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The Student Perspective

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, several heavy-hitting policy changes have been filtering through the administrative process recently, and a few are looking as if they may emerge alive. Among the most prominent is the uproar over IES (Identity and Ethnic Studies, the 9th grade required course that combines Social Living [a California educational requirement] with Ethnic Studies [wholly unique to us]), which is at the center of a head-hunting financial need to reduce the number of units taught. One proposal, from Slemp and the administrative crew, was announced fairly recently, and enumerated several steps that might save IES from the pogrom and still tie up the loose ends. It was fairly even-handed and minimally-impacting, but like any compromise drew fire both for what it did and what it didn’t.

So here’s an alternative.

The BHS student government has put together a manifesto that suggests another set of options, aimed toward safeguarding electives (which many feel are the heart of Berkeley High) and remedying several shortcomings in the freshman experience. It accomplishes this by skewering IES, an attempt which is hardly new; the course has taken criticism for years as being useless at best and damaging at worst. While it has its proponents, at the moment the question is not “Does IES have value?” but “Is IES the first thing that should be cut?”

Bradley Johnson passed the ad hoc plan to me, and I’ve made it available on the site. Check it out here, in friendly HTML format, or here, as the original Microsoft Word .doc. After reading it over, if you’ve got an opinion on the matter, pass it along to the school board at boardofed@berkeley.k12.ca.us or by calling 644-6550. And, of course, if you have input (whether supportive, critical, or general), you can get in touch with Student Director Bradley Johnson (berkeleystudentdirector@yahoo.com) or your student senator, whom you probably don’t know.

— Brandon