Electives can broaden your knowledge on many topics, but which ones are there, which ones should you take, and are they really necessary? Sherry Gao, an eighth grader at McCullough has taken many different electives in her 7th and 8th grade year including Robotics, Art I, Art II, High School Art I, Ceramics, Orchestra, CCE2 (Technology), and Human Services. She has enjoyed all of her electives and especially recommends Human Services because “It was a lot of fun and you actually get to cook and sew while learning basic life skills.” Human Services is important because you can learn about cooking, sewing, nutrition, budgeting, and communication skills that you will use your whole life. She also wishes she had gotten to take Teen Leadership to “…develops your self-confidence and helps you overcome the fear of public speaking, making you a leader, not a follower.”

Electives are a lot of fun but are they really just filler when you could be spending more time in core classes? Sherry doesn’t think so. She says, “Electives are necessary because they give you a chance to explore careers, learn about different topics, and expand your knowledge on that topic.” Electives give you a chance to learn other things that are specific to different careers you may want. For Sherry, art is a hobby, but could eventually expand to different things.

Sherry says the perfect schedule would be her current one—core class, elective class, elective class, and core class. It blends the two, so she is not too stressed out. However, an option she would like to have is “a sleep elective, for the tired people.” That would be a useful and necessary elective!