Imagine you could create any class you wanted. Is it even possible? What would the process be from the idea to proposal to actually making it part of the curriculum?

The process is more complicated than you might think. Director of the Upper School, Andrew King, rejected the idea of student-created classes, saying that “course offers usually emanate from teachers.” Though he still gave an anecdote of a popular class in Hackley’s curriculum today that came from the minds of students

Mr. King explains that Hackley’s Oral History class sprouted out of the idea of two students doing an independent “oral history project, interviews, and recollections.” This included “interviewing relatives who have been survivors of the Holocaust.” Another student interviewed other family members who had gone through pivotal experiences in their lives.

History teacher and Senior Dean, Melissa Stanek, was especially enthralled by this project and brought it to Mr. King, and he said they had “a conversation where [they] said, this is actually a really cool course.” Then, after a complicated process, the Oral History class was in the course list; in that way, “oral history actually kind of emanated from a student idea.” The process is not as easy as just having an idea and making it a reality; there are multiple steps to conceive a class at Hackley.

Mr. King said the first necessary step is that “a department or departments have to sponsor it.” Without a sponsor from a department, the class has no denomination, and therefore, the class does not have structure or leadership.

Next, “teachers put a proposal together that goes to their department chairs.” From there, it goes to a group “of administrators and department chairs” called “the Academic Committee…and they make decisions about what courses get approved and added to the course catalog”.

Not too many classes must be created, and in fact, Mr. King said that the school is at a “flex point” where they are “trying to limit the independent studies that exist.” Currently, Hackley students can only take part in an independent study if they complete the course requirements or exceed the highest offering of that class.

For example, if a student completes post-AP French as a junior, they can do an independent study in their senior year. Though it is a possibility, Mr. King urges students not to partake in independent studies and rather find another class because he says, “there are lots of other kinds of courses that are already in the curriculum.”

With the idea of a student-made curriculum in mind, I decided to go around and ask students, “If you could create any class at Hackley, what would it be?” The winner by a landslide was psychology, whether it be developmental, cognitive, or social; students gave a wide array of possible psychology courses they would like to take.

Problems in the past with psychology courses have been enrollment, but with this much demand, they might make a comeback. Another popular one was cooking; to that, I recommend taking the Food and Power class. This class examines the food that is necessary for life and how it influences our culture and environment. More importantly, there is a significant cooking component as well as gardening and hands-on research regarding the science behind the food we eat. A personal favorite of mine is Ms. Coy’s Common Sense Class, which I could see being a very helpful class for a lot of kids in this generation.

In the end, while students can’t simply add a class to the curriculum on their own, Hackley’s system still leaves room for students to grow with the right support. The Oral History class shows that when students creatively meet teacher advocacy, meaningful change is possible. Even if most ideas remain just ideas, they still influence conversations about what learning at Hackley can and should look like.