Fiction is the most popular writing genre. It is a genre that has launched the careers of many successful authors, and is responsible for many famous household names, like J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien. It is an excellent potential career, and a good place to start when students are just getting out of high school and college. And yet, Creative Writing, the class that facilitates learning fiction, is only available to Seniors.
In a world where STEM learning is becoming much more prolific, many students are clamoring for subjects that require talent and creativity. In 2023 alone, “[about] 1 million students in the United States have made a push for participating in arts, music, and writing instead of STEM subjects.”, according to Forbes. Despite this, there are still far more options for STEM students than there are for creative students. Because of the lack of options for creative classes, the school is limiting the abilities of students, which is bad both for the students and for the school. While this is a part of the larger conversation on why STEM negatively impacts student’s ability to learn, the fact that the lack of specialized classes reflects negatively on the school should speak for itself.
Furthermore, the only option available to students interested in reading and writing is English Language Arts, or ELA, the same subject that everyone in the Braintree School System has done since Elementary School.
“I just don’t want to do another year of [ELA].” posits sophomore Kevin Joyce. “I mean, we’ve done it every single year, why can’t we [do something else]?”
Creative Writing would provide an opportunity for students to specialize in their preferred subject, while also allowing for them to have some variety from the normal classes that they’ve been subjected to for most of their student career. Having Creative Writing be available to more students would help them during their school year, because being in a different class would guarantee interest in the subject, which would benefit their grades.
Finally, the introduction of Creative Writing to the wider student curriculum would prepare students for college, as well as life after college. College provides many classes that involve the need for creative writing skills, so student’s ability to participate in these classes would be augmented by widening the entry level for Creative Writing in high school. Furthermore, there are many well-paying jobs that require creative writing skills, such as marketing and journalism. Students who want to participate in these jobs need the skills necessary to do them, which would be achieved by increasing the amount of people able to participate in the creative writing class.
Overall, the benefits of widening the entry level for Creative Writing in Braintree High School would provide many benefits for both the school and the students. It would diversify the options for high school classes, and prepare students for college and the working world. This is a necessary change, and one that should be considered by the Braintree Public Schools.
