With an untakeable amount of AP classes and most students enrolled in them, there is certainly pressure to go to college at Starr’s Mill. The students who have chosen to pursue any career outside of college are left with few classes to prepare them for the real world.
Starr’s Mill limits students’ preparation outside of high school, making its environment the least opportune for students who plan to be successful without going to college.
What is happening at Starr’s Mill is not being talked about enough. More Advanced Placement classes are added as the already limited interest-based classes, like audio-visual technology, get cut and funding is decreased.
For a school boasting so much success as far as SAT and ACT scores and the amount of students taking AP classes, Starr’s Mill does not seem to care about the futures of the students attending their school.
Instead, they focus on test scores, GPAs, and APs, what makes them move up in the rankings, but those are not the most important aspects of a school.
It brings about the question of whether or not a school that is labeled as successful and a place of great opportunity is truly that. Sure, students who would like to pursue college and are wanting to take AP classes have great opportunities at Starr’s Mill, but that is not the case for anyone else.
There is immense pressure to take advanced classes, limiting the opportunities of students who stand on the outside of the Starr’s Mill statistics and the stereotypical definition of success.
Electives that could change the course of students’ future careers do not exist at Starr’s Mill. For such a renowned and well-known district, they are missing an opportunity to give students who do not plan to go to college a foundation for their future.
Starr’s Mill does offer classes like business and aviation, but what they are missing is an opportunity to supply the Peachtree City community as well the nation with services that are desperately needed.
With the current workforce aging out, there is a significant increase in the number of trade jobs needed and a decrease in people entering the field. When our toilet breaks or our roof is leaking, skilled workers are the people we need, and Starr’s Mill is only setting their community up for failure by pushing students into other fields.
What the school system should be focused on is preparing any amount of students for success in whatever they plan to do outside of high school.
Whether it be college or trade school or jumping straight into a job, school should be prepping all students to be able to succeed and for the challenges that may hit them along the way by teaching classes that can benefit their futures and the needs of our world.
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