The word “elective” is a misnomer for what it is in middle school––a required course. The word means an optional course of study, which is the opposite of what it is in middle school.
The middle school schedule itself isn’t bad, but you can’t call these courses electives. For students in the sixth grade, the schedule for “electives” is different than that of seventh and eighth graders. This might be because sixth grade wasn’t a part of Seabury until 2011 when, in order to correspond with all public middle schools, a sixth grade was added to the school.
For seventh and eighth grade students, electives––CHAD (Computers, Health, Art, and Drama)––rotate every quarter, and all middle school students take choir. For sixth graders electives are still rotated, but not the same way. Sixth graders have four nine-week cycles of art and theater, as well as technology and SEE (Social Emotional Education).
These schedules work fairly well. However, a suggestion may be that sixth and seventh graders still use CHAD, but in eighth grade, students should definitely be able to choose electives.
There is a fair point in saying that you should have time to see which electives you would like to choose, but by the time that students are in eighth grade, most students know what electives they would like to take. Also, teachers always prefer if students are actually interested in what they’re doing, which again, could be solved by middle school students choosing their electives.
Another thing to point out is that CHAD always feels extremely rushed, because there is only a quarter of the year for each elective, and you can’t get much done by the end of the quarter. This could also be fixed by being able to choose your electives.
In conclusion, the middle school elective system works fairly well, and both being able to choose electives and not being able to choose electives has advantages and disadvantages. Overall, I would say that the perks of being able to choose electives outweigh the flaws, and in my opinion that would be the most appreciated by middle school students.
