Pierce goes to high school College classes to be taught o -campus

SHIR NAKASH Opinions Editor @shirnakash5

High school students throughout California will soon be able to enroll and take community college credit courses from their high school campuses, according to Assembly Bill 288. The bill was enacted on Jan. 1, 2016 and was added to the California Education Code Section 7600.

“[The bill is] an expansion on the concurrent enrollment law,” Vice President of Student Services Earic Dixon-Peters said. “It states that it is a dual enrollment focused toward high school students, which allows colleges in the local K-12 systems to enter into an agreement where we can offer college courses on the high school campus.”

According to Dean of Student Services William Mamolejo, the bill has Pierce’s Student Services department working directly with high schools to establish the respective Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs).

“We’re working with all the local schools to create these [MOUs] so that we know. At Birmingham we’re going to offer this pathway, at Grant we’re going to offer this pathway,” Marmolejo said. “And so when all those programs are established, we then have to go out there and execute; my team will do that.”

MOHAMMAD DJAUHARI Reporter @17thletter

Semesters can be long and boring but students will have the chance to walk through what would seem like a normal classroom door, only to be introduced to a world filled with wizards, witches and shape shifting creatures.

In the spring semester, the English Department will offer a class for which the entire course material will consist of the novels from the Harry Potter series.

“I think there’s so much depth to the novels in the same light that I think we can see in Mark Twain’s writing,” said Mickey Harrison, associate professor of English who will be teaching the class.

“Somebody can get an enjoyment level of the entertainment value if you're eight years old, but you can read it till you're 88 and you will continually get different messages and themes.”

It's this magic of the novels that society has begun to appreciate and incorporate in the canon of literature that can be studied, according to Harrison.

Written by J.K Rowling, the novels tell the coming-of-age story of Harry Potter, a boy wizard thrust into a hidden world of magic that exists parallel to the real world, and chronicles his life to adulthood.

The popularity for the series has been nothing short of astronomical, spawning a series of eight movies, merchandise and theme parks. The brand is estimated to be worth as much as $25 billion, according to an article in Time Magazine.

This interest in the Potter universe has also been demonstrated through the amount people that have already registered for the class.

“Last year, I almost had my children's literature class cut because I didn't have the minimum required students,” Harrison said. “This year, after a week of registration, it's maxed out at 35. I've had two former students ask to be on a wait list, and before tell me they're taking 101 in the winter because they want to take my Harry Potter class.”

Kristine Alcala, a 23-year-old philosophy major and a fan of the series, is interested in the class, but wasn’t able to register in time to secure a seat.

“I remember reading the Philosopher’s Stone for the first time when I was younger and I was captivated by it and instantly became a fan,” Alcala said. “I really wanted to take the class, but if it’s offered again in the fall, I’d take it.”

English may be thought of as a field of study that would be comprised of more classical writers like William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath or F. Scott Fitzgerald, the interest that students have shown for taking this class could influence other departments to offer classes with unorthodox and interesting material to engage more students.

Fall

According to Dixon-Peters, Pierce has one MOU almost complete with Birmingham High School. AB288 classes offer something different than concurrent enrollment.

“This is different than our current concurrent enrollment process, [high school satellite classes, which are] college classes at the high school that are open to everyone and anyone,” Dixon-Peters said. “The dual enrollment process must be a career or college pathway program. It must lead to either a transfer program, a certificate, or a vocational degree. AP classes don’t lead you to a career.” snakash.roundupnews@gmail.com

Distance Education Coordinator Wendy Bass said that it seemed to her like there were issues with the bill that weren’t addressed when it was being created, and it’s unfortunate that they’re only being addressed now, after the bill is already in effect. One of the concerns Bass expressed is that high school students aren’t mature enough to take college courses and take full responsibility for their enrollment.

“I’d hate to have [high school students] take a college class too soon and have it leave a really negative emotional impact on them in terms of feeling like they won’t be successful if they try going to college because they couldn’t do it when they were in tenth grade,” Bass said.