While the upcoming upperclassmen will be grandfathered out of this change, rising freshman and sophomores will have to take some new mandatory life skill classes starting next year. These classes are called Freshman Seminar, which will be taken in 9th grade, while 10th graders will have to take Financial Literacy.
Freshman Seminar which will set the students up for a more successful high school experience. This class will focus on concepts as well as more direct, tangible things.
“Interaction and communication, self advocacy, executive functioning and organization, coping skills, how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and distress tolerance, social media and technology, and the impact on your mental health,” said Mrs. Cavanaugh, “Then an overview of high school. GPA and grades, building a transcript, the vision of a learner, and what are credits, what are grades, and why are they important?”
Learning these concepts and putting them into play are crucial to the development of students, and will put the incoming freshman in a better position for the rest of their career. Not only are administrators hoping it helps students in the classroom, but also in other places in their lives.
“I do think that there’s a correlation between these, what we sometimes call ‘soft skills’ and your ability to stretch yourself and take higher level courses.” said Mrs. Cavanaugh, “And so my hope is that students build confidence in their abilities and then can use these strategies to do well in class, to do well on sports teams, after school, and then push themselves to do things that maybe they didn’t think they could do.”
The other class being mandated for underclassmen, Financial Literacy, will teach students how to manage their money as kids begin to work and consider saving up for college.
“We are currently working on writing the curriculum but the state has provided some frameworks that we need to follow in terms of our instruction.” said business department head Mrs. Sweeney, “Some of the topics that will be covered are savings and investing, budgeting, taxes and credit and lending.”
This class will alternate with the physical education class they are taking and will last one semester. While this class has always been offered here at OA, Mrs. Sweeney believes that making it mandatory will be a huge benefit to students.
“We want students to gain practical life skills that help them manage money responsibly and confidently. The class will hopefully help guide students to make informed financial decisions as adults and will show them how financial choices can, and will, affect their future goals, their decision making and their overall financial well-being,” said Mrs. Sweeney
