New Health Course Proposed for Seniors

While seniors are absorbed with the stress of writing college applications and ultimately making final decisions, many forget about the other, less formal aspects of leaving high school. Recently, the Health Department proposed a required course for seniors to ease their transitions into college. The course is still in a stage of development but was discussed among department heads earlier this week.

The new course would address issues and topics relating to transitions from PEA to college, such as appropriate health care, alcohol and drug problems, sexual decision-making and other related topics. To adapt the course to seniors’ needs, a pre-assessment would be held for each class to help health instructors envision the best topics of discussion for their groups.

“We are a preparatory school. We need to think about all the things we are preparing students for, such as the adult life skills that will be looking them square in the face when they matriculate.”

However, according to Health Department Chair Carol Cahalane, the course was designed so it would not be “a huge time commitment.” Classes would only meet once a week and would be accompanied with just one weekly assignment. Grading would resemble the current pass/fail system incorporated in the Health 100 and 200 level courses for preps and new lowers.

Additionally, the course would only be held spring term. Cahalane believes senior spring is the most relevant time for the class. As seniors prepare to transition to college life, they will be able to envision their future more vividly. Also, Cahalane believes most seniors have more emotional energy for these transition-oriented questions during the spring. Cahalane hopes to channel their abundance of energy in a positive way.

“We are all more vulnerable during times of change in either making impulsive choices or decisions that are not going to be in our own best interest,” she said. “Having a thoughtful approach to these things can put individuals in a stronger position for success as they end this part of their journeys and begin their next chapters.”

Indeed, many alumni have expressed regret to the health center concerning their first year in college. Academy counselor and psychologist Christopher Thurber said that several alumni he has kept in touch with say that they would have appreciated the opportunity to discuss and prepare for college before immersing themselves into the unfamiliar environments of their new schools.

“We are a preparatory school,” he said. “We need to think about all the things we are preparing students for, such as the adult life skills that will be looking them square in the face when they matriculate.”

On the other hand, due to the large amount of time seniors have already spent on course requirements, some faculty and students, such as modern languages instructor Ahmed Jebari, feel like an extra course in the spring could be too much for seniors. During his time teaching at Exeter, he and several other faculty understand that seniors can feel “checked out” after they have been accepted into college, a notion popularly deemed “Senioritis.”

“If we put the course at some other time instead of burdening them at the end when they just want to get out of here, it would be much better,” he said. “We should find a time in their schedule when they might be more receptive to learning something and will be more engaged, rather than us preparing and ‘wasting their time and our time.’”

In contrast to the proposed senior health requirement, faculty have discussed reducing requirements during the recent strategic planning meetings. History instructor Michael Golay believed creating the new course would be working in the opposite direction. While he agreed the “issues are important,” he would like to see the school “explore other options” before adding a new requirement.

Golay suggested a few ways in which the school could aid students during their transitions into college without burdening them with extra commitments.

“It might be possible to do a series of Q&A’s or a series of short lectures or films during the evenings of senior year,” he said. “[They could] maybe even spread [the course] out through the whole year or at least the last two terms.”

However, Cahalane kept in mind that some seniors would not be happy about the full time commitment as she helped design the course. While she understands some students would slack off, she trusts others would take advantage of the opportunity.

“It is our aim that the course be compelling, interesting and useful to the students and a positive experience in the course will balance some of those feelings,” she said.

On the other hand, some seniors already feel well prepared to begin college, making the course unnecessary. Senior Alex Cantave said the new course would “take away time from other things that would be useful.” He also believed that an official course would be too restrictive of an environment to adequately prepare anyone for college.

Like Cantave, Nick DuPont, class of ‘14, felt “100 percent” prepared during the start of his freshman year in college. The only thing he believes Exeter should do differently to ready students for college would be giving Exonians more freedom.

“This way, they [students] won’t explode when faced with the almost complete absence of rules and total lack of safety net,” he said.

“No class, especially not a health class, can help to prepare them for that. Instead, it must come from the guidance of their peers and teachers and from steadily increasing freedom coupled with increasing responsibility that should be given to Exonians as they get older.”

Still, some students feel the addition of the course could be helpful. Lower Brandon Liu said he would be willing to put in effort for the course. With an older brother in college, he feels he has a vague sense of the transition of leaving high school already but would still be interested in discussing other related topics.

“For me, at least, I think topics useful after graduating such as personal finance [or] money management and cooking would be worthwhile to learn about now,” he said. “I don’t think more advice could be detrimental.”