School Issue Argument

High school students today often lead busier lives than the adults in their families. For seniors, the stress may be even greater since they must use this year as their last year in preparation to enter the adult world of college or the work force. Although HPRHS requires all students to remain in school for nine periods per day, seniors are only required to take two of these nine classes to graduate. One hundred thirty five credits are required for graduation, and for students who spend their first three years with a full schedule of classes, far more than the required number of credits can be earned with a senior schedule of nine periods per day. Many seniors in this position begin to sign up for “filler classes” (lower-level electives with minimal work that are rarely required by colleges) and as many study halls as they are permitted, simply because they must fill a nine-period-per-day schedule. This time could be put to much better use as students would have more time available to do things such as homework, working to help save money for college (or prepare for a career if the student chooses this over college), or even enrolling in a few classes at community college. Although it is necessary to have some degree of challenge and to require some degree of work ethic for high school students, it would be beneficial to allow seniors who have accumulated a sufficient number of credits for graduation to leave school after the periods during which they are enrolled in required classes for graduation.


Not all students choose to take “easy” electives and study halls in their senior year, and many who are applying to competitive colleges must engage in a rigorous program of study during their high school years in order to meet college requirements. These students would absolutely have the option to remain in school for a full day. Prospective college students should be given the right to decide which courses they need to take to gain admission to their desired school and which courses seem to be nothing more then a waste of time for them. However, not every student plans on going to a competitive admission college, and some choose not to go to college at all. It is unfair to require these seniors to sit in a class in which they have no interest if it is not a required course for graduation. Students who spent their entire high school career putting in minimal effort in an attempt to just pass their courses are not going to benefit from being required to take nine classes their senior year any more than they benefited from it in previous years.


Concerning elective courses, students at HPRHS are required to take one year each of a course in fine arts, practical arts, and technology. Many underclassmen sign up for these courses in order to complete them early, and they are often placed in an alternate class due to class size restrictions or scheduling conflicts. If the seniors with no real interest in these courses were removed from the classes, it would create more free space for underclassmen who desire to get these requirements fulfilled as early as possible. It is not fair to give a student with no interest in a class priority over a student with interest in the class simply because they are a senior who is being made to fill up their schedule.


Some would argue that allowing seniors to leave school early would not guarantee that they would use the time to do something productive. However, even now that seniors are required to remain in school for a full day, some of them still choose to go home at the end of the day and not do their homework, not participate in after school activities, etc. Nothing would change by allowing them to leave early besides the fact that they would sit home rather than sit in school for a few more hours. Seniors who are underage would be required to have parental consent for them to end their day early, and those who are eighteen or older are considered legally responsible for their own decisions. The minimum age of compulsory school attendance in New Jersey is sixteen. Eighteen year old students who decide that they do not want to be in school all day can simply choose to terminate their education, but allowing them to leave early after attending their required classes would give them the opportunity to still obtain a diploma. Many of these seniors would be more willing to attend school if it was only for a few periods a day, which is a much more beneficial option than dropping out simply because they do not wish to sit in school all day.


Although it is arguable that requiring seniors to remain in school for a full day is in the best interest of the students, it is clear that not every student has the same aspirations and educational needs, and permitting students to leave school early and decide what to do with their time after school can be more beneficial for some than forcing them to sit in classes that they only scheduled because they needed to schedule something to fill up their day. The Board of Education has already set educational standards and requirements for students to graduate high school and receive a diploma. None of these standards would be violated if students still were required to take their required four-year classes, complete their community service requirement, comply with the attendance policy, etc. Since it does not deny seniors who wish to maintain a rigorous course of study the right to remain in school for a full day, but instead simply gives them another option, no students are negatively affected if given the choice to leave school early.