After the Tam District Board of Trustees suspended the technology graduation requirement for the 2012 and 2013 school year, “Intro to Computers” teacher William Crabtree took up two fall, and three spring, semester Government courses, as well as Yearbook.

Crabtree and Dave Goldsmith currently teach “Intro to Computers” at Redwood. Students who do not take the Intro class this year or have not already passed all five of the proficiency tests have been told that they will have to demonstrate mastery under the new and revised requirement once its in place.

This Intro class will satisfy the new requirement, whatever form it may take.

“It’s no secret that the Intro to Computers class really needed to be changed,” Crabtree said. “I just didn’t think it was putting forth the necessary information.”

Similarly, Goldsmith said that he believed the technology requirement need to be revised.

“We have a proposal for a new requirement – it actually requires that every student takes one semester of any applied tech course,” Goldsmith said.

Goldsmith said that the proposal allows students to pick a topic of interest and take a course in that category, instead of being thrown into one all encompassing class.

“What we were told by the district is that they don’t want students being required to take a course,” explained Goldsmith. “[Students] pick an area that interests them and they take that course.”

The new computers course is scheduled to be in place for the 2013-2014 school year, but because students sign up for classes in March, both both Crabtree and Goldsmith doubt that this plan for the new program will go through, therefore exempting next year’s students from meeting a technology requirement as well.

“I’m skeptical as to the future of any kind of technology revision,” Crabtree said.

Crabtree said that he does not foresee Intro to computers becoming a class that students take to fulfill any sort of requirement in the future, but rather a class that students take as an elective.