By Naya Hutchinson '17

For newer Upper Schoolers, minister was a three week long course that all Upper Schoolers took instead of taking their regular English classes. There would be different themes that the students could choose from. The students would usually receive a different English teacher with a classroom full of students from 9th to 12th grade.
Over the summer of 2015 all departments met from grades 2-12 discusses the curriculum throughout the school. The english department saw an imbalance in the amount of grammar the students were taught as they got into the upper school. They noticed that this was not only an in balance for the curriculum but students in the upper school needed grammar rules for the strength of their papers and also the ACT and SAT. For this reason they decided to eventually end minimester, in order to spend more time on grammar.
The english department loves creating amazing opportunities for students Mrs. Lombardo concludes. They believe that minimester created a creative way for students to express themselves through creative writing or a creative project. The english department doesn’t not want to lose the creative aspect of minimester that so many students looks forward to between Thanksgiving and Winter break.
Although some students feel that taking away minimester is “hurting us because we’re just learning something for three weeks” Cami Deans (‘17) says “and when we go on break we’ll forget it.” The teachers feel that there will be more opportunities over the course of the year to creatively write. In the end minimester will still be alive yet in other ways such as through our final projects or final papers.