With scheduling quickly coming up for the 2024-2025 year, students are starting to look at classes and choosing what they will be taking next school year. While there are not many big changes that students need to be aware of for the upcoming year, the social studies category is making one significant switch.

     For many years, Civics and Government have been taught to freshmen, while U.S. History has been taught to juniors. But next year, those classes will be switched, and the current eighth graders will be taking U.S. History; then, when they become juniors, they will take Civics and Government. 

     This means that for two years, Civics and Government will not be taught at Penn-Trafford. Instead, there will be two different grades taking U.S. History. However, the two grades will be separated in their classes so freshmen and juniors will not be taking U.S. History in the same classroom.

     This change occurred due to teachers’ input, who have been talking about this for quite some time.

     “As a department, we decided to  [switch the classes]. It is beneficial overall for ninth graders, and it is beneficial for the 11th graders as well,” stated Phillip Moses, a social studies teacher at the high school.

     The teachers believe it is better to push back Civics and Government until students’ junior years for a couple of reasons. First, U.S. history is taught to eighth graders, so when they enter high school it is much fresher in their minds than it would be when they are juniors. 

     “The alignment of curriculum from middle school to high school makes more sense because in middle school they learn about American history up to a certain year, so we want to continue that history,” stated high school principal Tony Aquilio.

     The second reason connects to students’ interest in Civics and Government in 11th grade. Most of them at that point are around the age of 18, so they are more interested in things like how voting and elections work, which is covered in Civics and Government.

     A third reason is simply the overall maturity level of juniors; many educators believe that topics like the Amendments and the Bill of Rights are harder for most students to comprehend compared to just U.S. History events like the Civil Rights movement or the Revolutionary War.

     U.S. History has been offered as an AP (Advanced Placement), or college-level, course but AP will not be offered to the freshman taking it. While incoming freshmen will only have the option of taking U.S. History or U.S. History honors, they will have the opportunity to take AP Government and Politics when they get to their senior year. After the current freshmen and sophomores take U.S. History when they get to 11th grade, the course will not be taught to any juniors in the P-T school district. 

Mia Williams, Business Manager