Health/Driver’s Education is a necessary class

It is hard to imagine that the necessity of Health/Driver’s Ed, a class crucial for the easily influenced teenage mind, could come into question; however, with a weakening annual budget and the high cost of classrooms and material, this could be the case.

At Los Gatos High School, the school board has eliminated its Health class by incorporating the information into the Physical Education class offered next year. But the change will be undone if proven not beneficial.

Likewise, there has also been talk about getting rid of the Health/ Driver’s Education class at Saratoga in the same fashion.

The problem is that with the hectic lifestyle of a high school student, health should be a priority, and someone who does not know much about their body cannot take care of it.

In a Health class, ninth graders reinvent their limited understanding of the human body within the short span of half a semester. The other half is spent on learning valuable skills such as driving and CPR.
The freshmen currently enrolled in the class commonly complain that the topics aren’t relevant to them and that the homework is tedious.

However, the importance of the class lies in the indisputable fact that the teenage years is a statistical peak for drug-abuse and other ills.

Additionally, if the semester-long class were to be incorporated into P.E., the new Physical Education class would become mandatory, and the time spent on both physical fitness and Health lessons would have to be significantly downsized, removing the other portions such as CPR and Driver’s Education altogether.

This, however, is technically illegal, because according to the California Education Code, all high school districts in California are required to offer its students an “automobile driver education.”

The fact is many schools choose to simply ignore the law because the State Department of Education does not have the authority to enforce it. In fact, fewer than 1 in 4 California high schools now offer any driver’s education in an effort to save money and avoid cuts to academic courses.

On the other hand, the student inconvenience heavily outweighs any money saved for the school. Sport participation would be devalued since even athletes would be required to take P.E. in addition to their sports, and any drivers-to-be would have to seek lessons from independent instructors in the area.

But since the class is still available at Saratoga — at least for now — students should embrace the free chance to learn a skill most people will need in the future and consider the “tedious homework” a privilege, not a burden. The best option for Saratoga High is to keep Health just the way it is.