Sitting on a wooden shelf in Principal Stanley Teitel’s office is a perfectly crafted, miniature-size grandfather clock. The clock was made by a former Stuyvesant student, who spent an entire term constructing it from scratch as part of a clock-making class, which has long since been phased out. In three years, a wooden birdhouse and a clay flower pot may also be the only visible remains of Advanced Woodshop (TMPPDWA) and Ceramics (TMPPCMA), because, by 2014, some technology courses will be stricken from the Stuyvesant curriculum.

According to Principal Stanley Teitel’s announcement at the Student Leadership Team (SLT) meeting on Tuesday, October 19, starting with the class of 2015, students will have to meet drastically altered requirements. Sophomores will have to take two semesters of computer science (ML1), instead of just one semester. As a result, juniors will take Technical Drawing (TD1) and, as in previous years, Health Education (PHA). Five-tech courses, the single-term technology courses students are currently required to take, will be eliminated. However, there will still be a technology requirement for seniors, who will each fulfill two credits of Applied Science. Some of the current Technology Lab courses, commonly known as 10-Techs, and some advanced computer science classes will fulfill this requirement. In addition, seniors will also be required to fit a fourth year of math into their schedules.

Math to the Fourth Power

Last year, after a heated debate over whether students should be required to take math during the entirety of their Stuyvesant careers, the administration allowed students to opt out of a fourth year of math by speaking with their guidance counselors. Starting September 2014, however, seniors will need to take math during all four years at Stuyvesant. Teitel feels the change will not have a great impact on the senior class because every year only around 80 to 100 choose not to take a math class, according to Assistant Principal Technology Edward Wong.

“We are one of the only schools that say we are a math, science and technology school that doesn’t require the full four years [of math],” Teitel said. “Even schools that do not profess to be a [math, science and technology school] have a four year requirement.”

Assistant Principal Mathematics Maryann Ferrara declined to comment.

Many students feel the requirement is justified. “[The requirement] would be helpful, so long as students were reassured they would be facing quality teachers,” Madeline Martinez (’04) said in an e-mail interview.

Others believe that students should have the choice to pick courses that best suit them. Seniors “should decide whether math will take a greater part of their future [or] their future jobs [than other subjects],” senior Jacqueline Yeung said. Those who opt out of a fourth year of math “want to spend more time on other classes, so they should have the decision […] to take what courses that they want.”

Math teacher Gary Rubinstein agreed. “It’s not necessary to change the requirement since most students do take the fourth year,” he said. “For the students that don’t, what is the benefit to suffering through an extra year?”
 
The Computer Generation
 
Teitel believes that because the world is becoming more technologically advanced and more dependent on computers, making computer science (ML1) a yearlong course will help students become more successful in the long run.

“It’s long overdue,” said Computer Science Coordinator Mike Zamansky, who has repeatedly urged Teitel over the last ten years to make this change. “In order to give you guys what you should have, to give you a competitive advantage in the future, we need this full year.”

Junior Mohammed Hossain agreed that the change is just because “we are more of a computer and technology generation.”

Zamansky believes that computer science is a lot more useful to students than many of the other required courses are. “If you think about it, when are you using chemistry, physics, biology, math beyond the very basics; world languages if you don’t visit a Spanish-speaking country?” Zamansky said. “I would argue that computer science is more fundamental than most of the topics we [teach] here and are much more likely to help the typical student.” He added that he has “had people in all sorts of walks of business lines and research in all areas use what they learned in computer science classes here.”

Since computer science will take up a whole year, Zamansky has outlined an extended curriculum. Teachers will cover Scheme and Netlogo—the two computer science languages currently taught—more in depth and will help students become familiar with the parts of the computer and how they function. Zamansky also hopes to show students how to use a computer language “as the tool set to study the types of question or types of problems that [they] will get in more practical applications,” he said.

He hopes additional exposure to the subject will increase the number of students who pursue computer science, a change he believes will be beneficial to the entire country. “We aren’t producing enough technologists and computer scientists. One of the reasons for that is because people don’t see it in high school,” Zamansky said.

However, some students feel that the requirement is negative because it curtails students’ freedom to study what interests them.

“I don’t think [students] should be forced to do anything. They should have the ability to choose what they want to do. Why would they have to take Comp Sci if they are never going to use it?” junior Thomas Hsu said.

Zamansky feels students’ protests will die down quickly because “the changes don’t affect current Stuyvesant students. This affects students who aren’t even in the building yet,” he said. “No matter what, whenever you change things, everyone’s going to yell and scream for a minute.”
 
