Disclaimer: This article is an opinion piece. Any views or opinions represented in this piece are personal and belong solely to the article author and are not endorsed or representative of The Academy Chronicle, Mt. SAC ECA, or the West Covina Unified School District.
It’s another typical Tuesday in the freshman college and career readiness (CCR) class, and the internal groans are so loud they can almost be heard. Why do freshmen have to sit here and think about my future goals, career, and even plans for marriage? As if parents reminding us every day about what we have to do in the future isn’t enough, ninth graders have to sit in class and listen to teachers lecture about life after high school. But the worst part is that there are challenging and time-consuming assignments that take away from other core classes, like English, Math and Science. But even though CCR seems to some freshmen to be an unnecessary class, some of the information that is being taught, like how to budget, what standards colleges are expecting to see, and how to plan an event, is all very practical right now.
“The goal of the class is to help prepare students for college and life after college, including life planning, budgeting, and choosing a career” explains Tiffany Banh, CCR, chemistry, and anatomy teacher.
Since students at MECA start taking college classes when they are sophomores, they’ll need to be prepared before taking on the courses that most people will take after finishing the whole four years of high school.
“College and Career Readiness is a two-semester course that is designed to help students learn and practice valuable skills to help them be college and career ready,” said Claire Contreras, MECA counselor.
CCR is meant to help students in the future, whether in or after college. In CCR, we are constantly working on college and career research projects. Not only do we have to research the topic we chose independently, but we’ll also have to make slides and present them in front of the class. I, personally, hate the mere idea of standing in front of a bunch of people that I will be with for a whole four years of my life.
Lola Faniel, a 9th grader, says that for her, “CCR is important because it has made me very inquisitive about what kind of job and lifestyle I want after high school…[I think] the most difficult part is the slide projects.”
Joselin Gonzalez Garcia, a freshman at Mt. SAC Early College Academy (MECA), disagrees, adding, “I feel like CCR isn’t important because I feel like we don’t need a class to think about our future. I feel like it’s a waste of time.”
Even though students like Joselin feel negatively about CCR, others students are neutral about whether itis necessary, especially since the class is required for freshman students at MECA but not for graduation requirements in the state of California.
“I think CCR is equally important as it isn’t,” says Charlotte Candell, freshman. “It teaches some things that will probably be useful in the future, but I’m not sure if a whole class needs to be dedicated to it.”
As a freshman myself, the most I have learned is how to prepare and present a presentation independently, especially when presenting in front of the class with ease. When I take high school and college classes next year, almost every one will have many presentations; however, the topic that being presented on isn’t as practical as the skill of presenting. For example, the first presentation was on party planning which is not something I believe I’ll ever do in my life. But party planning and presenting also help teach another important skill.
“CCR is important because the class teaches students about being more independent and preparing them for their future,” explains freshman Alejandra Trujillo.
CCR classes are divided by two teachers, Tiffany Banh and Andrea Pedroarias. Students from both classes are taught the same things, but the teaching styles of the two are very different.
“I like to bring in examples from my own life to make the lessons more real for the students,” says Banh. “I think this is an important part of teaching CCR because it makes the lessons even more realistic for students and they can see why the skills they’re learning are important.”
While it can be uninteresting to hear a full lecture from one person. On the other hand, this kind of teaching method can also make students feel connected with the teacher when they share how the lesson impact thems and shows them that it actually works.
For example, when she was teaching how to make a budget, she would show the budget that she made, and because she’s finishing graduate school, she would talk about her own time management and study skills.
Pedroarias, however, has a different teaching style than Banh’s. Her teaching style is based more on the student’s participation in the class, and she wants to make a comfortable space for her students by being more open-minded so that the students can get the answers to the questions they are most curious about.
“I want to spark curiosity and spark questions within my students so that I can answer their questions about life beyond high school,” says Pedroarias. “And I’d like to think that I’m a very open-minded teacher and that… [makes] students feel safe and comfortable in my classroom, [and] with the ability to answer or to ask those sometimes difficult questions.”
In the end, even though not everything in CCR feels necessary to learn, it can teach students practical information that many schools don’t teach students.
While it may feel frustrating and worthless, teachers and administrators put a lot of effort into making the students more comfortable with adapting to the special courses offered by this school. It also helps students to learn important skills and gives them the opportunity to gain more experience with different teaching styles that they will encounter in the future.
