Next year, the school’s social studies curriculum will look different for every grade level. Freshmen will begin high school in AP Human Geography (HUG), while sophomores and juniors will take U.S hisory, and seniors will move into civics through AP government. The changes come as the state updates graduation requirements and the social studies department adjusts courses to better fit students’ ages and readiness levels.
Social studies teacher Jillian Merkle said that civics is being replaced with AP government for seniors instead of freshmen because of new state requirements and because it better fits older students’ needs. She said the change allows juniors and seniors to take civics and economics closer to voting age.
“Civics class, for example, it’s now gonna be a senior year (course) under the AP government class,” Merkle said. “The state of Minnesota now requires that a civics class is taught in either 11th or 12th grade, so that means that we could no longer teach it in ninth grade. We also felt like having a civics class, an economics class with kids that are 17 and 18, actually made a lot of sense. Getting closer to voting age and managing your own finances and all of those kinds of things, too.”
According to sophomore Jullian Bruns, students should have more freedom to choose their classes instead of being required to take them in a certain grade.
“It is a shame that they’re forced to do something.” Bruns said. “I think it is better to have your options open, because you just might not care about something.”
Junior Miles Selby said he was concerned about freshmen being placed into AP HUG right away. He also said having an AP class can be overwhelming, and students should have the option to take an easier course.
“(Starting freshmen with AP HUG) is a large commitment to put on new students, and they should have a choice to take something more calm,” Selby said.
According to Merkle, offering AP courses earlier in high school may help students build confidence in advanced classes and encourage more of them to take AP courses in later grades. She said that giving freshmen early exposure to the rigor and expectations of AP coursework can make those classes feel more approachable as students move through high school.
“(The new classes will) give students a much stronger, well-rounded idea of social studies,” Merkle said. “There are so many benefits, and we all made this decision as a collective social studies department, too. Giving exposure to kids in an AP class in ninth grade is really cool because it’s allowing some kids to see, ‘hey, I can do AP’ and, (we’re) hoping that it helps increase enrollment in 10th and 11th grade in those AP courses.”
Bruns said it was important to learn about government at a young age because understanding government early can help students make informed decisions in the future.
“You should learn about (government) when you’re young, (because) these things could impact your future later in life. For example, learning the different government branches and how to vote can help you later,” Bruns said.
According to Selby, the changes could separate grade levels but may also provide more organization.
“I’ve personally never had a problem with (the changes to the history courses), although I think it can somewhat segregate the class into different grades, but I think having four full history classes would be nice to have more structure and not leave people left to figure it out themselves,” Selby said.