Redefining Technology

Moving the Technical Drawing (TD1) requirement to junior year will eliminate the need for students to take a one-semester Technology Lab class, commonly known as a 5-Tech. Some of the current 5-Tech courses will become electives.

“Video journalism, photography and classes of that nature [may] become electives. I know that many students like them,” Teitel said. He will decide which classes are to become electives before September 2014.

“Most of the 5-Techs are kind of useless. 5-Techs were incorporated [years ago] to meet the needs of society then. Comp Sci meets the needs now,” junior Yorkbell Jaramillo said.

Other students credit 5-Techs with influencing their future careers. “[Teitel] should not assume that students won’t benefit from the courses. After taking Video Production, I took an advanced course at Rhode Island School of Design,” senior Sophia Abbot said. “Video Production is the reason that I want to go into [film production].”

In addition, seniors will be required to have two credits worth of Applied Science classes, which will include computer science classes, such as Advanced Placement Computer Science (ML1X/ML2X) and System Level Programming (ML5), along with certain former 10-Techs. However, Teitel is uncertain if students will be taking double-period classes or single-period classes. The class is meant to teach students to utilize what they have learned at Stuyvesant. “We’ve taught you plenty. Now let’s see what you can do with it,” Teitel said.

Teitel sees the greater focus on computer science and elimination of some of the hand-on classes as a step to tailor the curriculum to the needs of Stuyvesant students. “Most parents, when they think about a vision for their own child, they think about their child going to college. They don’t see their child going out and becoming a plumber or electrician [...], even though they are wonderful professions,” he said.

Amherst College’s Director of Admissions Katie Fretwell believes that the changes are in the students’ best interests. “I might consider [students] more academically challenged [in computer based courses] than in woodworking,” she said.

However, some teachers feel the change is ultimately harmful towards students.    “Colleges want creative people,” photography teacher Janis Juracek said. “It seems like the forms of visual intelligence and the creative process and being able to create something with your hands and the artistic experience will be an experience that Stuyvesant students will not be able to have.”

Classes such as Ceramics and Advanced Woodworking will be eliminated. The workshops used by the two classes will be modified for classroom use, possibly being turned into computer labs. Teitel has not yet determined whether Principles of Engineering, Architecture and similar classes will fulfill the Applied Science requirement, become electives, or be eliminated altogether.

Since many of the technology teachers will be teaching fewer classes after the changes are instituted, Teitel has offered them the opportunity start learning computer science programs so they can teach them later on. However, no one has responded to the offer yet.

Juracek said that a valid compromise would be “having computer science, math and technology courses be choices along with photography, ceramics and woodworking. Let the students choose what they would like to take.”

Modern Education

 Teitel justifies the change in requirements in order to adapt to modern times. “This is a matter of vision. The school should be moving toward real technology. I don’t see wood as a real technology. I don’t see ceramics as a real technology,” he said. “Very few schools have what they call the hands-on experience anymore.”
By removing so-called creative classes, Ceramics teacher James Lonardo believes administrators “are taking away an important aspect of a general, well-rounded education,” he said.

Former Stuyvesant graduates agree that eliminating these courses will affect Stuyvesant students poorly in the long run. “As a designer, I believe [ceramics and woodworking] are extremely relevant in the modern world. The world is still a physical construct. Computers are not the only answer. We can design anything in a computer, but the true test is to see if it can be built. Materiality and construction are essential to innovations in design,” said alumnus Olivia Lau (’06), who is currently a fifth year architecture student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in an e-mail interview.

“Our core value is to produce the most intellectually curious, disciplined and diligent high school graduates that then go on to be leaders in their respective professional worlds,” Martinez (’04) said in an e-mail interview. “I understand Principal Teitel’s intentions in modernizing the core requirements to reflect the demands of the 21st century market, but I do believe that, in modernizing the curriculum, he is eliminating much needed flexibility for individual expression outside of the traditional sciences.”

“One thing that makes Stuy so great is the varied electives they have,” alumnus Jaeyoung Byun (’09) said in an e-mail interview. “It seems to me that Teitel wants to make the school more engineering-geared, but why try to limit such brilliant minds from other areas of the liberal arts and the design?” 

“It’s important to give a lot of different learning styles and learning experiences to young people in their education, because they are still evolving to who they are. You don’t know who you are at 14. You should be discovering still,” Juracek said.

Teitel defended the fact that he has the final say in this matter. “My job is to provide visions for this school,” he said. “And if I feel this is the vision that we need to be moving towards, then that’s where I’m going.”