This school year experienced a drastic change that impacted the freshman class. This year’s freshmen were the first class to no longer take the Freshman Seminar class and instead take the newly instituted Human Geography class. Many students wondered why Freshman Seminar was changed, while others were excited about human geography being introduced as a new mandated course.
“Freshman seminar was, for lack of a better word, a waste of time,” said AP Human Geography teacher Brian Edelman.
Students expressed similar sentiments when discussing the Freshman Seminar, which did not have quizzes to show learning progression. Topics like these eventually led students who had previously taken Freshman Seminar to speak to the administration and change the course to Human Geography.
Superintendent Dr. Dan Stepenosky played a key role in the transition between Freshman Seminar and Human Geography.
“We weren’t finding Freshman Seminar to be as effective as we had hoped,” said Stepenosky.
The main reason for the change was California Governor Newsom’s new state law stating that every student must take a class that fulfills a credit called Ethnic Studies. From this, LVUSD district leaders and teachers looked at how they could create a year-long course that is a graduation requirement and fulfills the ethnic studies requirement.
Calabasas and Agoura High School proposed Human Geography, which had been removed as a curriculum requirement many years ago as the funding for the class was not prioritized compared to English and Math. Human Geography also has an Advanced Placement level that expanded from 2 classes to 5 classes this year. AP Human Geography will still teach basic concepts like cultural landscape and absolute location while exploring more in-depth concepts like Ethnic Studies.
“We wanted to sort of thread the needle and create a course that met the geography and social science requirements,” said Edelman.
The switch from Freshman Seminar to Human Geography reflects a change that students take the lead in and emphasizes the fact that students can make an impact on their community. Human Geography is intended to cover essential topics in social science and offer a broader educational perspective. This course aims to provide freshmen with a more balanced learning experience without drastically altering their high school and academic experience.
“I would rather take Human Geography [instead of Freshman Seminar] because I would actually learn something,” said sophomore Abby Soloman.
