School curriculum expands
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) Board of Education has approved several new classes at Peninsula for the 2016-17 school year. Principles of Computer Science, Service Learning 2, Korean 2 and more options for physical education will all be part of the available curriculum next year.
Principles of Computer Science is a new AP class that is an introduction to the current Computer Science AP class. Principal Mitzi Cress believes this new class will be a perfect fit for Peninsula.
“Hopefully this will open up computer science and coding to those kids who aren’t necessarily math and science [oriented], to maybe those students typically interested in the arts and humanities,” she said.
Though Service Learning 1 has been an approved elective for many years, no other class options existed past it
and students were obligated to pursue further years as an extracurricular. This proved a disappointment to committed students, as many who had been in Service Learning 1 had started big community projects but soon realized the second year was a class without credit. Cress hopes that the continuation in credit through Service Learning 2 will encourage more
students to join Service Learning.
The fledgling Korean program started this year. Currently only Korean 1 is offered as a class; however, in order to pursue further years of education in the language, School curriculum expands Korean 2 will be introduced next fall. In February, the Board of Education accepted a request to implement yoga into Peninsula’s PE program, which will begin in the fall. One of Peninsula’s dance instructors, Heather Myrick, sent in a proposal a year ago to add yoga as an alternative to taking PE
or any other sport. Kimi Hendrick also wrote a proposal to implement fitness trends such as Pilates, circuit training, barre and CrossFit into the PE program.
This new alternative, called Fitness Trends, will be available to all students except freshmen, who were excluded by the Board of Education due to the required state-mandated fitness test.
“Freshmen should prepare for the fitness test through proper physical education, rather than yoga,” Cress said in an interview with The Daily Breeze.
Junior Hannah Dunbar participated in the PE dance class during her freshman and sophomore year. Currently, she is not taking any sport, but may enroll in yoga next year.
“I think students would be happy to take yoga if doing another sport isn’t a good fit for them,” Dunbar said.
Yoga is scientifically proven to eliminate stress. Myrick, who is certified in teaching yoga, knows that participating students will benefit from this form of exercise and feel relaxed and healthy afterwards.
“I’ve read a significant amount of research which concludes that it helps manage stress, and gosh knows we have some stress here [at Peninsula],” Cress said.
