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Last week, Robert Eastham wrote the Rappahannock News, describing the electives offered at the county high school as a “miserable smorgasbord.”
After serving on the local school board for four years, Mr. Eastham should know better. He should know exactly what courses are offered at the high school. We have the list and after looking it over, we want to know where Mr. Eastham gets the idea that it’s a “miserable smorgasbord (of) ‘busy time’ electives which have no place in a decent school district in the first place.”
A recent article in the Washington Post reporting new graduation requirements set by the Virginia school board noted that Margaret Marston (board member and member of the National Commission on Excellence in Education) and S. John Davis (state superintendent of schools) had agreed “to begin an investigation into elective courses offered by many schools with an eye toward reducing many that are ‘frills.’”
Are there “frills” the same thing as Mr. Eastham’s “miserable smorgasbord?”
The Post’s article went on to cite specific examples of “frills” offered in some Virginia schools—sign painting, barbecue cooking, knitting and needlepoint.
In his letter to the editor, Mr. Eastham omitted any specific reference as to what is served at RCHS’s “miserable smorgasbord.”
A check with the high school’s administration shows that students here choose electives from a list that includes algebra I and II, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. Current graduation requirements—two years of math—can be met with math 8 and 9. Advanced math courses are usually necessary for college acceptance but are not required for graduation and so come under the classification of electives.
The same applies to French I, II and III. Today, fewer and fewer colleges require foreign languages for admittance. At present, there is no graduation requirement in that area. More “miserable” electives?
The Rappahannock school board today calls for three years of science before a student may graduate. The state today says two years are necessary. The higher standard at RCHS can be met by taking physical science, earth science and biology, leaving chemistry and physics as electives, another example of that “miserable smorgasbord” no “decent school system” would offer.
Obviously, some of those courses are necessary for young people who plan on going to college. After all, Virginia’s standards of quality demand that every high school graduate be equipped to either continue his or her education or find a job.
And just as obviously, some of the other electives offered at RCHS’s “miserable smorgasbord” are necessary for young people in a vocational program. There’s general business, mechanical drawing, funda
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