The end of an era at Sultana High School. For the next school year coming up, 2025-2026, all English electives are collapsed. We will no longer have Journalism or Creative Writing.
Why?:
Both classes will be collapsed to minimize class sizes. This will help the ratio of students to teachers. The goal is to have more English teachers have time to teach more periods to better support freshmans. Without the elective classes it frees the period to be replaced with regular classes. This will spread students out between teachers. This technique is proven to help passing rates because it offers time for teachers to have more one- on-one instruction.
Teacher/Student Opinion:
While one can understand the reasons behind the decision, some feel disheartened. Journalism teacher, Andrea Castagnola has expressed:
“Even though I understand the reasoning, I think it will have a negative impact on our student culture. Because students will not have as much opportunity to know about different things going on at Sultana and I think in today’s world, students need to be more aware of what journalism stands for.”
Student, Rihanna Bracey, a junior at Sultana High School, spent two years in the Creative Writing program, in both beginners and advanced, said, “I am very confused on why they are shutting down Creative Writing because I think it’s an awesome class that expands people’s creativity.”
As we let go of these classes, may questions come up like, where will the people who chose these electives go? Will there be enough electives to fit our large student population? These are yet to be determined.
Though a solution could be clubs for these electives; however, Castagnola states, “[Club time] doesn’t provide the time to write and explore. I’m worried without that time, people will not have the same dedication to it.”
My Thoughts as a Journalist and Creative Writer:
I attended both classes in my school career and it truelty disappoints me as a writer. Both classes have a large importance especially in this day in age where anything can be put anywhere and creativity is being threatened as a whole.
I took part in Journalism from my freshman year to now, in my junior year. I went from a writer, to assistant editor, to editor in chief. Through my small time in Journalism, I have learned a lot about the world around me and the real importance of hard/real journalism.
To me journalism should be a class anyone should take once. It teaches many useful skills for the future when students start looking for careers. Journalism helps with communication, working as a staff you rely on everyone. It teaches you discipline with deadlines and forces you to communicate with the rest of the staff. This also helps your writing improve from many editors looking it over. All these factors will later improve your skill range for jobs. The Broadcast parts also help with breaking out of your comfort zone and understanding media deeper.
Journalism also really helped me understand the importance of knowing what’s going on in the world and the importance of knowing who your sources are. At Journalism’s core, it is a sort of watchdog. It should call out the unbiased truth, it keeps people aware so that they are not manipulated.
This is why it is so important in history and is a documentation of history itself. We know from history that journalists are a key indicator of a free country. Journalism, even considered the Fourth Estate. We know we are nearing fascism when people in power start censoring our media.
Creative writing also is a large part of education, it is more important than you think. Creative writing teaches the backbone of storytelling. It goes through the symbolism with color and why authors do certain things to elevate a story. It goes through mythology, great writers like Edger Allan Poe, and how/why poetry is made. With art and animation playing a large factor, as well. All these things have a value in enriching your mind and expanding your imagination.
The world today undermines the importance of art and writing’s impact on culture. We can see our societal struggles through compelling stories authors write. They are important indicators for a free country along side of Journalism. We knew throughout history that once books are banned it could have dire consequences.
In addition, we highlight too much conformity and materialism. Especially now in the age of Artificial Intelligence taking away or stealing from many arts. Creative Writing is a great way to break free from that mentality and embrace individuality. Like other English classes, it teaches the importance of analyzing to increase critical thinking. These skills are critical for everyday life and protecting ourselves from manipulation.
To me taking away these classes is taking away opportunities for students. These classes are crucial to expanding a students mind beyond the comfortive MLA format.
