We all have classes that we enjoy. We all have niche interests, but I haven’t had a class for one of my niches, as clubs and classes have started to begin projects and campaigns. I’m a massive fan of history, but more specifically, I’m a fan of weird, dark, and abstract history. You’re probably wondering what I mean by “abstract and weird.” I mean the scary. The unnatural, delving into specific events such as Elizabeth Bathory and the “blood bath” that happened as well as other kings and queens that were involved with strange activities and the methods they used for these mischievous acts such as medieval torture or the labyrinths and catacombs they kept secrets in.

It came to my attention that we don’t offer many history classes other than our required ones. We should offer more history classes, especially the weird abstract history we don’t discuss in our normal classes. Why do we not have more history-related classes?

Toni Fisher, an SHS social studies teacher, explains that the low number of history classes is due to our school’s “lack of resources. Part of the reason for all this is staffing.’’ We have fewer teachers, so we do not have as many people to offer as many electives; I’d say over the last fifteen years, we have had to drop electives because we just don’t have enough bodies to teach those anymore,” Fischer said.

She’s busy with the number of clubs just as so many other teachers are; still, she thinks that if any of our history teachers, our LA teachers could team up, with time, would love to work on such a class.

“I’m unable to, but I know one or two social studies teachers willing to do that,” says Fischer. Despite our lack of resources, we would benefit from expanding our class options.

As for the content of such a class, Fisher thinks this type of subject should be geared towards upperclassmen due to the nature of the subject. Seniors and juniors tend to be more mature and able to handle such topics without laughing or feeling discomfort. She also discussed how to build such a topic and how it would be structured, such as timelines and places. Fisher agrees that “Due to the nature of people, they tend to like their classes and learning experiences to be in chronological timeline order,” which I agree entirely on, as well as her opinions of stretching this over the world by looking at different cultures.

“I think it would be an excellent way to go about it; we need to know the world because we’re such a globally focused society,” says Fischer

That is why reaching into the depths of other cultures and civilizations could allow us to understand different types of foods and traditions and how they affected the way they acted and lived at that time.

In reality, we have so many classes across schools worldwide, but they are so focused on the same courses. When are we finally going to start discussing the weird and abstract? Classes and teachers influence the kids they have; it’s when people finally start exploring and looking into new things that they can find what their true passion is. If our schools don’t show them all these options, how will they know where they can go as a student if they want to delve into psychology, history or even become a teacher?

If we feature different cultures, it will allow us to expand our knowledge on different history topics to different countries and cultures, show students in our small town what life was like for others, and provide more opportunities to explore areas of interest. It could be a great chance to find more classes and explore so more students can get involved with their specific interests. History is so important to how we learn and think about other places and people, and spreading this knowledge to our school would be a great addition.