When the time came for students to be tasked with selecting their courses for the next school year, sophomore Vikram Reddy was looking forward to choosing his classes based on what he was passionate about and what could be helpful in his future. Unfortunately for him, Reddy was forced to select classes that satisfied the strict graduation requirements all students must comply with, despite the fact that he felt many of the classes he chose were useless to him.
Students like Reddy have become frustrated with the number of requirements placed upon them by the county and are advocating for changes.
While some believe the graduation requirements are necessary to give students a more well-rounded education, the most often recurring opinion among students is that there are simply too many requirements and that the current set of requirements negatively affects students’ academic opportunities. “It is often hard to make room in my schedule for multiple electives as I am taking classes to meet my requirements,” sophomore Jess Yeilding said.
Another impact of the current requirements is that students are often unable to take the creative, unique electives they are interested in since they must use most of their periods for core classes like English and math that must be taken all four years of high school. “I wish I had more opportunities to take electives that interest me as there are so many offered, especially as a freshman and sophomore,” Yeilding said.
These graduation requirements are seen as harmful since they are the same among all students with no variation. This means that students are all forced to take the same classes, regardless of their passions or goals for the future. “Strict graduation requirements can prevent students from taking classes in the subject they want to major in. For example, forcing a student majoring in humanities to take physics restricts their ability to take electives such as arts or history,” Reddy said.
Students must take the same set of required courses to graduate and there are few exceptions, even for new students. While rare, there are specific cases that allow the removal of certain courses from the graduation requirements. “I got very lucky and got most of my requirements excused because I am an international student,” junior Shree Ram said.
While students have advocated for changes to the graduation requirements, past requirement changes have upset students. For example, the class of 2024 only needs to take one semester of health education to meet MCPS requirements, while the classes of 2025, 2026 and 2027 must take an entire year of health.
Since changing graduation requirements is based on graduation year, there are students who feel that it is unfair to expect certain graduating years to meet different requirements in comparison to others. “I do not think it is fair to make younger students have to complete more requirements than students before them,” Yeilding said.
