Switching class sections should be easier

Most likely sometime throughout your middle school and high school experience, you will have a class that you can’t succeed in, no matter what you do. Maybe it’s because of the teacher, or the class, or even the level. No matter the reason, a class change is necessary, and this change is not as simple as it could be.

The first issue is approval. Approval is a situation-based process. First, if you even want to be considered, you have to have a valid reason. Here are a couple examples:

  • You want to be in a class with your best friend = NOT valid
  • You can’t focus because of a certain student in the class = valid
  • You can’t follow what the teacher teaches = valid

Those were examples of requests students make, but there are also requests that teachers can make, like if one student in the teacher’s class for is preventing the rest of the class from learning.

After a valid request is made and a new class is located for a student, the switch must be approved by Dr. Buchwald and Mr. McKeag.

The second issue with switching is catching up. Middle school can move at an incredibly fast pace, which tends to make it very hard to get caught up on not only homework, but also with becoming familiar with the current unit’s contents.

Another issue is that it can be risky. What if the student who switches has the same issue or even a different issue in the new class? Would the student really want to go through all that again? I’m going to go out on a limb and say he or she probably wouldn’t, so everyone better be pretty sure that the fix is permanent.

A big thing I don’t think is considered is the fact that some students and some teachers just don’t get along. This may have nothing in the world to do with the teacher or the student; it may have more to do with the subject. I personally don’t love science, so I’m likely to take it out on the teacher. It is also possible, however, that a student may not be able to follow the way the teacher goes about teaching.

The thing that teachers most commonly have to try to stop is constant taking, but the thing is (for me at least) when I’m engaged and working hard and having to think, I never talk. But when I’m not, what else is there to do? It’s not even about enjoyment, but challenge. I’m very interested in math, but I only enjoy work time. The reason why is that when my teachers are teaching, I tend to get it quite fast, but not everyone does.               

The system has its flaws, but it does work well for teachers. If every day a new student joins a teacher’s class, how in the world is the class going to focus? Also, there always has to be certain limits in place. What I mean by that is if all a student is doing is causing problems, giving them the privilege to switch classes whenever they feel is not fair to anyone.

In conclusion, I think the school should really consider changing the lengthy process to transfer classes.