Last year, the school created a new class that met throughout second and third quarter that was meant to help students explore possible future career paths and provide them with new information about skills that they need to be successful after high school. However, what ended up happening was that they creating a new class—EPIC Hour—that cut into our regular courses, and in the end, it didn’t really teach any underclassmen, or seniors for that matter, anything new.

I understand the meaning and purpose of EPIC Hour, but last year I felt like a lot of it was review from what I already have learned from school and my job, as have most of the students. 

My biggest suggestion would be that students should be surveyed on what they do and do not know in order to decide what exactly needs to be taught, and then the teachers can be better trained in what to address. Last year, I think the teachers were kind of thrown into it without having a clue of what they were going to be doing, so that cut even further into the students’ time to learn. It was not organized well, and although it will likely be better this year, I still see it as a blow off class, especially for seniors who already have their college plans in order. Furthermore, I don’t know of any hands-on activities that I will be able to use later in my life.

I also believe it should be optional to attend the class, and those who don’t attend can go to a study hall to work on other classwork only so no students will be wasting their time with how to excel in their future.

In the end, this year can’t be any worse than last year’s initial trial of EPIC Hour, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a good or productive use of time for students who don’t have an open mind to it and don’t want to tack on the extra class.