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Due to California State standards, Piedmont High school seniors must take a semester of Civics and Economics to fulfill graduation requirements.

The California Department of Education’s state requirements ensure that students grasp a decent understanding of government and economics to function properly in society.

Piedmont High should provide civics and economics related electives so students can recognize their interests early in their high school career. In addition to adding electives, Piedmont high should give students the option of taking AP Macro or Microeconomics and AP US Government and Politics their senior year.

Students interested in learning more about Civics and Economics look to colleges and online classes to satisfy their interests, as Piedmont High only offers introductory classes to seniors.

Senior Peter Lally, who takes an AP Economics course online, said “I feel that [AP Macro and Microeconomics] should be implemented into our course curriculum so that students can find out if they are interested in economics before they get to college.”

Bishop O’Dowd, Oakland Tech, and Berkeley High school offer AP Macroeconomics and AP US Government and Politics in their course catalogs. So why does Piedmont not?

Economics teacher Ms. Kashani said that not offering AP Economics and AP Government and Politics benefits students.

“I think that adding AP classes is challenging because colleges look at the difficulty of student’s course load, and having extra AP’s would create more student stress” Ms. Kashani said.

Ms. Kashani said that her primary concern with offering more AP classes is that students will feel pressured to take the extra AP classes, regardless of whether or not they are actually interested in the course.

Currently, in Civics and Economics, students uninterested in the classes plague the learning environment for others, making class sessions less productive and engaging. Ideally, having an AP Economics and Government class would improve the classroom dynamic, as students interested in gaining a more in-depth understanding of the content would enroll in the advanced courses.

Providing more courses would give students more opportunities to explore various fields and give students more choices in choosing their class schedule.

By offering more options, class sizes would decrease, making classes more productive, as students would get more time to collaborate with teachers and peers.

While the school generally does a wonderful job providing students a universal education including art programs, clubs, athletics, and strong academic programs, it should take the extra step and offer more civics and economics related electives so students can recognize their interests earlier in their high school career.

Piedmont High school should offer AP Economics and AP Government and Politics to accommodate for and prepare students interested in studying civics or economics in college.

High school students should be given a choice in picking classes.

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 Contact Irvin ixu@tphnews.com