By Dana Sternthal
Staff Writer
Costa students and teachers will participate on Tuesday in “May Day,” a new event in which regular classes will be replaced by student-or-teacher-led seminars on non-curricular subjects.
The idea of this program promotes beneficial student creativity, but despite strong efforts by the administration to advertise May Day, their methods of communication did not reach the entire student body. Furthermore, excessive class variety hinders learning in seminars that would otherwise be very successful.
May Day classes, which currently range from Impressionism to self-defense, will certainly provide students with a beneficial and unique educational experience, but the administration’s hands-off approach in creating class topics has lead to many classes that lack merit.
The freedom for teachers and students to choose courses on this day is what makes it such an innovative idea. However, there should have been some thought put into the types of classes that are eligible to be taught. For example, the class “The Film Style of Tim Burton” is an ideal May Day class with its ability to teach a viable career option in film while being interesting to students.
And while May Day is a unique experience, the administration could have done a better job of advertising the day. According to Mira Costa Vice Principal Debra Hofreiter, May Day classes were advertised on the Mira Costa web site, PTA newsletter, and the daily bulletin. The administration had the right intention of advertising the day, but it did not reach students in an effective way.
In addition, informative flyers and posters should have been included in the communicating and advertising process. Not only should there have been a description of May Day more readily available, but the purpose of the day needed to be more transparent from the beginning.
According to Hofreiter, every student who applied to teach a course was accepted without the administration changing the content of the course. While this may allow for more variety in course offerings, it hinders May Day’s ability to present more valuable seminars to students.
Costa administrators chose to implement May Day based on the idea of Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally renowned leader in the implication of creativity in education. However, the lack of effective communication did not inform students of the professional influence on May Day.
While broadening one’s horizons is an important part of the education process that usually goes neglected, May Day is a beneficial idea, but it requires better awareness and oversight with regard to seminar choices.
While many of the administration’s new ideas start off as promising, the lack of proper execution and communication leads to failure to fulfill their purpose.
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