Op / Ed

By: Miles Cloud 09-11-26

High school has four years. How concerned is each grade level about things like graduating or going to college? To graduate, you are required to have four credits of English and math, three credits of science, three credits of social studies, 0.5 credits of physical education, one fine arts credit, and four credits of electives. To demonstrate readiness, Ohio requires two seals, and one must be state-defined, according to the Ohio Department of Education’s website. 

Freshmen starting high school can be working on getting those credits and seals 

because if students slack off, then they’ll fail those classes. Failing means students didn’t get the credits they may need. That can make them have to retake classes and possibly have that work to worry about later on their senior or junior year. A student named Peyton Cloud is a freshman this year. Peyton Cloud stated, “No, not really,” when asked how worried she was about graduation. Understandably, she isn’t too worried about it. There are four years of school to get it. 

Sophomore is year two of high school. By now, students most likely have all of their fine arts credits. If not, it is fine because you only need to take an art class, choir, or band for two semesters to achieve this. As a sophomore, most students weren’t worried about graduating or college. They still weren’t sure what they wanted to do. That is still a problem with some seniors now. Not all of them know what they want to do after they graduate or what majors to apply to college for. 

Junior year is when students start to think about graduation. Especially if they are going to places like the career center, which helps them get job experience for after graduation. This is their second-to-last year of high school, so they are running out of time to achieve all credits. If they did their work and stayed on task mostly throughout Freshman and Sophomore year, then they should be on track to graduate. People going to the career center are also thinking about graduation and receiving the classes they need either at the career center or at Lisbon Dahs, depending on whether they are half-day or not.

Senior year is the last year of high school. This year, if students don’t have their credits already, they have two core classes: English and math. Most of Lisbon's other classes are just electives. A lot of seniors are applying to or have already applied to colleges. Not everyone wants to go to college after they graduate, so those students are most likely more focused on graduating and finding job opportunities. DAHS’s Seniors at the career center will be receiving the credits and seals the career center offers. 

How concerned are seniors with graduating? Some students have started taking extra classes to make sure they will have all their credits and seals. This may be because they didn't care in the previous three years or didn't receive information about the extracurriculars they needed. For the seals, a lot of students were able to get two before starting junior year. Seniors are graduating, so it makes sense that they would be worried about graduating. Milo House, a full-day vet tech student at the career center, was asked if she was worried about graduating. “No, I am not worried “. Then a full-time student at Lisbon, Karver Burkholder, was asked the same question. He stated, “I’m not really scared of graduation itself. I’m more worried about college, debt, and the financial impact that it will bring me.” It’s not really graduating that is the concern; it’s more about what comes after adulthood.

Graduated Students Throwing their Caps in the Air

Photo Credit: Brookings Institution