Elective classes offer life benefits

Kacee Wells, Opinion Editor

I’d been wondering for a while if our VMSS electives are really beneficial, so I decided to look into it. According to the dictionary, electives are optional courses to take at school, and Valley Middle School of STEM students are required to choose electives from this list:

  • Band
  • Choir
  • Spanish
  • Leadership
  • Introduction to Coding
  • Coding 2
  • Multi-media
  • Music Technology  

I wondered if there are really any benefits to learning Spanish now rather than in high school. Mrs. Vaillancourt explained it to me. The middle school Spanish that we have at Valley Middle is actually equal to Level 1 of high school Spanish at Apple Valley High School. The nice thing about that is it gives students the opportunity to take five years of Spanish before they get into their college courses, which means a lot of students are able to completely test out of Spanish and avoid paying for it in college.

Then I wondered about what benefits taking Spanish gives us after we graduate. Mrs. Vaillancourt helped me find the answer to that as well. In our future jobs, speaking Spanish can greatly benefit us as students. For example, if two college graduates are going for the same position and one of them can speak a second language, they will have one skill that sets them apart from the other college graduate. Also, when you are traveling, it can be extremely helpful to speak the language.

Mrs. Vaillancourt also helped me see the benefits of another elective: Leadership. It is all about developing skills to help us later on!

After I explored the leadership and Spanish classes, I started to wonder about the coding and multimedia classes. I talked to Ms. Connell about the benefits of coding and multimedia after students leave VMSS. She told me about how there are millions of open jobs in computer science. She also thinks that it’s really important for students to start learning at this age because it gives them an idea if they might want to pursue a career in coding or multimedia someday.

So coding and multimedia are great if you have a career linking back to them, but why are they important if you don’t? I found this answer, too! Both coding and multimedia involve a lot of problem-solving and critical thinking which can help students in any job.

Also in multimedia, students do a lot with graphic design and that can be really helpful in later life. Coding also really helps to strengthen math skills.

Ms. Connell actually uses the skills she teaches outside of teaching; she just started working as a social media coordinator for a non-profit organization and in that, she needs to use her graphic design and critical-thinking skills.

When I first began to research this topic I was torn, but now I have a clear opinion. Personally, I think that the electives VMSS offers are very important. Electives give students a much-needed outlet to express their creativity and benefit our lives after we move on from VMSS.