It’s a tragic thing to see the long-time practice of teachers offering extra credit at Diamond Bar High School getting altered. A seemingly normal circumstance where teachers offer students a little incentive to take part in campus wide activities such as school plays or sports games has been branded as unlawful in terms of breaching the right of students’ access to equal educational opportunities at a public high school.

A law is fair. Extra credit has come under fire because the law states that by offering students points for attending paid activities, teachers are denying students who cannot or will not spend money a fair chance at equal education. Alternative extra credit assignments are frowned upon because they limit a student’s options. Meanwhile, the law seems to deem it tolerable that select students spend thousands of dollars outside of school receiving educational classes meant to bolster their performance. These two cases show extreme differences in what is supposedly the stage set for “equal” educational opportunities and begs the question of just how harmful can offering extra credit be to students.

A law is just. With the end of extra credit opportunities for students who attend certain paid school events, the choice of attending activities such as a basketball game or a drama production loses benefits, especially if events take place on school nights. Consequently, students would have less motivation to get involved with school activities taking place. This lowers the overall student participation and school spirit as well as reduces the chance of students finding new areas of interest, as they will no longer be inspired to try new activities. Programs would therefore lose a lot of popular support from the students, as the attendance to certain events will take a hit. This effect is already being seen, as the Spanish music concert has already been canceled this school year.

A law supports the general public. With the altercation of extra credit offerings, students lose a lot of possible opportunities to give their grades a boost while also being introduced to school activities off campus. Teachers meanwhile lose various methods of teaching students through their use of extra credit, as exemplified when an English teacher assigns students who attend a school play to right a critique essay on what occurred. However, the ones that will be hit the hardest by the change will be the students of after school programs that spend many hours perfecting an activity or event just see its audience severely reduced.

A law is supreme. Despite the fact that students are exposed to a wide variety of school events, despite the fact that teachers help bring about school spirit and participation, despite the fact that offering extra credit for paid school event has been going on for years so much that its become sort of a tradition, the law holds the final say. No matter how much extra credit has benefited both the students grades or the school’s programs, it has to go and with its departure, the school loses an offering that brought the best of both worlds.

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