, and the approach taken to further education and its effectiveness with us is as important as ever. Young people’s futures always remain in the balance.

In a statewide study of current and former educators, Kansas education commissioner Randy Watson found that 70 percent of respondents said non-academic skills were the most important indicator of “success” for young people entering the workforce as opposed to 23 percent who cited academic skills as being most important. This survey brings questions about the link between being able to choose classes and being responsible for choosing the path to your future even if you are not aware of what it is.

The Mentor editorial board agreed about the importance of offering and encouraging variance and experimentation for classes without sacrificing educational standards for our students. Freedom is good for kids, and their ability to pick which path they should go on based on what things they enjoy is a privilege unknown in other schools around the world. It encourages them to find their passion and opens them to a tremendous amounts of experiences with different people. But students should also be guided and with this freedom should come a better system of advising and checking up on them and their plans for their future. A 13 year old and a 16 year old can choose their classes based on their liking but are not told concretely or enough times about the weight of their decisions. They should be visited regularly as well as taught about the possibilities concerning their interests and status of their grades.

Freedom also does not mean the option to reduce educational standards, or lowering expectations for what young people should learn in their core classes. Considering high school has such a big impact in the outcome of a person’s profession, the preparation and technical part of its work should be to prepare its student body for the next step in education regardless what they will do. Once a student is older and is more aware of his decisions can they make decisions that will sacrifice needed education for interest and passion.

Students need freedom, but they also need to be taken care of. Every class is a group of kids who will grow up to be citizens and workers regardless of almost everything. What they know and how aware they are of why it matters is important. How prepared they are for whatever comes to them later in their profession is important.

https://soundcloud.com/mhsmentoronline/editorial-170221