As the year is getting closer to an end counselors are coming around to talk about next year. A new elective is approaching West Middle School and other Plymouth-Canton schools. We wanted to know what the elective is and other information about it.

Pioneer student Aubrey, who took the new class, and gave us information about it from her point of view. “The class is one semester long and is called Contemporary Global Issues.” Aubrey informs, “We had a lot of discussion-based lessons that stemmed from current events, we learned about different countries, did court cases and UN simulations.” Aubrey also mentioned some topics she covered, “Gun laws/control, the justice system, civil rights issues around the world, the UN, and leadership in different countries.”

 WMS principal Mr. Smiley talks about the elective coming to West, “I’m leaning towards someone in the Social Studies department to teach the elective, probably someone who teaches 8th grade.” Mr. Smiley states, “I’m hoping for 60 people to sign up so there can be 1 class per semester…I think this class will benefit WMS students because you can never have enough awareness of current events and sometimes the country doesn’t get along politically and in this class students can learn to get along on both sides.” Mr. Smiley explained, “I’m hoping this class won’t replace any classes, but if it does it will replace PBL because classes like band, choir, and gym can’t be removed.”

Maya, a 7th-grade student, thinks the class will be good, “I think it’s good to know about the issues that are going on in the world that you might not already know about.” Maya explains, “I probably will not do the class because I am interested in different electives.”

WMS students and teachers are interested and excited to see what the new elective brings.