On March 30, 2025, Concord Academy announced that all upperclassmen students will no longer be permitted to take upper-level elective courses. Rather, their current classes will be re-structured to emulate sophomore and freshman history courses. The CA administration is working hard to put this change into effect as quickly as possible, hoping to transition all juniors and seniors to lower-level courses around mid-April. This drastic change to the history department curriculum so close to the end of the school year has led to confusion among the student body.
While there are several reasons for this change in course difficulty, it is mainly due to students’ poor writing performance. Over the past few years, the quality of student writing has decreased at a rate many faculty describe as alarming. Teachers hypothesize this decline stems from students’ obsession with their phones, as they have become so dependent on technology that they are no longer able to think for themselves. Many students report that they feel high levels of anxiety when separated from technology and are unable to think about anything else.
Additionally, CA students report having short attention spans as a result of their increased screen time. This has led upperclassmen to not be able to adequately complete longer form writing assignments for their history classes. CA staff and faculty hope that moving upperclassmen to lower-level classes will allow them to regain their writing skills and approve their attention spans in a lower-stress environment where they will have even more support with their writing.
Currently, history department faculty are working to redesign their upper-level courses to emulate sophomore and freshman classes. The department will also be issuing a ban on all electronics in history courses—excluding students with accommodations—so as to limit student screen time and dependence on electronics. While many CA students seem to be upset by this new rule, none of them have been able to comment on it, as they are too busy soaking up the last few days they have with their phones before the ban begins.