Sophomore US History’s Undesired Impact on the Art Department
By ANNIE WERNERFELT
Last year, in an effort to give students the opportunity to take more history electives during their junior and senior years, the history department decided to allow rising Sophomores to take US history. This change proved to have a much stronger effect on course planning than expected and dealt collateral damage on other departments.
According to Ms. Swain, a drawing and painting teacher, sophomore participation in the art department plummeted to 1/3 of the number from the previous year. It seems, though, that the majority of students who chose to take US history this year chose to push back art in order to get history over with, not because they had a particular interest in the subject. Alexa Mehlman ‘20, who is currently taking the course, says she “wanted to take more science courses that are only open to juniors and seniors,” so she took US history to open up her course options for her junior year, not only for history, but also for sciences.
This motivation to take the course counteracts the history department’s plan to open it to sophomores who were especially interested in the subject and wanted make room to take advanced history electives. Robert McGuirk, chair of the history department, says that “any time you have required courses, a student can take a course and get it over with. I don’t think we presented it that way, but I think students thought that.” The history department did not mean to promote US history as easier for sophomores or as a faster way out of the history requirement. In order to take away this assumption and lower the enrollment numbers a bit, the department has altered its presentation of the course .
McGuirk said that “it is unfortunate that the art department took a pretty big hit this year” and raises the question: “can [students] continue in both disciplines?” Only time can answer his question. However, he said that the amount of people who enroll in US history in the coming years will most likely stay constant after a decrease from this year’s numbers.
Not all sophomores decided to take US history this year. Jenna Peters ‘20 enrolled in a creative writing class and plans on taking the advanced course next year. She explains that she took art because she “enjoys writing and thought it would help with [her] english and literature skills.” Ms. Swain commented on the enthusiasm of the students who did sign up for an art course this year and elaborates that a positive change in her classes has been that “the students who are in [her] class really want to be there and are super engaged.”
Her main concern is that the advanced courses will not fill up in the future because students can’t do advanced portfolios unless they start sophomore year. She says that most current seniors took art as a sophomore, not expecting to continue in later years, but then ended up really loving it. She thinks that a lot of the students who fulfill their art requirement as upperclassmen will “wish by the time they’re seniors that they had time” to do portfolio courses.
While Ms. Swain supports the choice to take US history, she wishes the history faculty had presented the course in a different frame. She says that “there were really mixed messages on the fact that it would be easier as a sophomore to take it” and that students should take courses based on what their pursuing interests, not based on what they think will be easier.
It is a lot to ask freshmen who are course planning for their sophomore year to decide what they’re interested in doing during their upperclassmen and college years. With the introduction of the US history course, they will need to plan ahead to make those decisions and possibly back away from potential subjects of interest. In the future, Class III US History may open up doors for motivated students while still allowing students time to discover what they are passionate about.