The 2014-15 school year has seen many changes. This school year, students at Wenatchee High School are still adapting to a modified block schedule and a drastic change in food policies. Now, in the same school year, students are being thrown into a new system of graduation requirements. These changes might be aimed at improving learning, but in reality they are creating confusion and frustration.

Students are being sent into the dark to figure out the Career Cruising and the College and Career Readiness Course.

The Career Cruising program has proved insulting for some students. In our case, distinct members of The Apple Leaf’s Editorial Board received job suggestions such as a funeral director, crossing guard, and garbage collector. A more graspable suggested career was a refrigeration technician. This program appears to be setting lower standards for students, the antithesis of what they have been taught since elementary school.

The new emphasis on other options after high school may be a bit exaggerated. It is understandable that not all students will go to a four-year institution after graduation, but that doesn’t mean it is okay to suggest jobs that don’t even require a high school diploma.

These changes have created a feeling of “being thrown under the bus” among all students. The 10-minute assembly meant to educate students on how to finish the Moodle Course, a new requirement for graduation, merely threw the work on the already saturated student schedule and left them to puzzle the pieces together. The only portion of the student body that has received further instruction are the students in business classes. So the obvious question here is, what about the rest of the students?

As an Editorial Board, we also feel that this new change came at the wrong moment. Especially affected are the upperclassmen. After three years of preparing, upperclassmen are being told to throw out the culminating project folder with the work they’ve collected and start from scratch. The program lacks the needed structure to achieve its intended goal. Is it maybe that Wenatchee Learns is trying to recover lost ground since its introduction in 2011? It simply feels rushed.

Good change doesn’t come overnight. The Apple Leaf suggests starting with a new group of students, one that won’t have to transition between old and new systems. Take a moment to perfect the program; this would help smooth out this rough start. Perhaps the staff behind this project should consider eating the cake one piece at a time. Mouthfuls will make one choke.