Seniors who aren’t taking United States (U.S.) government and economics classes are having issues meeting deadlines to sign up for tests like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as well as getting information about their senior thesis.
For many years now, seniors have been expected to take a semester of government and a semester of economics at Woodside. In order to get a head start or to get the class “over with,” students opt to take the class online or in person at a community college. Many students decide to do so in hopes of a stress-free schedule following the addition of a free period where they would’ve taken government or economics. However, students expressed that this stress-free schedule they had hoped for often brought more complications than they had anticipated. Senior Mia Farber, among many who are not currently taking government or economics, expressed her thoughts on a negative experience she had as a result of not receiving enough information.
“[For] the SAT [and] some of the general information about the senior thesis, we got it in English [class],” Farber said. “Sometimes [I] need more information and I have to go out of my way to get [it].”
College and career advisor Lisa Vasquez, expressed that students should also be making an effort to receive this information.
“There is an aspect of responsibility that [we all] have to take as well,” Vasquez said. “[Counselors] can do a better job [of sending emails earlier than] we’ve done, [but] also [sending] Canvas [notifications]. I think students have to understand too that [they] need to check [their] email.”
Apart from suggesting Canvas as a resource for students to get information, Vasquez also mentioned another helpful tool that serves the same purpose.
“We have newsletters that we put out, and these are sent to both the student and the parent-guardian email address on file,” Vasquez said. “[We] also post them on the Woodside website so that way we hope students will get the information they need.”
Besides what the school offers, government and economics teacher Jesse Manzo expressed that he has a certain expectation if students opt out of usually required classes.
“A lot of those kids—because they’ve already taken the class—tend to be a little bit more on top of things themselves so they go out of their way to make sure to come to the [government or economics] classes whenever I reach out to them,” Manzo said.
