Throughout the years of Pitman High School there have been many elective classes to take. While some of these classes are amazing and are still here today, there are some classes that have been forgotten and are no longer being taught at PHS. Some of these classes are: Shop, Ceramics, Robotics, Cosmetology, AP European History, Driver’s Education, and Geoscience.

Driver’s Education

Driver’s Ed used to be taught by Ms. Oblouskii up until 2015. This class was only offered during A period and was only available to 10th graders. There were a total of 4 classes, these classes were divided up by the students’ ages. The reason this class ended was due to Turlock High School stopping their driver’s ed class and so we followed in their footsteps.  Funding issues may have also played a role in having to cut this elective. 

Geoscience

Geoscience is the study of the Earth and the many components that make up the Earth. Some of the things studied in this class were how mountains form, volcanoes, different types of rocks, oceans, and ecosystems. We stopped offering this class because the state adopted the Next Generation Science Standards. Many colleges require a minimum of 2 science classes and before the state adopted these requirements, the school’s science program was not aligned with the college’s requirements. For this reason schools started integrating Geoscience into other science classes. 

Shop – Small Engines

In this class they taught about small engines like lawn mowers, 2 stroke engines, details about types of gas and how to repair these engines. This class was taught around 8-10 years ago in the Ag department. There are many factors into why this class isn’t being taught anymore. One of these factors was the staffing, due to insufficient staffing the school only has enough teachers to teach the main Ag classes. Another factor was if this class went aimed towards a specific pathway, or if it was generally considered a “just for fun” class. 

This class also went well with another elective we no longer teach: turf management. In turf management they learned all about grass and how to manage it. Due to the shop’s class teaching about different kinds of mowers, this class supported the turf class.

Robotics

While there weren’t many details about this class there is a bit known about the teachers who did teach this class. There were two teachers who taught this class, one being Mr. Young and the other being Mr. Bishop. Mr.Young taught this class from 2002-2017 and Mr. Bishop taught this class from 2017-2019. While we are not sure why the class ended with Mr. Bishop, we do know that the class ended for a short period of time because Mr. Young had retired and they couldn’t find someone else to teach this class for a while.

Sewing/Fashion Strategies

This class was by far the class I could get the most details on. Many people know this class as sewing but it was originally called fashion strategies. In this class they used to teach all kinds of different things about sewing. They learned how to use a sewing machine properly and effectively. They also learned how to make different patterns on clothing and even learned how to make quilts. This class also helped the community around them, they used to sew jerseys together when they were ripped and they even used to make dresses for kids and donate them. They also helped with the drama class and worked together on the costumes used in drama.

Another cool detail was that they learned how to repurpose clothing making old clothing into something new. One specific example of this is when they would use jeans and turn it into a bag. The teacher that used to teach this class was Mrs. Cornell and was only offered for one period in a day. This class ended between 2011-2018 and never saw a return. Like many other electives there were many reasons this class ended. One being that Mrs. Cornell left and is now working at Turlock High School. Another reason being that this class was considered a “just for fun” class and really didn’t see any professional job pathways in our area. It was said that many kids loved this class and it really had an uplifting effect on those who took the class. 

It’s important to highlight the past electives because many of these were the pride and soul of many students. While many of these will probably never come back it’s nice to reminisce on the classes that we could’ve had today and to think how our schedules would’ve been different if these classes were still being taught.