Recently, the administration announced revisions to the credit requirements for graduation. These changes, which span most subject areas, will not affect the Class of 2016, but current sophomores and freshmen will be affected under the new scheme. Many of the revisions will have no effect on students anticipating IB Diploma candidacy. According to Mr Phillip Rogers, Dean of Academics, responding to an inquiry from PantherNation, the new, largely more lenient credit requirements are designed to allow students “to follow their passions… and interests.”

Reductions in Core Subject Areas

The graduation requirements for mathematics, social sciences and the natural sciences have all been reduced, from 3.0 to 2.0 credits. In effect, this means that students who aren’t pursuing a full IB diploma can (technically) get away with eschewing these subjects for half of their high school careers.

This worries me.

The administration wants to promote exploration of our passions, but, in doing so, has just leaped with two feet into a very dangerous grey zone. They have presumed maturity on the part of the student body; it’s a flattering gesture, but is it a realistic reflection of the way students behave? I’m more inclined towards the Hobbesian maxim that humans, and students, need a leviathan (incarnate in distribution requirements) to point them in the right direction, for their own good. I don’t suggest that students approach course selection with indifference; rather, I worry that, confronted with the broad course selection options of rising juniors, that they are likely to be insensible to the doors they are liable to open or permanently close by their selection. I can only hope that the counselors, with some sense of gravity, will provide the requisite prods where sagacity is lacking.

That having been said, I can see the upside for those who wish to pursue non-traditional routes; the would-be artists, poets, and singers of our school. It is for them that this decision has been taken, and they will undoubtedly benefit from the new liberties allowed. If used in the manner intended, I allow that the relaxed distribution requirements can do good, but I’m unconvinced that they won’t be abused.

A New Language Requirement

One of the more notable revisions to the graduation requirements is a new 2.0 credit allocation to world languages. Henceforth, IB Diploma or no, all ISB students will graduate polyglots. After all, why not? Despite the pretensions of many a Nichada resident, we do not live in suburban Texas. The school claims to want to nurture global citizenship (it’s in our mission statement), and being able to confidently converse with and learn from those of different backgrounds, often in a foreign tongue, is part of this calling. Language is not only a means of mundane communication, but is also an invaluable window into cultures and lifestyles vastly different from our own. The school does right to recognize this.

Slight Reduction in PE

Slight is the operative term here. From a previous requirement of 2.0 credits, the physical education department will henceforth relinquish its rights to a semester of your high school career; you will now only need 1.5 PE credits to graduate. This change is to be accompanied by a new policy of recognizing extracurricular sports for credit. Though I recognize that sound health is the first step to a sound mind, I can’t help but applaud this easing of requirements. Too many of my classmates, now in their final semester of high school, are made to sequester their passions in favor of this criterion’s fulfillment. It’s time for that to come to an end.

What Was Lacking

Notably missing from the new requirements is any change in the arts. From the viewpoint of Mr Rogers, those who want to explore the arts now have more elective credits to do so. Here my leviathan argument rears its head again; students should be made to explore. The arts instill creativity and self-expression, and they offer students an oft-needed but seldom-bestowed sense of accomplishment and appreciation. A requirement of two semesters simply doesn’t reflect the importance that the arts should hold in a scholastic environment.

David Hallengren