Everyone loves two-for-one deals — they’re cheap, they’re efficient and they get you the most bang for your buck.  And when it comes to the scheduling difficulties of hardworking students, a two-for-one deal is the perfect solution.

The engineering department should offer a condensed, one-semester technology education course, allowing motivated students to satisfy their technology and health credit requirements in the same school year.

Montgomery County Public Schools requires that all students earn one full credit of technology education, physical education and fine arts, plus a half-credit of health education before they graduate.  All these requirements create a daunting scheduling challenge for many students.  Taking the classes as an underclassman is a great way to free up space for other classes junior and senior year — but in order to do so, students must find a way to squeeze these requirements in with their prerequisite  academics and any electives they want to take.

Students have the option to take health class during the summer, but most students would prefer to keep their vacation free of school.  A one-semester technology class would allow students to get their tech and health credits during the school year.

Because health is a one-semester course, it leaves a single semester hole in students’ schedules, often filled with a throwaway elective.  A condensed technology class offered in a single semester could occupy this scheduling gap. This plan would satisfy both technology and health requirements in only one year, freeing up space for students to take an additional elective.

Such a plan would be fairly practical to enact. MCPS offers a six-week online tech course, and if it’s possible to condense a technology class into six weeks, one can certainly be fit into a whole semester.  And Whitman already has an entry-level technology course called Introduction to Engineering Design which naturally suits itself to being condensed into a one-semester course.

IED’s largely computer-based curriculum allows students to do much of the work at home, eliminating the need for as many class days as a more hands-on technology course requires, tech teacher Rachel Stender said.  Such a class would, of course, require students to have enough motivation outside of the classroom to do at least an hour of homework per night, she said.

Adding an abridged IED class wouldn’t require a sweeping system-wide change.  Most students would continue to take regular technology courses. There would simply be an additional couple of classes of single semester IED for those hardworking students who want to satisfy their graduation requirements without limiting what other courses they take.

Engineering isn’t for everyone.  A two-for-one health and technology combo can help technology-averse students earn their credits and get back to what they want to do.