The last four days of FCC dual enrollment English 101, all students gave 5-10 minute talks about a proposal they would make to change and improve their school or community.  Hannah Haught, for example, did research about the short lunch periods and how difficult it is to eat and digest in that short time.  She created two viable alternatives that would give students up to 45 minutes to eat.

The English 101 class focuses on writing four different of argumentative essays (fact, definition, evaluation, and causal) to prepare students for the final paper–their proposal argument. The purpose of the proposal argument and presentation was to shed light on an issue in the local community and to suggest a solution to that problem. Each student proposed a solution to a current issue and argued both the advantages and disadvantages of their solution.  

For the final proposal, there is 3 weeks of research which includes an annotated bibliography and a personal interview with an expert.  Senior Rozmia Fattah proposed her argument “Let’s bring drivers ed back to FCPS.” Until the 1980’s, drivers education used to be taught throughout the county. There was one term of gym and one term of drivers ed. And it was free!

Fattah argued that to make changes, it will be up to “The will of the taxpayers.”  She wants to bring drivers ed back to school but in a cheaper form than driving schools, so teens will have more energy and retain the information better.

“It’s cool to see that we are capable of coming up with solutions that are school related. It shows that we all have some sort of ability and responsibility,” said

Kenny McQuay was able to bring his proposal, to add water stations in the school, to completion.  Because of his research, the senior class plans to gift a water station to the school.

To see more proposal projects, visit the English Department’s Twitter.