Because of the lack of liberal arts-related electives in school, such as languages, the future of TCS students is influenced.

Starting off a new school year requires choosing classes. According to the Stanford University website, studying humanities increases students’ understanding of the past and present, and prepares them to create the future. Students who like the humanities more feel like they are one step behind because they couldn’t strengthen their passions in classes that weren’t provided while at school.

“I want to study journalism with a minor in communication and preferably something with theater. As a person who is more interested in the arts, I have a disadvantage. I am looking for a liberal-arts college, and a humanities based career, but the school doesn’t offer classes like AP Music Theory,” Daniela Garcia, Senior at TCS, said.

It should be noted that there are a total of 38 AP classes, but the school only offers 14, most of them being STEM focused. Hence, adding courses like psychology, studio art, art history and languages will develop students’ talents and aspirations.

“My career requires two or more languages and it would have been nice to have learned a third,” Garcia said. She also mentioned that, “I have heard there are language classes but there is no publicity, they don’t tell us who is the teacher, the level or how the classes are. I think that if students knew more about these classes then the program would actually grow. Language classes should become an elective.”

Evidently, students like Garcia do care about their electives and would like to hear more about the extracurriculars available in school. The question now is how could languages potentially become an elective, and also other liberal-arts extracurricular courses like fashion design.

“I focus on technological courses like robotics, sciences, those that develop STEM skills.” Johan Ocampo, the man  in charge of the extracurriculars at TCS, said.

Indeed, the person in charge of the extracurriculars confessed his focus, and then provides details about the language extracurriculars which he also cares about. 

“We do have French and have a partnership with the Alianza Francesa. There are approximately 40 students, I think 8 from Middle School and the rest from Elementary. I don’t think there are any High School students. We also offer a Mandarin course but we actually didn’t open the group because there weren’t enough enrollments,” Ocampo said.

For instance, not a lot of students are informed about the details on some of the extracurriculars which impacts the success of these programs. Ocampo believes having humanities extracurriculars as electives will increase the number of teenagers applying to these opportunities.

“I believe languages and other liberal-arts related classes are really important for you as a professional,” Ocampo said.

Not only would it be beneficial for the students to have a wide variety of electives available but it would also benefit the school’s reputation. Most students would be satisfied by learning more on social sciences, creative arts, science, and humanities.

“I am satisfied with what I picked but I realized I could’ve picked other classes that I like, but the issue is that the school doesn’t offer them. For example, I chose Business Tech as my elective this year but I wouldn’t consider it something I want to do. I chose it because I thought it was a good skill to have,” Garcia said.