Academic v.s. Applied

        So I'm finally going to write about this. This has been something that's bugging me for quite a long time. Okay, so I am in the arts' program majoring both Visual Art and Vocal Music, with the minor Drama, and I'm in Academic English and Applied everything else. Here's the thing, I chose to do Applied for mostly everything is because firstly, I'm not a very logical thinker, and secondly, I'm not great at Science, Math, History or Geography...etc. It takes me a lot of effort to memorize the things that are related to those topics, and I really do want to focus on my artistic areas of learning. Secondly, the schools I want to attend after high school are mostly colleges because only a few universities offer Fashion Design. Plus, I want to go to college in New York, which means they won't care so much if you take Applied classes in high school, because they mostly care about your SAT scores in The States.

        After hearing my reasonable reasons for choosing Applied courses, some people still don't understand ! Mostly Asians... Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be negatively stereotypical here, but most of the Asians I know think that being in applied classes is a bad idea. Some still think that Applied classes are for bad students with bad marks, even after I proved them wrong. I have asked many teachers, and they told me that applied classes are made to let students learn in a more practical way, and learn things that are more applicable in life. We learn the things that we will use often in life, and yes, that makes it easier than applying theory to everything. It's not made for students who want an easy way out and those who don't want to learn. It's for those who want to learn things differently and not go to University. Bad and lazy students make applied classes seem like it's for bad students. 

        A lot of Asian parents told me that going to Applied classes will not give me the option of going to a university, but that's not true either. I can still go to a University. It just depends on the courses I take, and if I take an U/C level math course in grade eleven, I can still go to a University, I just can't major the math course there. If you know me at all, you would know there's no way I will major math in University, and by the way, you don't even have to take the Academic math level in grade nine and ten to take the U/C level math. 

        I'm just tired of people ( mostly my Asian friends and my brother ) thinking that Academic-leveled courses are so much better than Applied-level courses. It really does depend on the person and the courses they want to take in University / College. People need to stop judging other people's decisions and just let them live their lives. There is absolutely nothing wrong being in both Academic or Applied courses. At least the students are still learning something, and isn't that what an education is about ? It's about learning and doing something with the knowledge you gained, not just getting the highest marks in the most difficult programs.

Editor: A.B.