Are you wondering why you should care about more school? And optional classes that you don’t have to take? You’re not alone!
Many people can be easily frustrated in school, especially if they are having a hard time learning new concepts or ideas. Some things, like math and science, take a lot of practice to understand. Other things, like reading might be hard if you read differently (if you have dyslexia, for example) or if you are reading something you find boring.
These electives, however, are meant to counter those feelings of boredom or frustration. There are no tests or grades, and the only activities related to the topics are papers that require you to use your imagination and brain power. The topics we will cover are ones important to your every day life!
They discuss things like money, food, how we live, how we behave, why we do some of the things we do, and how we can break apart negative cycles or change the systems that might disadvantage us.
Before we get started, we need to know about Social Determining Factors, which means things in our life that are sometimes within or without of our own control, and determine the places we live, the food we eat, the kind of medical care we get, how we treat other people, and sometimes even how our brains function.
List of Social Determining Factors
| Factor | Impact(s) |
| Money (Income, or Financial Security) | If you don’t have much money, what are some things you cannot afford? Does having less money change where you live, what you eat, your ability to go to school or work, or how we treat one another? Does the amount of money we need change if we have to take care of someone else (a baby, or maybe a sick relative)? |
| School (Education) | What happens if you have a brain that learns a little differently from everyone else (you might have dyslexia, which makes reading difficult, or dyscalculia, which makes math difficult)? What happens if you are not able to finish high school, or even middle school? How important is having a college degree for your future? Does a school’s location matter? |
| Work (Employment) | What determines what kind of job you get? Should you follow in someone’s footsteps just because you think it’s all you can do? What are the trade-offs to working short term to achieve long term goals? How much money do you need to just get by, live comfortably, or be wealthy? Do we get jobs just to pay bills and have money, or should we get jobs that we know can help other people? Can you get a job that interests you, or does work have to be boring? How might a job impact your life at home? |
| Food (Nutrition) | Do you have access to food? Can you eat whenever or whatever you want? What happens if you don’t know when you’ll be able to eat again? Are you able to eat healthy foods? Do systems control the kinds of foods we eat? How much food does Hawai‘i grow for its people? What kind of food can Hawai‘i grow for its people? |
| Housing | Do you decide where you live, or is your decision influenced by some of these other factors? Do you live in a secure, stable home, or are you at risk of becoming homeless (unsheltered)? Who lives in your home with you, and how do they impact you? Is your home environment calm and safe, or are there some things that you think are dangerous? Do you have access to electricity, running water (for showers or baths, toilets), clean drinking water (that comes from the faucets), and air inside of your home? Who controls where you live and when? |
| Gender | Are you a male, female, or do you identify as something else? How does your gender determine how other people treat you, or what they expect of you? Do all genders have equal access to the things they need in life? Does it cost more to be a male than it does to be a female, or is it the opposite? Are there rules or laws that exist that are specific to your gender? |
| Our Communities (Structural Forces) | Do you look like or act like many other people in your community? What do you think of your community? What do other people think of your community? Are there things like violence or criminal activity that happen more often in some areas than others? Does it matter if you have one parent, two parents, no parents, or if you are already a parent? What is available in your community that others don’t have? What do others have that you do not have in your community? |
| Health | Is everyone born healthy? What kinds of sicknesses can we have? Where do we go when we are sick? How do we pay for doctors or other experts we need to see? What happens if we have a sickness that can only be treated but not cured? Are people treated differently by doctors and hospitals depending on their gender or skin color? What things negatively impact our health that we might not have control over? Who decides what medicine is? |
Now that you know all of these new terms, you’re ready to explore all the ways in which your life can be negatively or positively changed by understanding these categories, and making permanent changes to improve your life.
Knowing more about something often means you have more power (or are empowered) and control (or sense of agency) when it comes to your future and decisions that you have to make on your own.
Use the menu at the top of this page to navigate to the electives you want to explore.