By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A rigid structure may not always be the best one. Tuesday, the USD 428 Board of Education heard from Great Bend Middle School Principal David Reiser, along with several teachers and students, about the benefits of elective classes. Reiser told the board there is no perfect schedule that fixes everything, but having the electives keeps students interested and opens up the building.
"We want our seventh graders to be able to experience all we have to offer," he said. "This is their first time in the middle school. We want to expose them to everything. That also helps generate interest for what they want to take in eighth grade."
Seventh and eighth graders have eight periods to fill a day. The staples of math, science, social studies, and English are taught every day. The rest of the schedule is filled with elective classes running every other day, many for only one semester. There are several required electives for seventh graders, but that list drops to only a few for eighth graders. Having the electives not only gives students a chance to express their interests, but also mixes up the student body beyond the assigned cores with the same classmates and teachers.
"We also have more opportunities to learn more things we're interested in and enjoy," said STUCO member Kya Behr. "There are fewer distractions from people who don't enjoy some classes. Some benefits of the elective classes are we get to go more in-depth into these classes than we did last year. This helps us prepare for high school by seeing what some of the electives are like, and it gives us ideas of what we want to do in the future. We're learning more about real-world experiences and what is happening around us."
Some of the favorite electives mentioned by students Tuesday include animal science, real-life math that teaches students about taxes and mortgages, a Holocaust class, and civil rights class. The board also heard from teachers with specialized classes like 3-D art, ag science, and geography. Earlier this month, the board added five more electives to the GBMS cirriculum.