Plainview Educators Air Wish List of New Courses

Plainview educators presented the Board of Education with a detailed wish list of new course ideas at a workshop session this week.

Department chairs at the high school gave the oral presentations Monday as an overview of the detailed reports they submitted in advance to the district. In most cases, the costs involved with the new programs appeared to be minimal.

Director of Music Josh Golbert proposed a “music in our lives” course for students not in band, orchestra or chorus who want to learn more about music. The curriculum for the daily, full-year course would include an introduction to Classical music, but would also have sections on folk, jazz and world music. Golbert said the review of music history could be done from an historical perspective as well as a contemporary one.

 “This is a wonderful opportunity for students who are not musicians or have a great voice to by exposed to a wide variety of music,” said Board Member Evy Rothman.

 Golbert also discussed a long-term goal of his department to offer an electronic music course, which would focus on the technical aspects of recording music, much of which is now digital and part of a growing industry. Golbert said the course would require students to have taken music theory. “It’s not a course for beginners,” he said.

The proposal for social studies came from Maria Carnesi, the charwoman of K-12 Social Studies. She would retool the 9th grade honors program of world history.

"It’s the first time a 13- or 14-year-old who might not have hit his cognitive stride is ... dealing with 2,000 years of history," Carnesi said, whose concept was to "ease that transition and promote more rigorous degrees of study."

To do that, she would work toward smaller class sizes in 9th grade honors and foster a "workshop environment" in the first part of the school year.

Joyce Barry, science, research and technology chair, K-12, proposed a short-term refocusing an existing environmental course toward the geology of Long Island. Her bigger proposal involves a partnership with Long Island North Shore Hospital, which is opening a medical school at Hofstra.

Plainview students could explore a variety of health-care fields in a hands-on course, including possible sections on hematology, radiology and even medical billing, she said. The proposal is still in the discussion phase with the hospital.

Brian O’Sullivan, chairman of the world language department, discussed adding a 9th grade section of French and a new high school class in American Sign Language.

The board of education takes the proposals under advisement and considers them as part of the district's budget process.