Teachers and counselors of The Columbus School worked arduously since school year began in July, to help make the 9th grader’s transition from Middle School very smooth.

While many changes are in store, one major change is a new focus on learning. According to 9th Grade counselor Ana Garcia, the new system emphasizes the learning process more than the actual final grade. The Columbus School believes these types of changes are  essential to the growth of all new high school students.

“I really feel like education has gotten into focusing strictly on what is your grade but we want the grade to be a high as possible. What we want out of education is that you guys are mastering and understanding the concepts,” Charlotte Whetstone, 9th grade science teacher, said.

One of the most important tools that teachers of the core subjects in 9th grade have been use the recoup policy which some students believe is a step forward to make the learning process easier.

“There are a lot of teachers that help you like improve, they tell you to come in office hours or recoups,” Laura Ramírez, 9th grader, said.

There are also some difficulties to the transition. Other 9th graders believe that since the subjects start to get serious and much harder than in middle school, for some of the teachers it’s much harder to give help to the students, make it a challenge.

“You really need to start leveling up your intelligence so that you can pass the course. In middle school you didn’t feel like the subjects would help you for the rest of your life, but in high school they do,” Puerta said.

Part of the process is also help  the kids realize what the real world is about and start to develop critical thinking.

“In high school kids start realizing that they need to make decisions on their own,” Whetstone said.

Both Garcia and Whetstone believe that the track that the school follows, is the one that will succeed. With these tools education will become more interactive and every year students will be more and more prepared.

“I don’t know, we will see, we will see how it all turns out in the end, I am interested to see as far as I’m concerned, where education is going to be in 10 years,” Whetstone said.