When Junior reality was written into the curriculum last year, many then-sophomore students felt irritated that they had to take an extra reality class. They assumed that it would just be a repeat of what they took their freshman year. 

“I don’t understand why we need to take the class again when we already took it freshman year,”junior Alyssa Rodriguez said. 

At the beginning of the class, juniors were given the opportunity to voice their opinions about what they want to learn, with an emphasis on post-high school skills. 

“The Junior Reality class is unique right now because it currently doesn’t have a lot of standards for teachers to cover, so it allows teachers to create lessons or activities that they think will be most impactful for their students,” junior reality teacher Eric Mancilla said. 

Because of this, how Juniors described Junior’s reality depended on the teacher they had. 

“I would say that it’s mostly focused on building job-related skills,” junior Breanna Niles, who takes Abby Belt’s class, said. 

Other students say that it’s more focused on financial skills, and this idea has trickled down to underclassmen classes, though, across the board, they’re unclear on what the class entails. 

“Another reality class that kinda is the next step after freshman reality, and it’s like more revolved around finance,” freshman Addison Carmichael said. “I think?”

In the future, the reality teachers plan to add more opportunities to explore careers after high school. 

“This year we [went to] Spirit for kids who want to go straight into the workforce,” Megan Mackay said. “We’re trying to make sure that every kid has an opportunity to learn what they want.” 

The focus of the class is based on setting kids up for success with skills that they may not have otherwise learned, and taking a deeper look into the opportunities kids have after graduation. 

In Mackay’s words: “Our true goal as a teacher team is to help Juniors follow the path of their choice and set them up for success after high school.”