Freshman Emily Choi was in the Leadership class at Redwood Middle School last year and expected the Saratoga High Leadership class to be much the same.
It turned out to be different from what she expected.
“The high school's Leadership is much more organized [than middle school’s Leadership],” Choi said, “and responsibilities are held accountable. There’s more pressure to work hard and not disappoint your classmates.”
Choi said the more organized format in SHS’s Leadership class is better, saying that Redwood’s class could be improved if there were stricter commissions and qualifications.
Large SHS programs like journalism, Leadership, and the Media Arts Program may seem similar to their counterparts at the middle school. But some question whether the electives offered at Redwood are similar enough to high school electives to prepare students who plan to continue with those areas of elective study in high school.
Several students who took Redwood Middle School’s yearbook class also said it could benefit from more structure. Sophomore Jinsu Yim, who was a former member of the Redwood yearbook staff, said that the class was “disorganized” and that most students didn’t take it very seriously.
When Yim signed up for Journalism 1 for her freshman year, she was pleasantly surprised at some of the differences.
“I was happy to discover in my freshman year to have a structured journalism course that teaches you how to write stories with the right context and info and how to properly organize the layout for a spread,” Yim said. “I took away more from the high school program than I did from the middle school one.”
And although Redwood’s yearbook doesn’t have any preparatory journalism class like SHS’s yearbook, she added that the middle school class also had some students who she believes were not mature enough at that point to take the class seriously. Students were also often given unclear directions which sometimes caused confusion. However, she admits that despite the RMS yearbook’s shortcomings, she did appreciate what she learned through her experiences there.
Students in Redwood’s media arts class have also found their experiences instructive. The class helps prepare students for the more advanced media program at SHS.
Sophomore Elise Coates noted some distinct differences as soon as she joined MAP.
“They both contained knowledge about technology and editing programs,” Coates said. “But in RMS it was all about videos, while in MAP there is more emphasis on photography and logo projects.”
Although she enjoys the increased creative freedom in MAP, Coates said that she does wish they did more video projects.
Junior Vivero Isaiah, another student who has taken both media arts and MAP, said MAP has less creative freedom, but is still preferable due to the better equipment, diverse collaborators and frequent field trips.
Despite the differences, MAP teacher Joel Tarbox said that he sees Redwood’s media arts class as doing a great job building a foundation for what students later do in high school.
“I think Mr. Steffen (RMS media arts teacher) prepares his students beautifully,” Tarbox said. “Some of the video editing software is different, but the same basic concept remains. When they come here, they already have the skills and experience they need.”
Similarly, Redwood has its own broadcast class, GNN, that serves as a transition to SHSTV.
Sophomore Connor Oaklander, a student who was in GNN and currently takes SHSTV, said that they are “fundamentally the same thing.” GNN, however, is broadcast daily and is not as news oriented, while SHSTV is shown once a week and has higher journalistic standards.
“The two are quite fun in different ways,” Oaklander said. “While I miss the fun from GNN, SHSTV gives me an opportunity to work with people and to actually help run the program since there is much more autonomy.”
Regardless, he said that the middle school class taught him useful skills.
“Taking GNN installed me with teamwork skills as well as media skills that are useful today in SHSTV,” Oaklander said.