By Kevin Coleman

In school we are offered the essential courses that are required for graduating as well as the advanced or honors classes to challenge us. School is also generous in providing the less demanding, laidback courses commonly referred by students to as blow-off classes. Teachers and counselors would always advise against these kinds of classes in any student’s schedule, but I was not convinced they were right. Each year I would allow myself a couple of blow-off classes, but the majority of these courses would accomplish my proper requirements.

As senior year approached, the opportunity arose for a majority of these blow-off classes. This was an opportunity I chose to take full advantage of, contradicting all the cautionary advice of the teachers who had to sign off on my schedule for my counselor. In the last days of my education, I have come to conclude that if I could redo this year’s schedule, I would avoid the injurious blow-off classes that have contributed to my decline in GPA.

Although I may have been wrong, I still cannot say that the teachers were right. I have learned that it is not the decreased homework load, or the increased likelihood of movies that incite a debilitating apathetic attitude. The reason blow-off classes are harmful is because humans are naturally a product of their environment. Inserting yourself into an environment that is less than accommodating to your overall intelligence, especially for an entire school year, will undoubtedly affect you mentally.

I recently realized that teachers probably could not share with me this information because getting the point across requires an unbiased and blunt warning. Blow-off classes will always attract irresponsible and sluggish students, and being in a class composed of students and treated as such is discrediting to the hidden intellect possessed by the few. For this reason and this reason alone, I strongly suggest that students signing up for their senior schedule avoid blow-off classes.

Advanced classes may have the unsociable or arrogant students whose lives revolve around school, but even worse are the unmotivated burnouts that fail blow-off classes. Obviously each type of class has its plentiful exceptions, and I truly regret talking down on my peers, but any honest person can agree to these generalities. Each course of action has its pros and cons, so it comes down to what seems like a pretty simple decision. Success is much easier in the company of successful people, and good luck befriending successful people in a schedule of blow-off classes.