By Tanner Nypen ’15
THE ROUNDUP

Religion classes don’t often have a big place in traditional, secular academic settings.

That changes in a religious school and becomes a norm most high school students will not experience.

Information wise, the classes are great because I am Christian and I love to learn about the finer details of my faith.

However on the other hand, when you look at the grade point average, they can put us at a disadvantage.

We are all competing for seats at universities against students from public schools who don’t take four years of religion.

The academically-intense classes are an added challenge unique to religious schools.

I acknowledge that by choosing to attend Brophy I also choose to take these classes.

That said there might be a better option for students to give them the religious education without potentially breaking their GPA.

Coming from public school, religion classes are new to me and these classes were not something I have had to deal with before.

Overall I’ve done alright in my religion classes, but there are some students who struggle.

I like the idea of religion classes; I think it is a great way to learn more about the history or even the basic content of my religion.

It also helps expand my worldview.

I understand as a Catholic school that perspective will be at the forefront of our courses.

But I believe we should get some additional choice in the content of these classes.

The Brophy religious studies curriculum is somewhat limited in flexibility due to standards passed down from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic oversight groups.

I understand this means we must take certain foundational classes.

But if there is any wiggle room, we should take it.

There is a wide variety of faith perspectives on campus, so perhaps we can learn about something that interests you personally or is about your personal beliefs.

Let’s expand the religion electives to include a wider variety of faith perspectives.

While this might be difficult to accomplish, I think it is a way to get more students feeling involved in the classes, which will hopefully help improve grades and learning.