History courses have proven to be beneficial to adolescent learning in various ways from helping us prevent mistakes of the past to making us better citizens. However, I feel that many teenagers in today’s society, including myself, lack common knowledge about what’s going on in the world today. Though we are educated on what happened in the 1800s, that can only get us so far when we are unsure what’s happening right in front of our eyes in the 21st century.

Being a teenager, I am aware that me and my peers typically don’t find ourselves sitting down to watch the news or read the newspaper. Because of this, the world beyond our personal lives at BSM is not super relevant to us. In order to be an educated and aware generation, this could use a change.

I would personally say that I find myself the most attentive and interested in my history class when current topics or news is brought up. Whether that’s having to do with environment issues, politics, or other current events, I enjoy learning about them – yet there’s not much opportunity here at BSM for those topics to be covered. Beyond a snippet here or there in a history or theology class, I don’t engage or learn much about said topics.

As a social studies option or history replacement, I feel that a “current event” class would raise curiosity and interest for students who want to learn more about what’s happening in the world. This class could consist of attending public speeches or conventions, doing personal research rather, or going on informational field trips rather than studying just a textbook each day.

It’s clear that students learn better and feel more engaged in a class when they feel like there is an important member in it. Creating a current event class would allow our current generation to train for becoming the “future of the world.”

Personally, and like many others, I gather a majority of my information from social media ranging from TikTok to Instagram to Twitter. The internet can be a miss leading place and source for information and tends to misinform many people, especially teenagers. Something such as a current event class installed into BSM’s curriculum would provide clarity and information for those being misinformed by social media or those who simply just don’t know about what’s happening in today’s day.

We learn so much about the world’s past, yet that can only get us so far as a society when we don’t know about the present. Bringing in a new social studies option could benefit students and allow for a clearer understanding of the world we are living in.